I seem to be posting a lot of baking posts at the moment. I think it’s something to do with how busy and stressful my schedule has been recently; I’ve been trying to do things that I know actively reduce my stress levels and help me relax…so I’ve been baking (and desperately trying not to eat everything I bake too, for the sake of my waistline!)
It’s become a bit of a regular thing, that when we visit M’s Parents, I take things I’ve baked. I’m pretty sure this has come from the first time I met them – I so wanted to make a good impression so I made a batch of my Chocolate Chip Cookies and since then, I rarely turn up at their door without a plate of brownies, flapjacks, fudge or something else that I’ve whipped up.
Anyway, we were up visiting a couple of weeks ago and I had a day off before we headed up so I decided to whip up a batch of cupcakes to take up with us. M absolutely loves anything lemon flavoured and so as I hadn’t made lemon cake in a while I decided to whip up these lemon cupcakes as a bit of a recipe experiment (I used my normal sponge recipe and then added lemon juice and lemon zest until I felt that the flavours were right…) and it worked really well so I thought I’d share it on here!
As the cake and the icing are both lemon-y this might be a bit too much lemon for some people – it might be worth trying them with a normal buttercream icing if you think it might be too much – that said, M and his parents didn’t think it was too much lemon at all…!
Makes: 28 cupcakes
What You Need:
For The Cupcakes
- Cupcake baking trays
- Cupcake cases
- Large Mixing Bowl
- 9oz Butter (Room-temperature or softened slightly in the microwave)
- 9oz Caster Sugar
- 5 Eggs
- 9oz Self-Raising Flour
- 3 Tbsp Lemon Juice OR The Juice of 3 Small-Medium Lemons
- The Zest of 3 Small-Medium Lemons
For The Icing
- Large mixing bowl
- 500g Icing Sugar
- 250g Butter (Room-temperature or softened slightly in the microwave)
- 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice OR The Juice of 2 Small-Medium Lemons
- The Zest of 2 Small-Medium Lemons
- Sprinkles/Hundreds-and-Thousands/Candied Lemon Zest – your choice of decoration!
How To Do It:
- Preheat the oven to 200’C.
- Line the cupcake trays with the cupcake cases.
- Cream the Butter and Sugar together until smooth and light.
- Add the Eggs and mix well. If there is signs of curdling, add a little of the flour and continue to mix.
- Sift in the Self-Raising Flour and mix thoroughly until all combined.
- Add the Lemon Juice and Lemon Zest and stir through.
- Spoon the mix into the cupcake cases. I tend to put quite a bit into each case – at least 1.5tbsp in each – but you could put slightly less and spread the mix to make a few extra cupcakes…I like mine to rise and fill the whole cupcake case.
- Bake in the oven for 15-20 mins or until golden brown.
- While the cupcakes are in the oven, make the icing by putting the butter in a large mixing bowl and gradually adding the icing sugar until it is all mixed through.
- Add the lemon juice and lemon zest and mix until completely combined.
- Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before icing. Either spread the icing with a knife and spoon or ice using an icing bag. Top with sprinkles, hundreds-and-thousands or even some candied lemon zest.
- Enjoy!
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