Apple Cider Cupcakes filled with Fuyu Persimmon Curd and frosted with Fuyu Persimmon Swiss Meringue Buttercream

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Willowbird Baking Challenge #4. Filled cupcakes with a "Fall" Theme

Apple Cider. Persmimmons. Yup just add in pumpkin and thats a trifecta of fall flavors. I love the word trifecta. Yes I am a dork. And these don't have pumpkin in them. I took a break from pumpkin. For maybe a day.

 I couldn't have picked a more hectic week to do a more involved than normal cupcake. Last weekend I participated in a fitness and health workshop that a good friend of mine put on and she asked me to be there for moral support etc. WOW What a weekend. Inspiration and Perspiration was the name of it and not only did we get in some great workouts, but we learned a lot about each other, and life, and being happy finding our meaning and purpose. Definitely inspiring, makes me want to make this little blog a success even more now.

Then from Monday-Wednesday I was in an online conference called, OnlineBlogCon.com. All about food blogging from getting started with a blog, how to make pin worthy pictures, to utilizing social media and working with advertisers. I learned SO MUCH my head is spinning. So here I am inspired and a little sore from my workouts and incredibly motivated to make this blog awesome. Just you wait and see.

Ok. Back to the challenge. Julie had this week be a filled cupcake and wanted fall themed. Well I had seen persimmons at our farmers market the week before so we picked some up this week. We also took our kids to a local orchard, I know right? And apple orchard in Vegas? But there is one here, there actually are several, and we went apple picking, got a bunch of veggies actually and some apple cider. So I knew I wanted to make a cupcake with persimmon curd filling, but I wanted more than just a vanilla cake. So I decided on an apple cider cupcake. And persimmon buttercream of course.

I use an apple corer for cutting out the middle of the cupcake instead of a piping bag with a tip and shoving into the cupcake because I have totally used too much pressure and blown out the bottom of cupcakes before. Oops

So good. I love filled cupcakes. Its like a secret middle since one doesn't normally expect a cupcake to have a filling

The curd makes for a really good filling, not too sweet and the apple and persimmon flavors really complement each other well.

Apple Cider Cupcakes filled with Fuyu Persimmon Curd and frosted with Fuyu Persimmon Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Yield: 16 cupcakes

Prep time 45 min (and up to one day for chilling the curd)

Bake time 15 min

Total time plus cooling and assembly: 90 min (and up to one day for curd)

Ingredients for Curd

2 Fuyu Persimmons, washed, stem and leaves cut off, quartered

1 tsp. lemon zest

2 tbsp. lemon juice

3 egg yolks

1 whole egg

1/2c plus 2 tbsp. sugar

¼ tsp. salt

4 tbsp. cold butter, cubed

Ingredients for cupcakes

1 ¾ c all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. apple pie spice

½ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. salt

1 stick butter, melted and cooled

¾ c sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

2 large eggs (room temp)

¼ c apple sauce

1 c fresh apple cider, room temp

Ingredients for buttercream

4 egg whites

¾ cup granulated sugar

3 sticks butter

1/4 c persimmon puree (leftover from the puree made for the curd)

¼ c persimmon curd

Directions for Curd

Puree the persimmons with the lemon zest and juice until smooth. Set aside ¼ c for the buttercream.  Pour in to a medium saucepan, set aside

In the top pot of a double boiler or in a bowl set over, but not touching, a pan of simmering water, whisk together the egg yolks, whole egg, sugar and salt. Whisk until thickened and smooth, about 5-6 min. Remove from heat and stir into the saucepan with the persimmon puree. Place pan on stove and heat on medium, stirring until thickened about 4-5min. Slowly add in the cold butter cubes and stir again another 4 min. Remove from heat. Pour into a glass bowl and press plastic wrap down on the top of the curd. Refrigerate until cold and set. Chilling overnight is best

Directions for the cupcakes:                                                                                                 

Preheat oven to 350. Line standard muffin pans with paper liners.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt and spices in a small bowl, whisk and set aside. In bowl of a stand mixer combine sugar and melted butter; add in eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the apple sauce and vanilla and mix again, scraping down sides if needed. Alternate adding in the flour and apple cider beginning and ending with the flour. Once all is combined mix another 30 seconds. Don’t over mix. Divide batter amongst the muffin tins, filling each up about 2/3-3/34 of the way full. Bake for 15 min or until a toothpick comes out clean, or the tops bounce back when pressed down lightly.  Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, cool completely on a wire rack

Directions for the buttercream:

Set a pan of water on the stove and heat to a simmer. In a bowl of a stand mixer combine the egg whites, sugar and salt and whisk over simmering water until the mixture reaches 160 deg f. Once it reaches 160 deg f immediately remove from heat and set bowl back on stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment slowly raise the speed to high and beat until the bowl is cool to the touch and the mixture is thick and white ( think marshmallow fluff). You can either keep the whisk attachment on or switch to the paddle at this point. On medium speed add the butter in one tbsp. at a time until it’s all the butter is in, the frosting may look soupy but don’t worry it will come together.  Slowly raise the speed back up to high and whip until it thickens and you hear and see a difference in texture.  Scrape down the sides as necessary. Add in the persimmon puree and curd and mix on low until it’s all mixed in, if it gets soupy looking again just mix on medium high to get it back to the right texture.

Assembly of Cupcakes:

Use an apple corer to take out a piece of the cupcake then fill with about a tablespoon of curd.  Instead of the apple corer method, using a piping bag and a long piping tip and injecting the cupcakes with the filling is fine. I have blown out through the bottom of cupcakes before doing it that way. So either way is fine. Just be careful not to use too much pressure. When I use the apple core technique I replace back a small bit of the core I took out on top of the filling so it’s easier to frost.

Once they are all filled, frost the tops with a big swirl of buttercream and drizzle more puree on top. I used a basic pastry bag and a 1M open star tip. Any bag or piping tip would work, or you can just use a spatula.

These are best eaten at room temp, if chilled set out until they are room temp before serving. 

 Persimmon Curd from The San Francisco Examiner. The rest of the recipes are Pineapple and Coconut originals or adapted from recipes I already have created.