Junior Masterchef winner's lemon cupcakes

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I wonder how the kids in Junior Masterchef did it. Especially the winner, Isabella. How did she just suddenly think of a good lemon cupcake recipe in under an hour? I call her a 'cooking prodigy'.

If you haven't watched Junior Masterchef, you ought to! Some of them are honestly so cute, still missing some teeth, and I find myself falling off my chair, laughing when I see them using safety plastic knives. But the things they come up with... They're only 8 years old and they plate up incredible dishes! When I was 8, the most I could make was instant noodles.

I was really pleased with these cupcakes. They rose up  beautifully, lovely texture with a hit of lemon. My personal preference however, is adding more lemon in this recipe than what it's called for. I like to pronounce the lemon flavour more.

These cupcakes use heavy cream, instead of butter.  So no creaming-butter-fuss. I have a scone recipe coming up soon which also uses heavy cream, and they are the most delicious scones ever, so look out!Plus, this recipe made me love lemon curd. I've never really been a fan of lemon curd, because I always had the thought that it would be too sour, trying to contrast with sweet. But man, have I been missing out. That stuff is a real pot of gold! I didn't make my own curd, because I had the convenience of having a small jar in my pantry, and wasn't really in the mood to wash more dishes..

This is an extremely easy lemon recipe, it'll be my to-go recipe, especially helpful when I'm in a rush!

Lemon cupcakes: You need
- Lemon cupcake recipe
- Lemon curd (store-bought or  home-made, as recipe indicates)
- Raspberry cream cheese

Lemon cupcakes
Ingredients
1 cup thickened cream/heavy cream (35% fat minimum)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 and and 1/2 cups self-raising flour *
Finely grated rind of 1 lemon
1 juice of lemon *optional
* I think you could use milk instead of heavy cream. I ran out a bit of heavy cream, so added a bit of milk.
* If you don't have self-raising flour, use plain flour and add 1 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp baking soda

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F). Place 12 muffin liners in a muffin pan.
2. Place cream, sugar and eggs in a large mixing bowl, and whisk until smooth. Sift flour and add it gradually, along with the zest and lemon juice until the mixture is thick and smooth.
3. Divide the mixture between prepared liners and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
4. Cool in muffin pan for a few minutes, then transfer to wire rack.

Lemon curd
1/2 cup lemon juice
100 g butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
3 egg yolks

Instructions
1. Heat lemon juice and butter in a small saucepan, and simmer until the butter has melted.
2. Add sugar, egg and yolks and cook, whisking continuously until mixture becomes thick and glossy. Pour into a shallow oven tray to cool

Raspberry cream cheese frosting
Ingredients:
42 g (3 tbsp) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 block of cream cheese (8 oz or 250 g), cold and cut into cubes
1 cup icing sugar/confectioner's sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup raspberry puree- frozen or fresh raspberries, blended and then passed through a sieve. Add more or less, depending on preference of the raspberry flavour.

Instructions:
1. Beat the butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract together in a electric mixer, and mix until well combined.
2. Add the cream cheese, and beat for half a minute.
3. Add raspberry puree, and beat until smooth. Do not over-mix it, otherwise you will get a runny cream cheese frosting. 

Assembling:
Use a sharp knife to cut a small tube/core, or use an apple corer in the middle of the cupcake. Fill with lemon curd. Then pipe the raspberry cream cheese frosting.

Slightly adapted from Isabella's lemon meringue cupcakes on Masterchef