Limoncello Cupcakes

Are you ready for summer?  Because I'm soooooo ready for summer it's crazy.  These were perfect to hold me over through since we still have rain and clouds here ;( boo. They're nice and fresh, tart and sweet all at the same time. 😉 Yummm!

The original recipe calls for a lemon curd filling, which sounds super tasty, but I decided to use a raspberry jam (just the regular jam from my fridge) as the filling because I wanted to something sort of sweet to play off the lemon flavor in the cupcakes.  The cupcakes remind me of a lemon pound cake, they're kind of dense but all of the flavors and textures definitely work well together.  The filling really works well with the cake, the cream cheese frosting is light and sweet with a nice kick from the limoncello!

These are definitely a grown-up cupcake!  I would love to make them for bachelorette party or a ladies night... 😉

Limoncello Cupcakes (recipe slightly adapted from: Brown Eyed Baker)

• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 ounces (½ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons limoncello
• ½ cup buttermilk
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• Zest of one lemon
• 1 ½ cups  raspberry jam

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line a muffin pan with 12 Cupcake liners.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
3. Cream together butter, cream cheese and sugar in a standing bowl mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
4. Add eggs one at a time until combined.
5. Add limoncello and mix for 1 minute.
6. On low speed add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternatively, beginning and ending with the flour.
7. Add the lemon juice and lemon zest to the batter, mix just until combined.
8. Bake cupcakes for 20 minutes, rotating ½ way through, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cupcakes cool.
9. Core the center of each cupcake and remove to make room for the filling.
10. Pipe raspberry jam into each cupcake. (You can keep or discard the cores, up to you ;))

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 2 ounces (½ stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 tablespoon limoncello
• 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• zest of one lemon (reserve some to garnish cupcakes)
• 12 raspberries to top cupcakes

1. Cream butter and cream cheese in a standing bowl mixer until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes
2. Add limoncello and mix until combined.
3. On low speed, add powered sugar and mix until everything is combined.
4. Add lemon zest to frosting and pipe frosting with a star pastry tip.
5. Top each cupcake with lemon zest and a fresh raspberry.

Just an FYI, these cute little cupcake wrappers are from World Market 🙂 they were like $4 for a pack of 24... super cute!  Also, I linked to the brand of limoncello that I used ($24) but you could also make it!  If you're looking for a fun project for presents, limoncello would be great!  Check out this cute post from Veronika of Tick Tock Vintage... (she's one of my fav fashion bloggers!)

I hope that you're all having a great weekend!  Oh, and just for funsies here's a fun pic of favorite my baking companion 😉 Cupcake Wine? YES PLEASE!

xoxo-Jenn