The Tuesday Treat: Vanilla Cupcakes with Lemon Curd Buttercream

Though I am often a creature of habit when it comes to recipes, particularly cake recipes – chocolate cake with chocolate ganache/etc., anyone? – I do like to very slightly mix things up from time to time. The standard buttcream frosting is easy and delicious, and is easily adaptable to whatever kind of flavor you’re craving. Here, I folded a bit of tart, lovely lemon curd into my basic recipe; the result was a lightly-sweet, lightly-lemony, pillowy cloud of goodness that I perched atop a batch of cupcakes.

Makes 1 doz. cupcakes

For the cake (note: I baked off half of the batter into a 7-inch cake and the rest as 1 dozen cupcakes. The batter baked as cupcakes will yield 2 doz. cupcakes.)
For the lemon curd

For the lemon curd buttercream

1 stick salted or unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup lemon curd
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3 cups powdered sugar

In a large bowl, cream the butter until fluffy. Add the lemon curd and vanilla and beat well to combine. Add the sugar 1 cup at a time and beat well until fluffy and firm. Add more sugar as needed.