Lemon Lavender Cupcakes

Oh no! Not tofu in baking!

Stick with me while I prove that adding vegan tofu ricotta to these Lemon Lavender Cupcakes is life changing!
Moist, spongy & firm yet so soft and 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!

WATCH HOW TO MAKE THESE LEMON RICOTTA CUPCAKES!

Notes for Success:

Firm tofu but not pressed, 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 use 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
Quite honestly you can get away with no egg replacer at all in this recipe!

Aquafaba for a portion of the liquid ingredients here is also 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

Lemon Ricotta Cupcakes

Tofu ricotta is the secret to super moist, spongy cupcakes! Perfect firm texture for stuffing these little cuppies with lemon custard!

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Prep Time 45 minutes mins

Cook Time 25 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Servings 15

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

for the icing

• 1 Recipe Your Favorite Buttercream
• Lavender food color

For the Lemon Custard:

• ½ cup Plant Milk 118ml
• ⅓ cup Water 78ml
• ¼ cup Lemon Juice 59ml
• ⅓ cup Sugar 67g
• 2½ Tbs Cornstarch 20g
• 11 teaspoon Lemon Zest

For the Cake Recipe:

• 8 Tbs Vegan Butter 8 Tablespoons 113g
• 1 cup Vegan Sugar 1 cup 200g
• 1 cup Tofu Ricotta half package = 1 cup after processing
• 1 Tbs Lemon Zest
• 3 Tbs Lemon Juice 45ml
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract 5ml
• ¼ cup Aquafaba 59ml
• ¼ cup Plant Milk 59ml
• 1¾ cup All Purpose Flour 218g
• ½ cup Cake Flour 60g
• 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1 Tbs Egg Replacer

Instructions

 

• Preheat your oven to 375°F Line your cupcake pans with paper liners
• Place half package (7oz) tofu in a food processor & process smooth~ it will resemble ricotta cheese
• Combine the aquafaba & the plant milk together in a small bowl, reserve
• Add the lemon juice, zest & vanilla extract to the tofu ricotta, reserve.
• Cream the softened vegan butter with the sugar in your electric mixer with a paddle attachment on medium to high speed until light & fluffy. This took about 7 minutes
• Sift the dry ingredients together including the egg replacer
• Now add the plant milk/aquafaba mixture slowly to the creaming butter mixture on low speed until it is all incorporated then increase the speed to high to emulsify for 10 seconds
• Add the sifted dry ingredients all at once, mixing just until combined
• Add the tofu ricotta mixture next & mix to combine well.
• Scoop the batter into the lined cupcake molds filling 3/4 way to the top, the batter will be very thick & not pour able~ this is correct.
• 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. Total bake time is approximately 25-30 min ~ best to check at 20 min to gauge time but they are done when you gently press the centers & they are springy OR when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
• Cool them in the pans then remove them and cool the rest of the way while you prepare the buttercream & custard recipes.
• Follow the buttercream recipe for your favorite buttercream and at the last stage of mixing add a drop or two of violet gel paste color
• For the lemon custard combine the sugar with the cornstarch & then add that to the water, plant milk & lemon juice along with the zest in a medium sauce pot
• Over medium heat bring the mixture to a boil whisking constantly. Let it boil for about 5 seconds to activate the cornstarch then remove from the heat & transfer to a bowl to cool and set
• Fill the cupcakes with the cooled custard then ice with lavender buttercream as shown in the video tutorial

Video

Notes

Be sure to read all the notes for success section above the recipe 

Storage Lemon Ricotta Cupcakes can be kept at room temperature for up to 4 hours, but for longer storage keep refrigerated for up to 1 week wrapped well to prevent drying out.

 

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!