The first things that I will say about this project is that it is time consuming, somewhat frustrating and at some point, you will be asking yourself why the heck you are doing it. But then the presentation wins out because they are very pretty. And tasty. Here is the deal … and I am mentioning this right away so you can plan for it … first you need to painstakingly poke holes and drain a dozen eggs of their content. This took me an hour (even though I have done this before and thus have “had practice”). Then you have to “wash” the insides of the eggs by soaking them in water and wiping them and shaking them somewhat dry. Once you’ve done all that, the actual making of the cake batter and filling them with a piping bag, and then baking seems minor. At any rate, it seemed like it was an all day affair. Was it worth it? Yeah, the “cupcakes” (which you can also just make regular cupcakes out of, of course) were yummy, the presentation is fun and I like them. So there.
Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoons table salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened but slightly cool, cut into 12 pieces
3 large eggs
3/4 cups milk
2 tablespoon lemon zest
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon extract
1/2 teaspoon very finely chopped rosemary
You will also need:
12-16 empty egg shells, reserve yolks/whites for another recipe (include the 3 eggs in the recipe)
Vegetable oil
a small funnel
Directions
Prepare egg shells by carefully poking a small hole in bottom of each egg using a corkscrew, nail or large needle. Open the hole up so the tip of a piping bag can be inserted. Insert a wooden skewer to break up the yolk, then shake out the contents into a bowl (collect 3 separately to use in the recipe).
When egg shells are all emptied, rinse them well and place them in a large container of salt water (hold them under to fill them with water so they sink). Soak about 30 minutes, then rinse and turn upside down on paper toweling to drain. Using a funnel, put about 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil in each shell. Gently shake to distribute and turn upside down to drain any excess. Set aside to make batter.
Preheat oven to 350F.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar on low speed. Add the butter, 1 piece at a time, and combine until the mixture resembles coarse sand. Add the eggs, 1 at time, and mix until fully combined. Add the milk, the lemon extract, the lemon zest and the rosemary, increase the speed to medium, and mix until the batter is light, fluffy and free of lumps.
Place eggs, hole side up, in mini muffin tin, using aluminum foil nests to keep upright. Put batter into a piping bag fit with a small round tip. Fill the eggs about 2/3 full with batter. Gently clean any batter off of shells with a damp cloth. Bake about 35-38 minutes. Remove any overflow when cakes are still warm and wipe with damp cloth.
(Don’t worry if this happens. Cake batter has to expand while baking, so better that it comes out of the hole at the top than to crack the eggs. Just scrape it off when you take it out of the oven.
Cool, remove top of shell or all of shell to serve. Decorate, if you like, with non-toxic paints, or leave plain for a more subtle look.
