Hey guys! A brand new week calls for a brand new cupcake recipe, obviously! A couple weeks ago I let you know that I only had a small collection of cupcake recipes here on my blog and that’s just not good enough. Considering cupcakes are possibly the best thing ever right? I have an endless supply of cupcake flavours that I have developed over time and that you’re yet to discover, oh I just cannot wait to create them. These are my new Lemon Poppyseed Cupcakes. A delightful gluten free vanilla butter cake, homemade lemon curd with a velvety smooth lemon and poppyseed buttercream frosting, yes it’s soo real!
I cannot tell you how long I have been on the hunt for a great tasting, gluten free, plain vanilla cake recipe. I have tried so many and they just didn’t reach my expectations of a great vanilla gluten free cupcake, like how hard is it?! I will share this with you though, baking gluten free can be such a challenge most times that I reflect on how easy it was baking with wheat flours… but! I do appreciate the challenge it throws at me and these cupcakes were one of those challenges that kept presenting itself for a long time.
I can proudly say that I think I have FINALLY found my go-to plain, vanilla, butter based gluten free cupcake recipe. It took me 3 batches of cupcakes to get this wonderful recipe. I was actually following the recipe for my Mini Cinnamon and Honey Cupcakes but I omitted a few of the ingredients to make it a vanilla cupcake. It was a fluke actually, on my second batch of cupcakes I accidentally added double the amount of butter without realising until after they baked. Turns out that was the best mistake I could have made! They were perfect. The only issue I still had was there wasn’t enough batter to make the classic 12-batch of cupcakes. Is it just me or do you hate that too? When you follow a recipe and there ends up not being enough batter to fill your wonderfully large 12-hole cupcake pan? To avoid this, I ended up doubling the recipe from the good batch of cupcakes. This recipe will give you around 12-15 cupcakes, winning! The more the merrier is what they say don’t they?
Ok Ok, let’s get down to business. Sweet, buttery vanilla cupcakes incasing a delicious and delightful homemade lemon curd. Topped with a classic buttercream frosting with a hint of lemon then a small amount of poppyseed’s whipped through, don’t you just love the effect the poppyseed’s give the frosting? Yum yum in your tum tum! So if you also have been on the look out for the best plain vanilla gluten free cupcake recipe then look no further! I’m so incredibly happy with the way these turned out. Full of flavour, great fluffy texture and they all rose to the occasion! Oh and to top it all off, just casually place a large dollop of thick lemon curd in them with generous swirl of lemon and poppyseed frosting!
- Vanilla Butter Cupcakes
- 2 cups gluten free all purpose flour*
- 1 cup almond meal
- 2 tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp himalayan pink salt
- 4 eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup (150g) butter, melted
- ½ cup honey
- 1 Tbsp vanilla bean extract
- Lemon Curd
- 2 eggs, lightly whisked
- 100g butter, cubed
- Zest of one medium-large lemon
- ½ cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup demerara sugar*
- Lemon Poppyseed Frosting
- 60g butter, room temperature, chopped into chunks
- 4½ cups gluten free icing sugar
- ½ cup lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp black poppyseed’s
- Optional: small slices of lemon to serve
- Vanilla Butter Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 180ºC (356ºF) and line a 12 hole cupcake pan with cupcake patty liners.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk flour, almond meal, baking soda and salt together.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine eggs, butter, honey and vanilla, mix well.
- Make a well in the centre of the dry mix, pour in wet mixture. Using a whisk, mix until just combined. Removing any lumps.
- Spoon batter into cupcake pan, fill them ¾ of the way up.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes or until golden and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Lemon Curd
- In a double boiler over low-medium heat, add all curd ingredients.
- Cook ingredients together until mixture begins to thicken.
- Occasionally stir curd with a whisk until all the butter has completely melted and ingredients are well combined. You don’t want the curd to start boiling so keep the heat on medium.
- You will want to start constantly whisking the curd when it begins to thicken, this will take approx. 20-30 minutes.
- The curd should be light in colour and thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.
- When ready, strain curd through a fine mesh sieve into a clean bowl.
- Cover with plastic wrap and set in the refrigerator. This will allow the curd to thicken further.
- Lemon Poppyseed Frosting
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, add butter. Whisk for 30 seconds or until just soft.
- Gradually add icing sugar, 1 cup at a time.
- Between additions of icing sugar, add lemon juice, 1 tablespoon at a time.
- Add poppyseed’s and beat frosting for a further 30 seconds until light and fluffy.
- Assembly
- When cupcakes have completely cooled, take a small sharp knife and cut a V-shaped piece out of the top of each cupcake, about 1" deep x 1" wide.
- Spoon chilled lemon curd into holes, until filled in.
- Prepare a piping bag with a large closed star nozzle.
- Fill piping bag with frosting and pipe rounds on each cupcake.
- Optional: top each cupcake with a small lemon slice.
- Serve and Enjoy!
*Use my all purpose gluten free flour to get the best result.
*Find demerara sugar from your local health food store. Alternatively, use raw caster sugar or coconut sugar.
Ensure not to let the lemon curd come to a boil, this will cause the egg to cook further.
Constantly whisk the curd whilst it’s cooking, this will ensure even cooking and any lumps will be removed from the mixture.
The curd will have to cook over the double boiler for approx. 20-30 minutes. Depending on how long the curd will take to lighten in colour and thicken.
This curd recipe will make extra, store the leftovers in an airtight container or a glass jar, refrigerated, for a couple of weeks.
Unfortunately these turned out incredibly dry and completely tasteless… 🙁 Both my husband and I could barely swallow the plain cake during the taste test. The curd and frosting was really good but a necessity to make the actual cake edible. The batter was so thick I could barely spoon it into the pans. How would you recommend thinning? Milk? Water? I followed the recipe to a tee and hoping to try again.
Hi Felicity, I’m so sorry to hear this. Fortunately I did’t have the same issue with my batter being too thick. I would recommend possibly reducing the almond meal down to a half of a cup, as that can be quite absorbent and also starting off with only 1 cup – 1 1/2 cups of the GF flour (adding more if the consistency of the batter is too thin after the wet ingredients are added). Then whisking a little milk (if needed) into the batter until it’s smooth and at pouring consistency. Did you use a gluten free all purpose flour or regular flour? I recommend using my gluten free all purpose flour recipe as some store bought GF flours have added thickeners and vegetable gums. Hope this helps Felicity!
Hi! I’m really interested in making a few cupcake recipes that you have! Can I use normal unbleached all purpose flour? Other than that I only have almond flour instead of almond meal, would that work? Hope to hear from you soon!
Hi Adrienne! I’ve never tried regular all purpose flour with these gluten free cupcakes on my blog but usually it’s a 1:1 ratio when switching between the flours, especially if I have used gluten free all purpose. I think go ahead with using the regular flour as I see there shouldn’t be a problem. You can also use almond flour if you don’t have almond meal. Almond meal is just made with the almond skins left on so it’s more of a coarse flour compared to the almond flour, both will work though, the difference may just be a slight change in texture of the final product. Hope this helps Adrienne! Let me know how you go! Enjoy! xx
That’s look awesome!! If I don’t want to use butter, what can I subsitute it with to make it less fatty/ less calories. Thanks
Hi Yasmin, substitute the butter with coconut oil! It’s a great and healthy alternative. x