Mini Strawberry Lemon Cupcakes

These bite-sized Mini Strawberry Lemon Cupcakes are refreshing and light; perfect for dessert on a warm day.  When you bite into the mini cupcake, you immediately taste sweet strawberries from the preserves; then the subtle citrus flavor of lemon shines through from the cupcake. 

Ingredients:

• 48 Mini Lemon Cupcakes, cooled
• 1 recipe Vanilla Bean Strawberry Preserves, split between the cupcake assembly and the Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream
• 1 recipe Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Take a small paring knife and core each cupcake, creating a hole about 3/8” in diameter and leaving about ¼ of cake on the bottom. 

Fill the center of each cupcake with the Vanilla Bean Strawberry Preserves.  The mini cupcakes will not hold very much of the preserves, so don’t try to stuff a big chunk of strawberry in the center. 

Pipe the Strawberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream on top of each mini cupcake using a pastry bag fitted with a smooth circular tip.  I found that using a star tip with the Strawberry Buttercream does not work very well since chunks of strawberries can get stuck in the ridges of the star tip.  

These cupcakes taste best at room temperature, but should be stored in the refrigerator if you will not be eating them right away.  If you do refrigerate the cupcakes, let the cupcakes sit out at room temperature for about ½ an hour before serving.