Lemon Cupcakes
Here comes the sun, doo doo doo doo… Unless you,…
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Here comes the sun, doo doo doo doo… Unless you, too, are in Scotland. Then you might be blessed with the sun in the morning, but it’s likely you’ll still get rain in the afternoon. That’s not to say that you can’t still embrace some summer baking like these zesty little Lemon Cupcakes!
I remember when Granny used to provide home-baked goods for various local cafes while growing up. She’d make an abundance of shortbread, stacks of scones and thousands of traybakes. These obviously required a whole lot of ingredients, most of which would be bought & stored in bulk. The one ingredient I always remember from those days was the literal buckets of lemon curd. I can’t even remember what baking the lemon curd was actually used for, but I do remember it repulsing me!
I’m not sure what it was about the lemon curd, I think perhaps the sheer volume of it, but for whatever reason, it seemed to trigger a literal gag within me, which is hilarious to look back on, as nowadays I can happily eat the stuff straight from the jar with a spoon! So when I set out to make the perfect Lemon Cupcakes, I knew straight off that they would need to have a lemon curd core.
These Lemon Cupcakes were a labour of love, balancing a lightly flavoured sponge as not to be too much with the curd centre, topping them with a sweet icing with only a slight lemon tang. It took a few attempts to get the combinations just right, but I believe this is it! Best of all, they’re perfect for any Summer event, whatever the weather.
Lemon Cupcakes
PRINT RECIPEINGREDIENTS
For the Cupcakes
- 125 g Soft Margarine (or Butter) (at room temperature)
- 125 g Caster Sugar
- 2 Free-range Eggs (at room temperature; see Egg Size note below)
- 100 g Self-raising Flour (see Self-raising Flour note below)
- ½ tsp Baking Powder
- 2 tbsp Milk
- Zest of One Lemon
- Lemon Curd
For the Icing
- 150 g Block Margarine or Butter (at room temperature)
- 300 g Icing Sugar
- 1-2 tsp Lemon Extract
INSTRUCTIONS
For the Cupcakes
- Pre-heat your oven to 180°c and line a muffin tin with 9 cupcake cases
- Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time and mix until combined. Then add the milk and lemon zest.
- Sift in the flour & baking powder. Mix until you have a smooth batter.
- Using an ice cream scoop, fill your cupcake cases to 2/3 full ensuring the batter is evenly distributed between.
- Bake in oven for around 15 minutes until they’ve risen, are golden on top and a skewer comes out clean.
- Once cool enough to touch, transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- When completely cool, hollow out a small circle from the top of the cupcakes with a sharp knife. Spoon in enough lemon curd to fill.
For the Icing
- In a medium bowl, mix the butter and icing sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the lemon extract to taste. If you prefer a more intense lemon flavour you can also add a little extra lemon zest to the icing.
- Spread or pipe the icing on top of the cupcakes, covering the lemon curd also.
- Sprinkle with a little yellow sugar or some lemon zest to finish.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
All my recipes are developed using a digital scale and the metric system (grams and millilitres). Cup measurements are available as a conversion but these, unfortunately, won’t always be as accurate. For best results, I always recommend baking with a digital scale.
