Wow! That lemon curd is like tasting sunshine! The little buns were light and moist with just a touch of lemon…yum. But the cream, ah the cream, the one blight in this perfect bite. It was sooooo incredibly sweet. Next time I’ll try halving the confectioners sugar and maybe switch out the butter for cream cheese. Mmmm, yes, I’ll definitely try it that way.
You can find the recipe on page 110 of The Great British Bake Off Perfect Cakes & Bakes to Make at Home.
I went ahead and ordered the special pan so my buns could look as cute as the ones in the photo 🙂 When I got the pan I was surprised how small they would be. Like itty bitty little whoopie pies. When I ordered on Amazon there was a note saying only one left in stock. Yeah, yeah, I always figured that was a marketing scare tactic. Maybe in other places, but apparently it was true here…out of stock when Eric ordered, so his buns aren’t as cute as mine. I should probably reword that, but it’s 6 am and I haven’t had enough coffee to really care yet.
Make your curd the day (or more) before, I actually thought to do that and made things much easier on bake day. In case I didn’t make it clear before, this stuff is wonderful! Tart and creamy and well…lemony. Now that I know how easy it is to make, it may become a staple in my fridge…oooo, I bet orange curd would be good too. What will I do with all this curd you ask? Well, I happened to buy some Biscoff biscuits at costco and I dipped them in the curd. Oh my, the creamy tart curd together with the crisp sweet cinnamony biscuits was a flavor sensation. Two with a cup of tea at night and I’m feeling right British, I am.
Straight forward bake, the only new item I encountered was the cardamom pods. I’m not sure why I bought them, but I’ve had a bottle of them in my cupboard for a couple years. I know, I know, but it’s a dried spice, I don’t think it goes bad, just looses flavor as it ages. I added a little extra because of that. You have to break open the pods and take out the seeds which have a very pleasant aroma…a touch lemony, but something else too…cardamom I suppose :). A lot of folding going on with the batter, I don’t always do well with folding. Sometimes I don’t quite get it all together because I’m afraid I’ll stir too hard and everything will deflate. But this came together wonderfully, and all my pretty little cakes slid right out of the pan.
Folding 
…and more folding 
…folding in something else 
…folding in the final item 
Finished batter…light and fluffy
Then on to that cream, where I had issues from the start. I could not get the 2 cups of powdered sugar and 4 T of butter “very fluffy”. It looked more like blobs of play doh, the more I whisked it, the bigger the blobs, so I added water, a spoonful at a time until it was fluffy. Then I had to sacrifice some of my curd. The recipe calls for adding 4 tablespoons. Eric had already warned me that he had added 5 and wished he had added more, so I went with 7. But it didn’t help, the sweetness still made my teeth hurt. So for my second one I spread a little curd on one bun, and a very little cream on the other bun before I sandwiched them….that was much more balanced, the cream and curd played greatly off each other.
Into the oven 
So cute and tiny 
Mine were half globes 
The pan Eric got was more like a muffin top pan
Finally, my product looked exactly like it should! Middle picture below has the cookbook page in the background. Eric was pretty quiet on this bake, but he did say it was an easy bake, very tasty and he’s making the curd again. He looooves lemon desserts so very happy this one turned out for us. See ya next month!
