I’ve professed my love for lemons here at least once or twice. And you know the only thing that’s better than a bright, lemony cupcake? A bright, lemony cupcake that’s filled with a delicious little secret.
It’s impossible to tell from looking at them that a dollop of sweet and tangy lemon curd is lurking under the swirl of frosting… it’s a great element of surprise. I tried to refrain myself a bit by going with a basic vanilla frosting, but if you’d like to go totally overboard, lemon frosting would definitely be the way to go…
Gluten-Free Lemon Cupcakes Filled with Lemon Curd
Yield: one dozen cupcakes
Ingredients:
* 1 cup sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1/2 cup superfine rice flour
* 1/2 cup potato starch
* 1/4 cup tapioca starch
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
* 1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
* 1/2 cup milk
* 1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract
* 2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
* lemon curd
* jar of prepared vanilla frosting
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place paper liners in a 12-well muffin pan.
Beat the sugar and eggs together. Add the rice flour, potato starch, tapioca starch, salt, baking powder, xanthan gum, oil, milk, lemon extract and lemon rind and beat for about a minute, making sure there are no pockets of dry ingredients.
Evenly distribute the batter among the cupcake wells. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the tops begin to turn golden and a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Let cool for about five minutes in the pan and then remove to cool completely on a wire rack.
Use a pastry bag with a injector tip to fill the cupcakes with lemon curd* and then spread with your favorite prepared vanilla frosting.
* Note: if you don’t have a pastry bag with an injector tip, you can also use a cupcake corer or use a more basic method. Check out these instructions/tips for how to make a filled cupcake from Annie’s Eats.