Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 130g (4 1/2oz) self-raising flour
- 130g (4 1/2oz) caster sugar
- 130g (4 1/2oz) butter or margarine
- 2.5ml (1/2 tsp) baking powder
- 2 large eggs
- 1-2 fresh lemons
- 125g (4 1/2oz) unsalted butter
- 250g (9oz) icing sugar
- Lemon curd
- Candied peel (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 175°C/350°F/gas mark 4 and place appropriate number of muffin cases in a muffin tray.
- Measure out butter and sugar into same bowl and cream together until well mixed and turns lighter in colour.
- Measure out flour into a separate bowl and add the baking powder. Gently stir together.
- Add 1 egg to the creamed butter and sugar along with a tablespoon of the flour and mix well. Repeat this part of the process 1 egg at a time to give a lighter mix.
- Grate the outside of the lemon with a zester and squeeze approximately 10ml (2 tsp) of juice from the lemon.
- Gently fold in the remaining flour, zest and lemon juice.
- Scoop mixture into cupcake cases, about half full. An ice cream scoop is very handy for doing this.
- Place the mixture in the oven for approximately 15-20 minutes. Check after 15 minutes to see if cooked. Cakes will be cooked when they are springy and return to shape when lightly pressed on top.
- Leave cakes to cool on a wire rack.
- For the butter icing soften the butter.
- Carefully add icing sugar to avoid clouds of icing dust.
- Mix until fully incorporated and butter icing becomes whiter. You can do this by hand but a mixer makes it much easier – just keep the mixer on a slow speed.
- Optional, add a little lemon essence or fresh squeezed lemon juice to the mixture to give it an extra “zing”.
- Make little wells in the top of each cupcake using an apple corer and fill with lemon curd.
- Using a large star nozzle, pipe swirls of butter icing onto the cakes.
- Decorate with drizzles of lemon curd, sugar crystal sprinkles and some candied peel.
Notes
- The temperature varies in each oven so you may need to make your oven slightly hotter or cooler when preheating.
- When make smaller batches of cupcakes, it’s better to mix smaller mixes by hand, but for larger quantities a food mixer is easier to use.
- If you’d like to soften butter, it works well to microwave it in 10 second bursts, checking each time to see if butter is softening.
- Add more zest if you want a really lemony flavour.
- Wondering what to have for dinner? Why not try this Marinated pork fillet with thyme recipe?
- Prep Time: 60 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 serving
- Calories: 276
- Sugar: 34.1 g
- Sodium: 90 mg
- Fat: 10.4 g
- Saturated Fat: 6.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 45.2 g
- Protein: 2.5 g
- Cholesterol: 58 mg