Happy Valentine's Day! Lemon Mousse Cupcakes

Today is the day for lovers. Or for anyone who loves sweets! After gorging myself on chocolates earlier in the week, I was ready for something a bit lighter.
With not a lot of time, I rummaged around in my fridge for inspiration. Here's what I came up with: whipped cream, meyer lemon curd, a few lemons, and a little bit of French buttercream. After a quick internet search, I found that combining whipped cream and lemon curd results in lemon mousse. So I naturally made lemon mousse cupcakes.

I used my vanilla cupcake recipe, and added about 1 tablespoon on lemon zest, which lent a slight lemon flavor to the moist and fluffy cake. After cooling, I cored each cupcake.

I mixed together the whipped cream and lemon curd. I had about 1 cup of curd and probably 1 and a half cups of whipped cream. I filled each cupcake with the lemon mousse, then with the leftover, I added the French buttercream. It gave it more stability. Then I piped the rest on top.

I felt the cupcakes needed something else, to jazz them up for Valentine's Day. I had baked them in cute red striped wrappers. I decided to melt some red candy and pipe out hearts onto wax paper. After a quick chill in the fridge, the hearts popped right off the wax paper. I made big ruffly hearts and little ones too. I gently placed them on top of each cupcake, and they looked perfect! Such a sweet treat for the holiday, or any day. So cute!

Martha Cupcake Challenge #29- Meyer Lemon Cupcakes

For the next Martha challenge, I decided to try her Meyer Lemon cupcakes, in honor of Easter/Spring. You see, in her book, the lemon curd sits on top of the cupcakes, which makes it look like an egg yolk. Since Springtime is all about re-birth, eggs are a perfect symbol.

First step, make meyer lemon curd. I love lemon curd, but have never made it. It's like a custard, lots of egg yolks, sugar, and lemon juice. I was pleased to find Meyer Lemons at Whole Foods, which are a cross between an orange and a lemon, so they're not as tart as regular lemons. I followed the directions for the curd, but I don't think I let it cook long enough. It was thinner than I expected, and I figured it would firm up in the fridge, but it didn't get thick enough. The direction don't say how long to cook it for, just "until thick". That's kinda vague.

Anyhoo, the cupcakes turned out great, altho it's a big recipe. I got 36, but Martha says it makes 42. They were so buttery and lemony and rather dense. It's almost like a pound cake. Smells so good!
Now, for the final steps. The recipe says to sprinkle with powdered sugar and then fill the cupcakes with curd, letting it seep out the top to form a pool. I did this a bit different. Since I'd be serving them the next day, I made a traditional vanilla buttercream, and piped it in a circle around the edge of the cupcake. And since my curd was too thin, I couldn't pipe it at all, so I just dolloped about a tablespoon on top, inside the frosting. The white and yellow really made it look like a fried egg.
So, my husband was supposed to take these to work today, but he was sick, so now I have 36 cupcakes that I don't know what to do with. Anyone want some? Come and get them!