‘Tis nearly spring!! The grass is sprung, the grass is riz! Well, almost. The snowdrops are looking spectacular so the seasons are definitely on the move. This week’s recipe makes lovely lemony cupcakes. Partly also because my husband loves lemon cakes and he had a special birthday on Valentines Day. (This also scores me serious points with Graham Howie 😉). It’s been years since I made cupcakes and I really enjoyed the simplicity of them. Again, I looked at a lot of recipes and this one seemed the easiest. Simply putting everything in a bowl and whisking. I have a guard for putting on my hand whisk, it goes on top of the bowl while allowing the mixers in. I have had it for years and it is brilliant at keeping the mess in the bowl. I strongly recommend getting one. When it comes to decorating you can get fancy fancy if that’s what you like (or the kids). Pipe on the buttercream, drizzle with lemon curd, sprinkle to your heart’s content. Or just dollop on the buttercream with a spatula and eat.
Lemon Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 125 g soft butter
- 125 g self-raising flour
- 125 g caster sugar
- 2 tbsp. milk
- 2 large eggs
- Finely grated zest of 1 small lemon
- Icing
- 125 g soft unsalted butter
- 250 g icing sugar, sifted
- Juice of 1 small lemon.
- Deep 12-hole muffin tin and 12 paper cases
- Edible silver balls, glitter or sprinkles to decorate
Method
- Line the muffin tin with the paper cases. Pre heat the oven to 180c. Put all the cake ingredients into a bowl, and beat with an electric whisk until evenly combined and smooth. Put a scoop of batter in each paper case. Place in 180C oven for 20 mins until pale golden. Cool.
- Make the icing – place all the ingredients into a bowl, and beat with an electric whisk until evenly combined and smooth. Beat until light and fluffy.
- Spread the icing over the cold cup cakes, and decorate with silver balls, glitter or sprinkles.
Based on a Recipe by Mary Berry
Photo by M Campbell