Baking is way outside my comfort zone. When it comes to tarts, pies, and meringue I am a boss but the prospect of making cakes or cupcakes keeps me up at night. It is not that I don’t enjoy eating cupcakes, I could eat cupcakes all day, but ask me to make them and I break out in a cold sweat. So here I am, facing my fear, beater in one hand and stack of measuring cups in the other. I have my copy of Williams-Sonoma’s “New Flavors For Desserts” on the table before me, (I thought it best not to become too improvisational on my first cupcake adventure) and a large cup of tea to calm the nerves. Resisting the temptation to discard all measuring implements I diligently followed the recipe to a T and found that yes, if you mix A with B in such a way it does produce a cupcake – who knew? A very rich, very dense, insanely buttery cupcake. A bit too rich for my taste (and I go through at least a stick of butter an evening) so in the end I fell back on some Trader Joe’s boxed vanilla cake mix… I will not admit failure. Perhaps the cupcakes were supposed to turn out like that? Either way, I now have enough cupcakes to put on a campus wide event. Come and get ‘um ladies! But, seriously, these cupcakes were absolutely delicious! You could even play with the flavor combinations: lemon curd with lavender frosting, coconut curd with a blackberry frosting – the possibilities are endless.
Ingredients
Batter
1 ¾ cups All-Purpose Flour
2 t Baking Powder
½ t Salt
1 c Heavy Cream, at room temperature
1 t Pure Vanilla Extract
1 ¼ c Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
2/3 c Granulated Sugar
2 Large Eggs, at room temperature
or 1 box white cake mix
Coconut Glaze
3 ¼ c Confectioners’ Sugar
1/3 c Unsweetened Coconut Milk
1 t Coconut Extract
Passion Fruit Curd
4 fresh ripe passion fruits or ¼ c thawed frozen passion fruit pulp
(I could only find a tin of tropical fruits in passion fruit juice and ¼ cup of the juice worked swimmingly)
2 Large Egg Yolks, at room temperature
1/3 c Sugar
pinch of salt
3 T Unsalted Butter
Garnish
Chopped Macadamia Nuts
Method
Passion Fruit Curd
1. Scoop the passion fruit pulp into a fine-mesh sieve and set over a bowl. Press on the pulp to push I through the sieve and discard the seeds. Measure out ¼ cup of the juice and add it to a nonreactive saucepan with the egg yolks, sugar, and salt. Cook the mixture over medium low heat, whisking continuously, until it thickens and turns a bright orange-yellow (2-3 minutes). Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter.
2. Strain the mixture into a bowl and let cool at room temperature for 15 minutes.
3. Put plastic wrap over the curd and refrigerate for 1 1/2 hours.
Cupcakes
1. Preheat the oven to 375.
2. Place a cupcake liner in each muffin tin.
3. In a bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Combine the cream and vanilla in a liquid measure.
4. Using a stand mixer on low speed beat ¾ cup of the butter and the granulated sugar until blended, then raise the speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy (1-2 minutes).
5. Beat in the eggs one at a time – make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
6. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients in three batches, alternately with the wet ingredients in two. Raise the mixer speed to medium-high and beat for 1 minute. This aerates the batter.
7. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups and bake until the centers spring back when provoked (about 20 minutes).
8. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing. Let cool completely on a wire rack.
Frosting
1. Using a standard mixer on medium-low speed, beat the remaining ½ cup butter with half of the confectioners’ sugar until crumbly. Add the remaining confectioners’ sugar and beat until powdery (about 1 minute)
2. In a liquid measure whisk the coconut milk and extract to incorporate.
3. With the standard mixer on medium speed, slowly add the coconut mixture and beat until blended. Raise the speed up to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy (about 1 minute).
Assembling
1. Using a paring knife cut a 1 ½-inch-wide cone-shaped core halfway into the center of each cupcake; gently remove the cores and set aside.
2. Fill each cupcake with about 1 T of the passion fruit curd and replace the cores.
3. Frost the cupcake with the icing, just use the back of your spoon, the glaze is so soft it won’t hold it’s shape very long even if you do go through the trouble of making them look fancy.
4. Sprinkle with the chopped nuts, let set for 15 minutes, and gorge yourself.
Makes 12 Cupcakes
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