Tuesday 18 January 2011

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. 

13 comments:

Zoe said...

These cupcakes are so nicely crafted. Your boyfriend's Nana must be impressed.

From Beyond My Kitchen Window said...

Those are adorable. What I enjoy about cupcakes are their size. You can't over eat unless you have more than one.

Chele said...

They look fab! I baked some mini cupcakes yesterday but used low fat marg instead of butter, the difference in taste is crazy! I'm with you, butter all the way ;0)

Ocean Breezes and Country Sneezes said...

What a winning combination, lemon cupcakes! How nice of you to make them for your boyfriends nana and your grandma! I think the girls deserve real cupcakes!

Unknown said...

Such sweet cupcakes, I bet they loved them. x

Anonymous said...

Just found all your wonderful baked goods here. The pear and mincemeat crumble cake sounds delicious!

Brownieville Girl said...

I haven't had a lemon cake in ages - must give these a go!

Hope your grandmother feels better very soon.

cupcakegirl said...

Thanks everyone, and grandmas getting better, i like to think the cupcakes help.

Lisa said...

What pretty little cupcakes. I love lemony treats. I have a new linky on my blog called "Sweets for a Saturday" and I'd like to invite you to stop by and link this up. http://sweet-as-sugar-cookies.blogspot.com/2011/01/sweets-for-saturday-1_21.html

Smitten with my kitchen said...

You have a very cute blog!! Thanks for telling me about it. I'm already making my list of recipes to try.

The print button addition was really easy. I just used this site: http://www.printfriendly.com/ Easy as Pie!

cupcakegirl said...

Thank you smitten I will try to install that soon

Amy said...

Your cupcakes are cute and beautiful! So lovely.

I'm having the very first GIVEAWAY on my blog. Please stop by to submit an entry. Good Luck.
http://utry.it/2011/01/happy-birthday-to-meand-very-first.html

Lisa said...

Thank you so much for coming by and linking this up to Sweets for a Saturday. I truly appreciate your support. Hope that you'll be able to join in again next week. By then, I'll have a cute button that you can grab and add to your post.