Auntie J's Mini Cupcakes

This weekend D and I were invited to dinner with Auntie J and a few of his old buddies.  Auntie J is like a second mom to D, and she always has a feast prepared for us whenever we can make it out to her place.  In the past I'd bring a simple salad, but I wanted to bring something really yummy to share with everyone, and since Acme's cupcakes were a hit, I decided to make mini versions.

Unfortunately, after work and running all my errands I didn't have much time; I was left with only 1 1/2 hours to make the cupcakes and 2 batches of meringue buttercream!  I cheated and used a box mix for the cupcakes.  While they were cooling, I made my first batch of buttercream, but I think with the heat and humidity of that day, the buttercream never quite fluffed up.  I was so disappointed since the previous attempts came out so wonderfully.  I was starting to get stressed.  

After whipping the cream for more than 30 minutes, I felt that my Kitchen Aid mixer was about to die, so I threw the whole bowl of buttercream into the fridge.  I decided to skip the chocolate buttercream and only make the lemon.  I made the candied lemons but burnt them while I was dealing with the buttercream.  This was not my day.  I knew I should have stuck with a salad.  I was tempted to just chuck the whole thing, but I still had maybe 15 minutes and about 60 mini cupcakes begging me for frosting (and smelling oh so good - I realized I hadn't eaten anything the entire day).

I pulled out the buttercream from the fridge and whipped it a little bit more.  It helped, but I didn't have time to beat it for another 15 minutes.  It had to do as is, so I spooned some into a piping bag, and tested it on one of the "ugly" cupcakes and tasted it.  WOW, it was SO GOOD!!  I ate about 5 more after that.  :-)  Okay, back to the cupcakes, I spooned a little bit of lemon curd on each cupcake then swirled on the buttercream.  

I searched in my baking cupboard and in the fridge for something to decorate the cupcakes with...  Should I use sprinkles... no... fresh lemon slices... nah... oh, there is a basket of strawberries and a basket of raspberries.  It was an easy choice, the combination of raspberries and lemon is like peanut butter and jelly.   

I took 24 mini cupcakes to Auntie J's.  Dinner was awesome, the company was great, and the cupcakes were all gone at the end of the night.