Zesty lemon cupcakes that are bursting with flavour, topped with light, creamy whipped white chocolate ganache providing the perfect nest for a couple of your Easter favourites, Cadbury’s Mini Eggs. These cupcakes make the perfect addition to your Easter festivities.
After an exceptionally wet end to winter, we are just a mere couple of weeks until it's Spring and most importantly, Easter. With fresh flowers and blossom popping up all over and the signs of new life, the recipes I want to create are fresher and lighter, with pretty pastel hues and sweet spring flowers. Ooooh I get so excited by this time of year!
So this year I wanted to combine the fresh and zesty flavour of lemon along with the sweet but light and airy whipped white chocolate ganache. Now to add some pastel, Easter flair I topped the cupcakes with some white chocolate shavings and my all time favourite Easter Chocolates ... Cadbury’s Mini Eggs. Those pastel robins egg shells with their crispy crunch win me over every time. I even found some extra mini eggs in my local supermarket which are the cutest!
Why Lemon for these Easter Cupcakes?
I adore using fruits in my baking. I think that’s pretty obvious when you scroll through my posts! In Spring and Summer when citrus fruits like lemons, oranges and mandarines come into their own then they become a very welcome fixture in my baking artillery!
How to combat overly sweet cupcakes?
I knew that I wanted to use white chocolate in this recipe but sometimes that can get quiet sickly don’t you think? So to cut the sweetness I added lemon to my cupcakes.
Wow! They're light, airy, moist, and above all, tangy. They are AMAZING!
Add the zest to your sugar?
Yes! You’ll notice in the recipe that I say '1 zest of lemon, tossed into the sugar’. When you have the correct measurement of sugar, then zest the lemon so that the peel goes straight into the sugar granules. Only zest the yellow peel though and don’t grate any of the white pith underneath as this tends to be bitter.
Then, with a spoon give the sugar and zest a vigorous stir - this action will bruise the lemon zest and release the oils into the sugar. As a result of this extra step, when you cream the butter and sugar together, the flavour of the lemon gets evenly dispersed into the cake batter. It’s well worth it!
Whipped White Chocolate Ganache
Yes you read right.. whipped...whipped I tell you! This is a first for me. I have made white chocolate ganache many a time but never whipped! When developing this recipe, I was looking for an alternative to buttercream for these cupcakes as I know white chocolate veers towards the sweeter end of the sweet richter scale (if there was one!) and teamed with lots of butter and powdered icing sugar in buttercream...way off the sweetness richter scale. SO when I stumbled across whipped white chocolate ganache I jumped at having a go.
Two Ingredients
Don’t you love a recipe that calls for only two ingredients and it turns out to be sensational! Love that! White chocolate, of course and cream. And yes it has to be whipping cream so that when you whip it with the electric beaters the cream will trap the air and create volume...which is exactly what you want. No oozy puddles for us today!
White Chocolate
Use the best quality that you can find. White chocolate is made with cacao butter rather than the cacao solids that makes dark chocolate. The lack of cocoa solids allows for the pale appearance. However, the high cacao butter content makes it susceptible to separating when heated up too high. Therefore, it’s essential to use the microwave in small bursts and stir the chocolate and cream in-between each burst. As the cream heats up, by stirring the chocolate, the movement will allow the chocolate to melt. Make sure there are no lumps remaining.
For more lemon inspired recipes check out the following:
Easter Cupcakes with Whipped White Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients
Lemon cupcakes
- 115 g unsalted butter, room temperature
- 100 g granulated sugar
- 90 g self-raising flour
- 1 lemon, zest
- ½ lemon, juice
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1 tsp baking powder
Whipped white chocolate ganache
- 300 ml double cream (heavy cream), divided into two
- 100 g white chocolate, chopped plus extra for shavings from (optional)
- 150 g Cadbury's Mini Eggs
Instructions
Lemon cupcakes
- Preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F). Line a baking tray with 10 cupcake cases.
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar and lemon zest together, in the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or large bowl using hand-held electric beaters, until creamy and fluffy. Add in the lemon juice and beat until combined.
- Add the eggs one at a time and beat between each addition. Scrape down the base and sides of the bowl.
- Fold in the flour and baking powder and mix until just combined. Pour the batter into the cupcake cases filling them up until two thirds full.
- Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the tops are slightly browned and spring back when touched. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack
Whipped white chocolate ganache
- Heat half the double cream and the white chocolate, in a microwave-safe bowl, on medium power for 30-second increments, stirring between each set. Do this until all the white chocolate has melted. Cool till room temperature, cover and refrigerate over-night. Note: White chocolate doesn’t harden in the fridge, remaining soft.
- Whisk the ganache with the whisk attachment on a hand mixer, until light and fluffy (should take about a minute). Add the remaining whipping cream and whisk until soft peaks form and hold their shape on the whisk.
- To decorate, pipe the whipped white chocolate ganache onto the lemon cupcakes. Scatter with shaved white chocolate and place a couple of mini eggs on top.
All recipes are developed and tested in Metric grams. I strongly recommend that you bake using digital scales for a more accurate result. I have provided a conversion to US customary in the recipe but please note that I haven’t tested using this method.
Notes
Nutrition
Nadine
This sounds delicious! How would you adapt the recipe for a large cake for a birthday?
Emma
Hi Nadine, I would bake the batter in a 6 inch cake pan or if you’d prefer a larger cake then double the ingredients. I’m unsure of the cooking time as I haven’t tested it this way, but a good rule of thumb would be to bake until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the sponge comes out clean.