These are a delicious, moist white cake, filled with a whipped lemon curd filling, and topped with a lemony Swiss meringue butter cream.  The candied lemon garnish can definitely be eaten, they’re sweet and tart and just a little bit chewy.

I did use store-bought lemon curd in this recipe for time’s sake, and because I found a super cute gourmet food store and of course I had to buy lemon sugar and lemon curd.  It actually worked really well because it gave a little bit of substance to the whipped cream and held up nicely.

If you need a little sunshine in your life, even if it has nothing to do with warding off scary weather, I do hope you’ll try these.

Enjoy!  (And stay safe out there!)

(And thanks to my friend {Ginger} for today’s pictures!!)


Lemon Sunshine Cupcakes
Yield:  Approx 18 standard cupcakes

White Cake Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 large eggs at room temperature
Seeds from 2 scraped vanilla beans
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups cake flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together sugar and butter until light and creamy (4-5 minutes).  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add vanilla beans and almond extract, beat to combine.

Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the sugar mixture, beat at medium-low speed until just combined.  Add half of the buttermilk, beat to combine.  Add 1/2 of the remaining flour, beat to combine.  Add the rest of the buttermilk, beat to combine.  Add the rest of the flour mixture, and beat to combine.

Do not over-beat during this stage.  Using an ice-cream scoop, fill your cupcake liners 1/2 full with batter.  Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.  Remove to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

Prepare cooled cupcakes for filling by using the cone method.  Prepare filling.

Whipped Cream Lemon Curd Filling:
2 heaping Tablespoons Premade Lemon Curd
1 cup heavy whipping cream

In a clean, cold bowl, whip cream until stiff peaks form.  Place lemon curd in a small bowl and stir it to break it up a little.  Then, add about a third of the whipped cream to the lemon curd and gently stir it to combine.  Using a spatula, fold the remaining whipped cream into the lemon curd until well combined.  You can stir a little bit more lemon curd into the final product if you’d like to create a swirled effect.

Pipe a heaping teaspoon or so into each prepared cupcake.  Replace the top of the cone and prepare frosting.

Lemon Swiss Meringue Butter cream:
5 egg whites
2 cups (4 sticks) softened but cool unsalted butter, cut into 2 TBS cubes
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon Lemon Extract
Zest of 2 lemons
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

After the mixture comes together, add the vanilla and lemon extracts and the lemon zest.  Beat until just combined.  Taste the frosting, and add more lemon if needed.

Frost cupcakes as desired.  Sprinkle with Lemon Sugar and garnish with a candied lemon slice.

Candied Lemon Garnish:
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
2-3 small lemons

Slice the lemons into 18 ultra-fine slices.  Remove seeds.  In a large, flat saucepan, bring sugar and water to a simmer.  Once the sugar is dissolved, place the lemon slices into the sugar water, taking care not to overlap them.  Keep the temperature at medium-low, and flip the slices after 10 minutes, then cook another 10 minutes on the other side.  Remove the slices and place on a greased wire rack to cool completely.  Place cooled lemon slices on top of each cupcake.

Recipe Source and Inspiration:  Cake from Southern Living, Candied Lemon adapted from Annie’s Eats