Lemon cupcakes, full fat goodness.

Okay resolutions over, bring back the butter! hehehe Well in general I've still been keeping up my resolution with going to the gym and Zumba classes so I figure that's enough to deserve to go back to full fat baking. Well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

I'm constantly thinking of ideas for cakes I want to bake on websites, books or just as I think of them but the problem I always have is that there are so many things that when it comes to bake I can never remember anything I intended to bake. I've solved that problem with the help of my mum who bought me the cutest whiteboard edged with cupcakes, so now that is hung up in the kitchen with a rather large list of cakes written on it so now I feel organised as when I see a wonderful post on someones blog (and there are so many) or have an idea of what to make I can write it right there on a board in the kitchen to remind myself, I love it, perfect for a scatterbrain like me.

So this week I wanted to make something different and one of the many things written on my board but well, I didn't get round to it, oops. But I did have a very good reason. It was my boyfriends Nana's birthday and he had requested I make her a lemon drizzle cake and my mum also requested I make some cupcakes to cheer up my sick grandma so I stuck to lemon cupcakes as I knew she would like them.  So nothing to different this week, but the lemon cupcakes were yummy so that's good enough for me! and here they are:

 This is a similar recipe to the lemon meringue cupcakes I made a while back but without the liquid centre.

And here's how they're made:
Makes 12:

120g Plain flour
150g Caster sugar
1 1/2 tsps Baking powder
zest of 1 1/2 Lemons
40g unsalted butter at room temperature.
good squeeze of fresh lemon juice
120ml whole milk
1 egg

For the frosting:
250g Icing sugar
80g Butter
2 tablespoons of Lemon zest
25ml whole milk
Couple of drops of Yellow food colouring (optional)

Pre heat oven to 170 deg C. Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, lemon zest and butter into a bowl and beat together until everything is combined and you have a sandy consistency.  Gradually add the milk and beat until just combined. Add the egg and a good squeeze of lemon juice and beat until combined.

Spoon the mixture into cases until 2/3 full and bake for 20 - 25 minutes. leave to cool whilst you make the icing.

Beat together the icing sugar, butter lemon zest and food colouring, then slowly beat in the milk until you have the correct consistency and the icing is light and fluffy. Pipe or spread over cooled cakes. You can then decorate with a few shavings of lemon zest.

I decided to make little sugar flowers to decorate mine and I did this by rolling out some ready to roll icing I coloured then cutting out 5 small oval shapes then pinching the ends to make the petals then making a small ball for the middle of the flower.

Also I didn't but if you like, scooping out a little of the baked cakes and replacing with a dollop of lemon curd makes the cakes just that little more tangy.

And that's it for this week. No off to consult my whiteboard to decide what to bake next.