Great recipe! I've saved it to make again. This is the third or fourth time I've made lemon curd cupcakes, and it's the best recipe I've found for them yet.
The best part of this recipe is that the amounts are all just right -- the lemon curd is just enough to fill this many cupcakes, and the frosting makes just enough to *lightly* frost -- though if you like to pile on giant fluffy pillows of frosting, you'll want to double your batch here. This was the first time I've made this kind of cupcake and haven't had piles of frosting or filling left over. Much appreciated!!!
I did modify this recipe slightly and thought the changes were good:
1. I separated 2 eggs and used the whites for the cakes and the yolks for the curd. 2 yolks makes for a richer curd.
2. Rather than add eggs with butter and sugar, I beat the egg whites with 1/3 cup of the sugar into a stiff meringue, then folded the meringue into the batter after everything was mixed. This made the batter really light and fluffy, which meant I could stretch the recipe to make 16 cupcakes rather than 12.
I did not find this to be at all difficult -- but the lemon curd does require a careful hand. You have to be careful not to overcook, or it will turn clumpy and icky. It does not have to be overly thick before you take it off the heat, as it will thicken upon cooling.
A couple more things to notice: don't add salt to the frosting if you're using salted butter, use a zester to grate the lemon peel really finely so you don't have chunks of peel to bite into, and for goodness' sake use fresh lemon juice in the curd -- it makes all the difference in the world.
Thanks for the excellent recipe! I will return to this one often.