LuAnn's Lemon Drop Cupcakes

*Warning: calorie spoiler...if you don't want to know then don't read the fine print at the end.

I am in Arizona with all of my sisters so I figured it was the perfect time to make this cake.  I made it into cupcakes because my sister didn't have any 8" cake pans.  Plus...I love cupcakes.  However, I think it would have been better as a 3 layer cake so I'd have the curd more evenly dispersed with the cake.

I'll start by their review of the lemon curd.  I'll explain this way and you decide just how good this means it was.  After it was chilled my sister, Kelli, took a little spoonful and she got really quiet...just paused...licked the spoon, oh, so slowly...and said in the most sincere voice..."it's....perfect....I'm going to cry."  And she literally had tears in her eyes.  How food can be so good it can make you cry is beyond me...but coming from Kelli it wasn't much of a surprise.  Then my other sister, Robyn, asked her..."is it Better Than Sex Lemon Cake?"  And Kelli replied, "I don't know...I've never had Sex Lemon Cake."  Of course, Robyn and I died laughing and then explained Better Than Sex Cake.

I liked the frosting, but I think next time I'll reduce the amount of butter...maybe even a whole stick.  It was a little too buttery.  But I am glad it was tasty without being super sweet because I don't like frosting too sweet.  However, the ingredients of the frosting make getting it the right consistency a little tougher.  I guess that is why so many frostings have so much powdered sugar.  It was a bit runny at first so I refrigerated the frosting for a couple hours and then when I got it out I whipped it in the mixer a bit.  It was then a good consistency to pipe onto the cupcakes.

As for the whole product...that center bite of the cupcake that had a taste of curd, cake, frosting and a lemon head was heavenly.  If you like lemon you will LOVE this cake.  But like I said earlier...I think I'd prefer it in a 3 layer cake because I wanted the curd spread more evenly...it is the punch in this recipe.  My sisters thought they would just make the frosting and curd with a white cake mix (and add some lemon zest)...but I am growing to prefer cakes from scratch so I think it is worth it.

Calories: 
Cake layers total (makes ~26 cupcakes)= 4635
 Lemon Curd (makes ~2 1/4 C.) = 1575
1 T or curd (which is about how much was in the center of each cupcake) = 40 calories


Lemon Drop Frosting (makes ~4 1/2 C.) = 4500
1 C = 1000 calories
1 T = ~60 calories


So I figure with 1 T of curd and 2 T of frosting each cupcake had about 340 calories!  That isn't all that bad for a dessert...it is?