Sour Patch Kids Cupcakes

I like to make fancy cupcakes. Partly because I have a reputation to uphold, and partly because it's just fun to meld different recipes together to create something even better than the inspiration for the cupcakes in the first place.  The original inspiration for these cupcakes comes from one of my favorite blogs Cookies and Cups.  It might be because she loves peanut butter and chocolate. It might be because everything on there is easy yet so delicious.  And cute, did I mention cute?
 
Anyway, a while ago she posted this awesome recipe for Sour Patch Kids Cupcakes.  You know what made them special?  Citric Acid sprinkled on the top of the frosting. Freaking genius.  I had to try it. Had to.  But they were plain vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream.  They did have strawberry jam filling, but... there isn't actually a strawberry flavored sour patch kid.  So I had to do some tweaking.  This is what I came up with:
 

I made plain white cupcakes from scratch, but you can easily make it from a boxed mix.  Then I filled them with one of four different curds: lemon, lime, orange, and raspberry. This way they not only looked like each of the different flavors of Sour Patch Kids, but tasted like them, too. I also liked the curd so the filling would be sweet/sour as well.  I reserved some of the curd and mixed that in with a simple buttercream frosting. I chose to stay away from my typical Swiss meringue buttercream because I thought this might hold up a little better when I added in the curd. I think I made the right choice.  Then, I sprinkled them with a combination of citric acid and sugar and topped them with the appropriate color/flavor of sour patch kid.
 
I brought them to a church potluck and they were a huge hit!  One of my husband's friends who is a vegan decided he had to try one three. And my husband STILL raves about these as one of his favorite cupcakes. (Although his other favorite were the banana cupcakes with raspberry filling and mint frosting that I made just to try to prove to him that that flavor combination is disgusting and he should not order a banana raspberry concrete mixer with Andes mints from Culvers. So maybe he doesn't have the most distinguished palate...) I first made these a year and a half ago when the inspiration hit me, but I finally decided to write them up on my neglected blog when Shelley of Cookies and Cups and Kristan of Confessions of a Cookbook Queen announced a contest challenging their readers to tweak one of their recipes. Yes, please!
I had to remake them this week as I have no idea where the pictures I took of the original batch went...they're probably hanging out somewhere with the picture I took of the Spider Cake (also inspired by Cookies and Cups) and the pictures of the half dozen recipes I still have hanging out in limbo on the "drafts" section.  My husband was not disappointed about this consequence of my apparent lack of organization. :) They were just as good as we remembered!
 
I am entering these Sour Patch Kids Cupcakes in the Creative Recipe Contest hosted by Confessions of a Cookbook Queen and Cookies and Cups! Thanks guys!!
 
Sour Patch Kids Cupcakes
Yield: 24 cupcakes
 
The first thing you'll want to do is make your four curds.  Whenever I work with curds I like to make them the night before so I know they'll be completely set and ready to go.  You could also buy curd, but it's really easy to make and tastes delicious!!

Orange/Lemon/Lime Curd: Process is the exact same for each of these, only with the corresponding juice (You might be able to do this same recipe for the Raspberry curd. I've never tried, but I do like this recipe better than the raspberry one so one of these days I'll see if it works as well and update this recipe.)

1/3 cup [lemon/lime/orange] juice
2 large eggs
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 Tbsp heavy cream
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
pinch salt

1. Heat juice in small saucepan over medium heat until hot but not boiling. Whisk eggs and yolk in medium nonreactive bowl; gradually whisk in sugar. Whisking constantly, slowly pour hot lemon juice into eggs, then return mixture to saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with wooden spoon, until mixture registers 170 degrees on instant-read thermometer and is thick enough to cling to spoon, about 3 minutes.

1. 2. Immediately remove pan from heat and stir in cold butter until incorporated; stir in cream, vanilla, and salt, then pour curd through fine-mesh strainer into small nonreactive bowl. Cover surface of curd directly with plastic wrap; refrigerate until needed.

Raspberry Curd:
1/2 c unsalted butter
1 package frozen raspberries, thawed (12 oz)
5 large egg yolks, lightly beaten
3/4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
2 to 3 tsp fresh lemon juice

1.  Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the raspberries, egg yolks, sugar, and salt and cook, mashing the berries and stirring frequently until thickened, about 10 minutes. 

2. Pour the mixture through a coarse strainer set over a bowl, pressing hard on the solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Cool to room temperature; the curd will continue to thicken as it cools. Stir in lemon juice to taste. Cover surface of curd directly with plastic wrap; refrigerate until needed.

Cupcakes:

2 1/4 cups cake flour

1 cup milk, room temperature

6 egg whites, room temperature

2 tsp almond extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

12 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cupcake pans with cupcake liners.
2. Pour milk, egg whites, and extracts into 2-cup glass measure, and mix with fork until blended.
3. Mix cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of electric mixer. Add butter; continue beating until mixture resembles moist crumbs, with no powdery streaks remaining.
4. Add all but 1/2 cup of milk mixture to crumbs and beat at medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes. Add remaining 1/2 cup of milk mixture and beat 30 seconds more. Stop mixer and scrape sides of bowl. Return mixer to medium speed and beat 20 seconds longer.
5. Divide batter evenly between cupcake pans. Bake until thin skewer or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 18-23 minutes. 
6. Cool completely before filling/frosting. 

Frosting: I used a double batch of simple buttercream frosting as the base, omitting the extract and milk to help compensate for the added curd.   You will end up with four different flavors and colors of frosting.

4 sticks (1 lb) unsalted butter, softened
8 cups powdered sugar
Approximately 1/3-1/2 cup of each flavor of prepared curd
Food Coloring (optional)

1. Beat butter and powdered sugar until blended.
2. Divide frosting into 4 equal sections. In each portion, slowly add one of the flavors of curd until you get the desired consistency. Mix until combined. Do not overbeat.
*This is not an exact process. I didn't have any problems with adding too much, but make sure you are slowly adding it in and remember you can always add a little extra powdered sugar if yours ends up too soupy. 
3. You can add food coloring to make the colors a little brighter

 Citric Acid topping:

1/4 cup citric acid
1/4 cup sugar

1. Mix together. Set aside until needed. 

 

Assembly:

1. Take the remaining amount of whichever curd you'd like to start with and put it in a pastry bag fitted with a Bismarck tip. (Remember to reserve about 1/2 cup of each for the frosting if you haven't already)
2. Fill 6 cupcakes with said curd. Don't worry if the cupcake splits a little on top or if a little curd leaks out--it will be covered with frosting anyway.
3. Top with corresponding flavor of buttercream.
4. Sprinkle citric acid/sugar mixture on top and garnish with corresponding color/flavor of Sour Patch Kid.
5. Repeat with each of the three remaining flavors.

 

Credit:

Cupcakes adapted from Sour Patch Kids Cupcakes from Cookies and Cups

Cupcakes and citrus curds: from/adapted from Cooks Illustrated