Lemon Lavender Cupcakes

Oh no! Not tofu in baking!

Stick with me because I am going to prove that adding vegan ricotta to these Lemon Lavender Cupcakes is life changing!
Moist, spongy & firm~ yet tender crumb!

Mashed up tofu to resemble ricotta cheese consistency is all you need!

Dare I say we can throw away all the other cake recipes and just use this from here on out!??

Lemon zest and lemon juice is more than enough essence of lemon in this little sponge cupcake

I didn’t even use an extract, but of course you can if you want to add another layer of zing!
This recipe bakes perfectly into round layers too!

I don’t know about you, but I have always had trouble getting my lavender colors true lavender

So rather than continue to struggle with gel paste food colors that always fade and look more blue than violet
I decided to use some of the natural food color from super flower powder by Suncore Foods*not sponsored

The Sapphire Wolfberry Super Flower Powder food color was the best idea I have had to date!

Simply dissolving a teaspoon of the Wolfberry powder along with 3 teaspoons of ground up lavender flowers into steeped water just like making a tea
Then added it cooled to my buttercream recipe at the last stage of mixing

The vibrant color was everything I had been looking for to make this delicate lavender buttercream come to life!

Of course you can make this Lemon Ricotta Cupcake recipe and use whatever icing you prefer if you are not into fancy~schmancy lavender!

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL YOUTUBE VIDEO FOR HOW TO MAKE THESE LEMON RICOTTA CUPCAKES!

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Notes for Success:

Firm tofu but not pressed and just drained of excess liquid is how I prep it for my vegan ricotta cheese.

A combination of all purpose flour and cake flour for the best result, but f you cannot get cake flour
You can sub in all~ all purpose flour (or plain flour as it is more commonly known in other countries)

However I recommend to reduce the total amount of all purpose flour to 250g total weight (or 2 cups total)

The egg replacer I used for this recipe was Bob’s Reed Mill *not sponsored
And I added it straight to the dry ingredients rather than reconstituting it

Aquafaba for a portion of the liquid ingredients here and as an additional binder is optional and can be replaced by more plant milk

Country Crock Vegan Butter this time, because I finally found it!
But you can use whatever vegan butter you have

The creaming time to get to light and fluffy status was longer than the usual 3-4 minutes and took closer to 7 minutes
End result for this batter is going to be very stiff unlike many of your other cake recipes, this is OK!

For the lemon custard, cornstarch is a very difficult ingredient to measure consistently with a volume spoons measure.
So while I list both measures below I cannot stress enough how the grams measure with a scale is going to give you the best results.
Many times people have complained that their custard is like rubber and they don’t know why!

American Buttercream for the lavender icing was the best choice here because it is the most stable when it comes to adding in additional liquid flavoring.
You will notice I steeped lavender flowers with wolfberry powder for my natural food coloring and this required adding ¼ additional liquid to my buttercream and IT DID NOT BREAK

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Yield: 15

Lemon Ricotta Cupcakes

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Prep Time 45 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes

Ingredients

for the icing

• 1 Recipe Your Favorite Buttercream
• 3 teaspoons lavender flowers ground fine *food grade
• ¼ cup water
• 1 teaspoon Wolfberry Flower Powder OR violet gel paste color *see notes

For the Lemon Custard:

• Plant Milk ½ cup (118ml)
• Water 1/3 cup (78ml)
• Lemon Juice ¼ cup (59ml)
• Sugar 1/3 cup (67g)
• Cornstarch 2½ Tablespoons (20g) *see notes for success
• Lemon Zest from 1 lemon approx 1 teaspoon

For the Cake Recipe:

• Vegan Butter 8 Tablespoons (113g)
• Vegan Sugar 1 cup (200g)
• Firm Tofu 230g (half package) = 1 cup after processing
• Lemon Zest from 3 lemons approximately 1 Tbs
• Lemon Juice from 1½ lemons 3 Tablespoons (45ml)
• Vanilla Extract 1 teaspoon (5ml)
• Aquafaba ¼ cup (59ml)
• Plant Milk *i used soy milk ¼ cup (59ml)
• All Purpose Flour 1¾ cup (218g)
• Cake Flour ½ cup (60g) *see Notes for Success
• Baking Powder 2 teaspoons
• Salt 1 teaspoon
• Egg Replacer 1 Tablespoon *see notes above

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 375°F
2. Line your cupcake pans with paper liners
3. Place the tofu in a food processor and process smooth~ it will resemble ricotta cheese
4. Combine the aquafaba and the plant milk together in a small bowl, reserve
5. Add the lemon juice, zest and vanilla extract to the tofu ricotta, reserve.
6. Cream the softened vegan butter with the sugar in your electric mixer with a paddle attachment on medium to high speed until light and fluffy. This took about 7 minutes
7. Sift the dry ingredients together including the egg replacer *see notes for success above
8. Add the plant milk/aquafaba mixture to the creamed butter mixture in 3 additions whipping on high in between each addition to emulsify
9. Scrape the bottom & sides of the bowl and then add the sifted dry ingredients all at once, mixing just until combined
10. Add the tofu ricotta mixture next and mix to combine well.
11. Scoop the batter into the lined cupcake molds filling 3/4 way to the top, the batter will be very thick and not pour able~ this is correct.
12. Bake in the preheated oven at 375°F for 10 minutes, then turn the oven temperature down to 325°F to bake the rest of the way
13. Total bake time is approximately 25-30minutes ~ best to check at 20 minutes to gauge time but they are done when you gently press the centers and they are springy OR when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
14. Cool them in the pans and then remove them and cool the rest of the way while you prepare the buttercream and custard recipes.
15. For the lavender buttercream steep the ground lavender flowers in the water for at least 30 minutes and add the wolfberry powder to dissolve
16. Follow the buttercream recipe for your favorite buttercream and at the last stage of mixing add the cooled steeped lavender & wolfberry color *if using~~ otherwise just add a drop or two of violet gel paste color
17. For the lemon custard combine the sugar with the cornstarch and then add that to the water, plant milk & lemon juice along with the zest in a medium sauce pot
18. Over medium heat bring the mixture to a boil whisking constantly
19. Remove from the heat and transfer to a bowl to cool and set
20. Fill the cupcakes with the cooled custard and then ice with lavender buttercream as shown in the video tutorial

Notes

Lemon Ricotta Cupcakes can be made in advance and frozen up to 1 month wrapped well to prevent drying.

Iced & custard filled cupcakes can be kept at room temperature for up to 6 hours, but for longer storage keep refrigerated for up to 1 week wrapped well to prevent drying out.

It is best to serve buttercream iced cupcakes at room temperature, so bring them out at least one hour before serving