Lemon chiffon cupcakes filled with creamy lemon curd, these tender mini cakes pop with flavor! A shiny yellow honey-sweetened custard pokes out of each center –that means oodles of lemony citrus magic!
These lemon cupcakes have a wholesome quality and subtle rustic sweetness because they’re made with whole wheat flower and honey.
Click here to PIN Honey Lemon Chiffon Cupcakes!
For light chiffon cakes, this recipe calls for flavorless avocado oil. If you like, and I strongly encourage, give your cupcakes a lovely mysterious fragrance using lemon-infused olive oil in place of the usual chiffon cake vegetable oil. This lemon-infused olive oil from Texas Hill Country looks fabulous.
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You want to make the Honey Lemon Curd first. It’s an easy recipe made in a double boiler–simply lemon juice and zest, butter, egg yolks and honey. You can make the curd well ahead–it even freezes well.
When the cupcakes are out of the oven and have cooled to room temp, you scoop some of the cake out of the center and fill with the lemon curd! If you wish, sprinkle confectioners’ (powdered) sugar through a fine sieve to lightly dust the tops.
Chiffon cakes are different than other cakes in that they’re made with oil instead of butter. Also, like in these chiffon cupcakes, the eggs are separated into yolks and whites.
For chiffon cakes, the whites are whipped to soft peaks. The whipped egg whites lighten the batter and help it rise. The egg yolks and the vegetable oil make chiffon cakes both tender and moist.
This recipe uses white whole-wheat flour and a small percentage of arrowroot starch. Arrowroot starch, aka arrowroot flour, is there to lighten the whole wheat flour, and so gives these cupcakes a lighter texture. Instead of the whole wheat and arrowroot mixture, you can substitute 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of cake flour.
White arrowroot starch/flour is made from a tropical root plant. It’s completely tasteless, gluten-free, easy to digest, and works very well in baked goods, like in these honey lemon cupcakes. You can substitute arrowroot for cornstarch in recipes. When used to thicken sauces, arrowroot starch becomes clear.
Lemon Honey Chiffon Cupcakes recipe details:
- You will have egg whites leftover from making the lemon curd. These chiffon cupcakes call for 2 yolks and 3 whites, so you’ll need one of those whites. (I always freeze unused egg whites, to use later in chiffon cupcakes, meringues or as a glaze. Let thaw before using them. You can figure that two tablespoons of egg whites roughly equals 1 egg white.)
- An easy tool for cutting out the holes for lemon curd, is the clever cute push-button strawberry huller. (Affiliate link.) The huller neatly and quickly removes the perfect amount of cake. A curved serrated grapefruit knife works well too.
- The easiest way to fill the centers of the cupcakes is with a pastry bag. (Affiliate link.) You can also drop the lemon curd in using a spoon.
My Mom used to bake an easy lemon chiffon cake that she didn’t have to frost. As soon as the cake came out of the oven, she’d poke a skewer all over, creating holes for the lemon sugar glaze soak. Mom used cake mix from a box, because cake mix is a busy woman’s friend. She would have loved these made from scratch lemon honey chiffon cupcakes.
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Lemon Honey Chiffon Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup white whole wheat flour
- ¼ cup arrowroot or cornstarch (see note)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ⅜ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ¼ cup avocado oil or lemon olive oil
- ½ cup honey
- 2 egg yolks , set aside the egg whites to whip
- Zest of 2 lemons (about 1 tablespoon)
- 3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 5 tablespoons water
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 egg whites (see note)
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- 24 tablespoons Honey Lemon Curd
- Powdered sugar , if desired (see note)
Instructions
- Line 12 to 14 muffin cups with paper liners. Preheat oven to 350° F.
- Sift the flour, arrowroot starch, baking powder and salt into a large bowl.
- In another bowl, whisk the oil, honey, egg yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, water, and vanilla.
- Add to the flour mixture and whisk until smooth.
- In a large bowl of a heavy duty mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the whites on medium speed until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue whipping until the whites form soft peaks. To prevent overwhipping, remove from the mixer and finish whipping by hand. Resist the urge to whip just a little more–you don't want the beaten egg whites to get stiff and dry.
- Stir about 1/3 of the whipped whites into the batter to lighten it. Gently fold in the remaining whites. Divide into lined muffin tins.
- Bake until the cupcakes are light golden and the tops spring back when gently pressed with a finger, 15-20 minutes. Cool.
- Cut a small hole out of the top of each cupcake and remove a piece of the cake. Fill the hole with lemon curd.
Notes
- Make Honey Lemon Curd first. The curd recipe uses 3 egg yolks, simply refrigerate or freeze the unused egg whites until you need them for these cupcakes. If the whites are frozen, let thaw. (2 tablespoons of egg whites roughly equals 1 egg white.)
- Arrowroot lightens the whole wheat flour, and gives these cupcakes a lighter texture.
- If you wish, sprinkle confectioners’ (powdered) sugar lightly over the cupcakes using a fine sieve.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. The numbers will vary based on the quantity consumed, brands used and any substitutions. Numbers here do not include the lemon curd filling.
*** This recipe is an edit update of one I posted back in May 2015.
Yum! I love anything lemon and sweet together. Now I wish I had one of those for breakfast… · 5 May, 2015
Whole wheat, honey, eggs, lemon curd and olive oil sound like breakfast to me! · 5 May, 2015
Your photos keep getting better and better! Yummm! · 5 May, 2015
Sweet story and delicious looking! · 5 May, 2015
That curd is so much nicer than frosting. GREG · 6 May, 2015
My mom loved lemon too. She probably even made the cake your mom loved. I’m so glad I got to eat one of these luscious lemon cupcakes. They were scrumptious! · 8 May, 2015
Our Family Home had a big yard and we had one or two of every kind of fruit tree. The prolific Lemon tree was first outside the entrance to the cellar, precursor to Mom’s dwarf Lemon · 18 May, 2015
mmm. Think I’ll make these for Easter. · 10 April, 2022
The recipe for Lemon Honey Chiffon Cupcakes is a nice read and I will cook it shortly. But for cupcake baking, I wish to try ghee butter instead of olive oil. Ghee offers a higher smoke point and it is more flavorful than olive oil. will ghee be the right choice, friends? Please let me know.
https://milkio.co.nz/ghee-butter/ · 11 June, 2022