Lemon Berry Cupcakes

You’ve gotta try these scrumptious, moist, fruity cupcakes. I made these last week to take to a picnic party. Everybody loved them so much – they are unbelievably moist and rich yet light and vibrant at the same time.

Within a week of having these, Neel and I both missed them so much, that I decided to bake these again – yep, second time in a week 😛 Don’t judge. My excuse today – i have a long weekend ahead of me to enjoy these as they would come in handy as a wonderful filling decadent evening snack or a breakfast treat with coffee and what a perfect treat for July 4th with the colors of its ingredients!!

This recipe makes 12 standard size cupcakes.

Ingredients:

1 tsp baking powder

1.5 cups all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 stick unsalted butter – softened

1 cup sugar

4 large eggs – room temperature

1 large lemon zested

1.5 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup greek yogurt

juice of half of the lemon you zested

8 oz cream cheese – softened

1/4 cup sugar

a 100 g strawberries, chopped – about 1/2 a cup

a 100 g blueberries whole, about 1/2 a cup

Procedure:

• Mix together thoroughly – 1.5 cups all purpose flour, 1 tsp baking powder and about 1/4 tsp of salt together and set aside.
• In a mixing bowl, whisk together 1 stick of soft butter and 1 cup of sugar until light
• Add one whole egg to the butter+sugar mixture and beat in
• Next add 3 egg yolks one by one, while continuously beating
• Separate one of the egg whites and keep it aside for the berry-cream cheese swirl. the other 2 egg whites are not needed in this recipe, you can discard them or save them for something else.
• once all the egg yolks are incorporated, the mixture should be creamy, fluffy, custard-y. whisk in 2/3 of the lemon zest and vanilla extract
• Next add 1/2 cup of greek yogurt and juice of half a large lemon, whisk everything together until light and fluffy.

• whisk in the flour mixture little by little to make the cake batter – set it aside

• To make the berry-cream cheese swirl, whip the softened cream cheese with a spatula, until it becomes smooth and creamy
• To this add the 1 egg white that you saved and beat it in followed by sugar and the the remaining 1/3 lemon zest

• fold in the berries in the creem cheese mixture
• Preheat oven to 350 F
• Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners and spoon in a layer of the batter followed by the berry swirl.
• Continue layering (about 3-4 layers each), until both mixtures are exhausted and all liners are filled.
• swirl the two layers with a toothpick or skewer to gently mix
• let some berry layer be on the top for the visual effect! you can also ad extra berry pieces on the top

• Bake at 350 F for about 25 minutes. They should be golden on the top.
• Test with a toothpick to make sure they are baked. Add a couple of minutes if needed
• Remove and let cool on a wite rack

Note: This recipe is a modified version of a raspberry cream cupcake recipe from food52.com