Not-Sour Grapes

Grapefruit cupcakes were something that I have been trying to invent for awhile. It's almost impossible to find a recipe for a grapefruit cake or cupcakes on line, and the ones you find are usually pretty scary (there is one from Disney that is pink and bright yellow - yikes). The tricky thing is getting the flavor right, the right balance of tart and sweet.

I started with a vanilla cupcake base, which I filled with a grapefruit curd, which is delicous all by itself.

Citrus Curd from MarthaStewart.com

4 large egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
5 tablespoons freshly squeezed citrus juice, strained
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
7 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons powdered sugar

1. Whisk together egg yolks, sugar, and citrus juice in a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture coats the back of a spoon, about 4 minutes.
2. Transfer to a small bowl. Stir in butter, piece by piece. Cover with plastic wrap, and cool in the refrigerator.
3. Whip together cream and powdered sugar until stiff peaks form.
4. Fold cream into the chilled curd.

To make the Grapefruit frosting, I knew that adding grapefruit juice to my Cream Cheese frosting was not going to be enough. Luckily, I found a tiny bottle of grapefruit oil at Sugar & Spice, and that did the trick. To get the icing color just right (I was going for a ballet pink), I added a natural pink food coloring from Whole Foods, and it was lovely. To top them off, I chopped up grapefruit jelly candies from Shaw's Candy in West Portal. They came out very well, and the frosting was so pretty!