When Life Gives You Lemons...

Hi Guys!

I have had Lemons coming out of my ears of late so today I have a recipe for you for Lemon Curd & Pistachio Butterfly Cakes with Sweet Mascarpone.

For this bake I combined a few different recipes to create my own final product, the results are a soft bouncy sponge cake with a sweet, tangy lemon filling and a creamy refreshing mascarpone to counteract the tartness of the curd and a bit of nutty crunch care-of the pistachios.

Firstly, the day before baking the cupcakes, I made a batch of Lemon Curd using Curtis Stones Recipe, find it here. This makes a good two jars worth of delicious lemon curd but you should only need one for one batch of cupcakes as per the Recipe below from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook.
I used their Vanilla Cupcakes  recipe for the sponge element of my cakes.

120g Plain Flour
140g Caster Sugar
1 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
A Pinch of Salt
40g Unsalted Butter (room temp)
120ml Whole Milk
1 Egg
1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Preheat the oven to 170°C (325°F) Gas 3.

Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat on slow speed until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined. Gradually pour in half the milk and beat until the milk is just incorporated.

Whisk the egg, vanilla extract and remaining milk together in a separate bowl for a few seconds, then pour into the flour mixture and continue beating until just incorporated (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula). 

Continue mixing for a couple more minutes until the mixture is smooth. Do not overmix.

Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for 20–25 minutes, or until light golden and the sponge bounces back when touched.

A skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean. 
Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

While the sponges are cooling you can prepare your sweet mascarpone. For this you simply need:

1 Tub Mascarpone
3 Tblsp Icing Sugar (or less, taste after 2 to see if sweet enough for you, I'm a sugar fiend!)

Simply whisk mascarpone until soft, add the icing sugar and whisk again until completely incorporated. Refrigerate your mascarpone until your sponges are completely cool and ready to assemble.

When sponges are completely cooled, take a small sharp knife and cut a cone shaped segment of sponge from the centre of each cake and cut in half to create the butterfly wings. Fill the holes to the top of each sponge with a good dollop of lemon curd then pipe or spoon a dollop of sweet mascarpone on top of that. Take your butterfly wing pieces and place them pale side down onto the mascarpone dollop and then sprinkle your chopped pistachios between the wings.

Eat, Enjoy.

Feel free to share any of your favourite recipes that involve Lemons as I still have a good few left!!

Thanks for Reading!