A lot has been going on , with stuff at home, birthdays , with laziness in between and enjoying a long summer this year, I have been super lazy with blogging but not with baking. There has been plenty made and eaten. And more than plenty that needs to be written.
So, I had got this bottle of lovely limoncello from Italy from my holiday earlier this year (it seems like looong long time ago) and I really wanted to try and use it in baking. So I made these limoncello cupcakes and a cake with the same recipe. I love using buttermilk in cakes, it just makes the cakes so moist and gives them a much deeper flavour. For the filling in the cupcakes and the cake, I used some home made lemon curd to give them an extra lemony kick and layered it up in lemony lemon cream cheese frosting. It is lemon all the way and I love it!
280 g cake flour ( to make your own cake flour- for every cup of plain flour- a cup of plain flour, remove 2 tbsp of the plain flour and add 2 tbsp of cornstarch and sift this mixture 2-3 times so that the cornstarch is distributed evenly)
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
3 eggs
113 g butter at room temperature
270 g granulated sugar
1 cup buttermilk (If you do not have buttermilk, use whole milk and add about a tbsp of lemon juice, stir and let it sit for 5 minutes and then use instead of buttermilk)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp limoncello (optional- can substitute with more lemon juice)
zest of 2 lemons
- Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.
- In another bowl, cream butter and sugar till it gets light and fluffy. This takes about 2-3 minutes.
- Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat till combined-this takes about 2 minutes.
- Slowly add dry ingredients to the wet mix and stir with the spatula. Now add buttermilk, lemon zest and lemon juice and mix till just combined, do not over mix.
- Pour into cupcake liners and bake at 180 ˚C for 17-20 mins or till the skewer comes out clean. If making it as a cake, bake for a longer time.
For the cream cheese limoncello frosting:
113 g unsalted butter at room temperature
113 g cream cheese at room temperature
1 tbsp limoncello or lemon juice
2 cups of powdered sugar
In a bowl, beat cream cheese with butter till light and fluffy. Add limoncello and mix. Gradually beat in powdered sugar till it is fully incorporated.
For cupcakes, scoop out a spoonful from the center of the cupcake and add a spoon a lemon curd and top with the limoncello frosting.
I even made some macarons using this recipe and with cream cheese frosting filling to go along with the cake!
theflourmill 