Lemon Curd Cupcakes

You may have recognized the batter on my floor as The Cake Mix Doctor's Lemon Curd cupcake batter. And shame on you if you didn't. Do better next time.

I love the Cake Mix Doctor's Cupcake book. Her recipes start with cake mixes, and for that reason, they are painfully easy to throw together whenever the cupcake mood strikes. OR... whenever cupcakes are demanded but the mood is not striking. :)

This past Thursday was the last reading I hosted for the English Grad Student Association. I don't know when I started making cupcakes for the readings... but I didn't feel like I could let the thing end without one last batch.

The Lemon Curd cupcakes only required me to pick up these three things at the grocery store,


so they won out for Thursday's event.

Can you tell that I very much want to be on a beach?


Sigh. "She said instead of actually doing it." (-quote gakked from one of the readings)

These pictures were taken when I was enjoying the batter making process of the first recipe. Once I dumped the batter and had to go back to the grocery store and start all over, I might have stopped taking pictures. That's understandable, right?

I thought so.

Here are the finished cupcakes.


The cake (the Doctor's recipe) was nice, basic, and lightly lemony.


Usually the Doctor's cakes don't taste anything like a boxed mix, but these actually stuck pretty close the boxed mix crumb and texture. Good, for sure, but not as velvety as I was expecting from the Doctor. For that kind of smoothness, stay tuned for the Strawberry-on-Strawberry cupcakes I'll be posting soon.

As for the icing, I dropped the ball on that. I didn't have time to mess around with cupcakes on Thursday and as I said earlier, the mood was not striking. So when I was at the grocery store, I picked up a tub of lemon icing.

Well... I've spoiled my tasters and they did not love the "stickyness" of the Pillsbury lemon icing. I agree. It wasn't fantastic. But it was a hell of a lot easier on me and my dish-washing hands.

So if you want to bake along at home, here is the Cake Mix Doctor's recipe for Mini Lemon Curd Cupcakes.

1 pkg plain lemon cake mix
1 and 1/3 c water
1/3 c lemon curd
1/3 c vegetable oil
3 lg eggs

Preheat oven to 350F. Place all ingredients in large mixing bowl and blend 30 seconds at low speed and another 2 minutes at medium.

Fill liners 2/3 of the way full (the Doctor says 2tbsp, but I couldn't get that much in my little cuppies.)

Bake cupcakes until they are golden, springy, and/or leave a few crumbs on a tester. The Cake Doctor says 15-20 minutes. In my oven, they were perfect at 12.

The Cake Doctor says you can expect about 48 minis from this recipe. True to form, I got 72. Luckily, my roommate was quite taken with the lemon cuties and together she and I ate the few that didn't fit on my platter.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to step away from the kitchen and do something academic before the weekend is over.