I made these this week and they would be great for an Easter dinner. They’re sort of like a bird’s nest cookie, except inside out. I filled them with homemade lemon curd, topped with a cream cheese buttercream and sprinkled with toasted coconut.
We’re away with some of my family at Osoyoos lake for the weekend – it was 18 degrees today. Definitely felt like summer. We walked into town for a couple hours and had lunch at a cafe, and walked back. We were out in the sun long enough to get a little bit red.
I’m really loving this warm and sunny Easter.
Hope everyone has a lovely Easter weekend with family and friends. I’ll definitely be enjoying it before school begins again on Tuesday. I am also lucky enough to be going to the Rihanna concert Monday night – should be interesting.
You will need:
24 of your favourite Vanilla Cupcakes – baked and cooled.
Toasted Coconut:
To toast coconut place pan on medium heat, add ½ cup medium unsweetened coconut to the pan and allow to heat. Once fragrant, sift around coconut continually for 5 minutes until lightly browned and toasted.
Remove from heat and place in dish to cool.
Lemon Curd:
- 3 large eggs
- 1/3 cup sugar
- Grated zest of 1 (one) lemon
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 6 tablespoons butter cut into small pieces (3/4 stick)
Directions:
- Whisk together eggs, sugar and lemon zest in medium saucepan until light in colour.
- Add lemon juice and butter
- Cook, whisking over medium heat until the butter is melted. Then whisk constantly until the mixture is thickened and simmers gently for a few seconds.
- Place a medium mesh-sieve over a bowl and scrape the filling using a spatula into it. Strain the filling into the bowl.
- Let cool, cover with plastic wrap and push against the curd, so you do not have a film, and refrigerate to thicken.
To assemble cupcakes:
Using a small knife, cut a circle at a diagonal into the top center of the cooled cupcake. Make sure not to cut too far down, you still want a bottom to your cupcake. Take out the ‘core’ and cut off the excess and reserve the ‘cork’ to replace on to the cupcake.
Using a small spoon, fill the center of the cupcake and replace top ‘cork’ to cover.
Buttercream:
- 3 sticks of unsalted butter (1 ½ cups), room temperature
- ¼ cup cream cheese, softened
- 4 cups sifted icing sugar
1. Cream butter in stand mixer with whisk attachment for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy. Scrape down sides.
2. Add sifted icing sugar ½ cup at a time and whip well. Scrape down sides as needed between adding more.
3. Once all icing sugar is incorporated, add in the ¼ up of cream cheese. Whip again until well incorporated.
4. Pipe onto cupcakes and then sprinkle with toasted coconut.
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