spring beckons

Snow came in a flurry late Wednesday night of last week, sugaring the rooftops and grass with a thick layer of soft powder. Even then, the dripping snow-laden branches and the rapidly melting sidewalks the next morning hinted that spring was just around the corner. Lately, the days have been starting bright, with a burst of sunshine. Sometimes the clouds take over, and sometimes yet even the rain. But by afternoon the sun makes a break for it, and Seattle is again embraced by a glowing warmth.

For some reason, I find myself associating the spring season with lemons. It is as though the bright, cheery yellow lemons symbolize my anticipation for the season to come. So when a friend requested cupcakes for a gathering this past weekend, I couldn’t help thinking of lemon cupcakes.

On a trip to Trader Joe’s, I helped myself to a package of four Meyer lemons. The Meyer lemon, according to some web searches, is a cross between a lemon and an orange (perhaps a Mandarin orange), and was brought over to the states from China in 1908 by a fellow who worked for the USDA, named F. Meyer. It has since then gone through some genetic variation, to make it disease-free. I wonder if this fruit is still thriving in the mainland, and if so, whether the Chinese even use it today.

With Meyer lemons being the popular fruit of the day — said to have been brought into fame by Alice Waters and Martha Stewart — I wanted to see for myself what this fruit was all about. I found the Meyer lemon, compared to the traditional supermarket lemon, rounder, thinner-skinned and smoother, sweeter (I took a bite of the flesh), more golden-orangeish in color when it further ripens, and more difficult to juice. (Because I have no juicing device, I usually use my fingers to squeeze the pulp against the walls of the lemon after the initial Pac-Man squeezes. But since the thin-skinned phenotype also seems to be evident inside the Meyer lemon, I noticed that the skin separating the segments collapsed more easily and prevented efficient pulp-squeezing against the walls.)

Regardless of the difficulty I had in juicing the Meyer lemons, I had fun with them. I made Meyer lemon cupcakes filled with Meyer lemon curd, topped with a raspberry buttercream. In addition, I made some candied lemon zest for a tasty decoration.

Meyer Lemon & Raspberry Cupcakes
makes 12-16 cupcakes (depends on desired size of cupcakes) / 350 degree oven

1 stick butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 pinch of salt
1 cup milk
1 tsp fresh meyer lemon juice
1 tsp grated meyer lemon zest

1. Beat butter on high speed until creamy.
2. Add sugar. Beat until light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs one at a time. Beat for 30 seconds after each addition.
4. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
5. Measure out and combine 1 cup milk, juice, and zest.
6. Add flour mixture to creamed butter/eggs/sugar in four additions, alternating with liquid mixture.
7. Fill cupcake liners with batter up to 3/4 to >3/4 full. Bake for 15 minutes, rotate, bake for another 5 minutes.
8. When cupcakes are cool, make an indentation in the center of each cupcake. Fill with meyer lemon curd. (I also smothered the tops of the cupcakes with lemon curd.)
9. Pipe on raspberry buttercream, add candied lemon zest.

Lemon Curd (Saveur)
makes 1-1/4 cups

2 egg yolks
1 whole egg
6 tbsp. sugar
1⁄3 cup fresh lemon juice
1⁄2 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
5 tbsp. cold butter, cut into pieces (I forgot to whisk in the butter, but the curd was still delicious.)

1. Whisk together egg yolks, whole egg, sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a medium mixing bowl until well combined.
2. Set bowl over a medium pot of simmering water over medium-low heat and cook, whisking constantly, until thick, 8–10 minutes.
3. Whisk in butter, a few pieces at a time, until completely incorporated. Transfer to a clean bowl, cover surface with plastic to prevent skin from forming, and set aside to let cool. Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

Raspberry Buttercream

1 cup frozen raspberries
2 tsp lemon juice
1-1/2 sticks butter, room temperature
3 cups confectioner’s sugar
3 tbsp raspberry reduction
1 tbsp milk

On medium heat, cook raspberries while mashing them and adding the lemon juice. Continue stirring and reducing the liquid (about 5 minutes) until it has reduced to about 4 tbsp. Allow to cool.
Meanwhile, beat the butter until fluffy. Add confectioner’s sugar 1 cup at a time, each time beating on low until incorporated and then on high until fluffy. Add raspberry reduction between second and third additions of sugar, and use as much as desired, according to taste and color. Add last cup of confectioner’s sugar and determine whether it needs thinning out with milk.