Bird’s Nest Cupcakes

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:

1. Whisk together eggs, sugar and lemon zest in medium saucepan until light in colour.
2. Add lemon juice and butter
3. 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.
4. Place a medium mesh-sieve over a bowl and scrape the filling using a spatula into it. Strain the filling into the bowl.
5. 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.