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 baking for various local cafes whilst 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 these 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 the 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 to not 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
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes
- 125 g Butter at room temperature
- 125 g Caster Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 100 g Self Raising Flour
- ½ tsp Baking Powder
- 2 tsbp Whole Milk
- Zest of One Lemon
- Lemon Curd
For the Icing
- 150 g 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.
What’s your favourite fruity cupcake?
Oooh these look lovely! Lemon just works so well in sponges, its one of my favourites!
I totally agree – I’m a big fan of Lemon Drizzle also!
Before I go, I want to share these cupcakes with you. I chose this recipe because these little cakes seem so sunny and cheerful to me and I could use the extra cheer right now.
These lemon cupcakes would be ideal for a bake sale, and they have just the right about of lemon icing. Simply delicious. Commenting as BritMums Baking Round-up Editor.
Hi Amy, I do sometimes drop a blob of lemon curd into the centre of the batter before baking cupcakes, but this way seems better. Will give it a go.
xx