I discovered Aimee from Sugared Ellipses... (grammar nerd alert: cool blog name!) on Flickr and was really impressed and intrigued with her Flickr set of lemon poppy seed surprise cupcakes.
Aimee very graciously said I could repost some images and, even better, since I know many of you want to know, the recipe is up on her site. I am not much of a baker (I like to call myself a good cupcake eater/buyer/bloger, but baker, not so much) and while this looks like it might be a little out of my range, maybe I will try it with a friend (who can save me from disasters like forgetting an ingredient) because these look amazing, though I must admit I'd probably want to simply eat all the filling out of the inside first, then tackle the cake part.
She writes:
Now you may be thinking to yourself, lemon poppy seed...meh, big deal. To be honest with you, the whole inspiration of going with something lemon at all was the lemon curd that I had added to my French Yogurt Cake. I can’t tell you how many batches of the stuff I went through between the cake and these cupcakes, but I have at least three containers of left-over egg whites floating around in my fridge as evidence, and that’s after using two batches worth for the fluffy meringue frosting. I’m addicted. Seriously, I can’t make lemon curd anymore otherwise you’ll soon be hearing about an egg shortage on the news. That and I’ll need a chainsaw to widen the door to my house so I can leave.
Lemon curd was always the best thing about any lemon meringue pie I’ve ever attempted. I say attempted because I’ve yet to have a success. Alton Brown’s recipe is pretty much the standard for me mainly because of the flavor if not the consistency. If you are intent on making a pie with this curd, make sure you cook the hell out of it. The version I’m including here is for one that results in a creamier texture, not suitable for cutting into slices, unless you like your pie slice to run for the border of your dish. Still, if you follow Alton’s recipe exactly you would get lemon soup, that while is delicious requires a bowl and spoon to eat. Be warned. The technique I use in this particular version won’t hold well as a slice, but won’t leak out of your cupcake either.
See more of Aimee's photos here.
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