Hello! Long time no speak. I have now officially finished my exams and also my first year of University which, literally just flew by and I can't actually believe it's already over! I am so happy to be home now though and can't wait to spend my summer at home in Cornwall with my family. As lovely as Liverpool is, Cornwall is home and there is no place I'd rather be, especially in the summer when you can spend your days lying on the beach and munching on clotted cream and jam scones! Lovely.
I don't think there is anything more summery, refreshing and delicious than a lemon cake and last weekend I decided to embrace the gorgeous weather we were having and bake some yummy, zesty lemon cupcakes. I really love this recipe; the lemon and poppy seed cupcakes are so moist and soft, the lemon curd is zesty and delicious (thanks very much Delia!) and this lemon curd frosting, oh this lemon curd frosting is so sweet and velvety. If you decide to give these a go I really hope you enjoy them and let me know what you think!
Recipe
For the Lemon and Poppy seed Cupcakes:
225g self-raising flour
175g golden caster sugar
zest of 2 lemons
1 tbsp. poppy seeds
3 eggs
100g natural yoghurt
175g unsalted butter,melted and cooled a little
For the Lemon Curd:
Grated zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 2 lemons
2 eggs
90g golden caster sugar
55g butter
For the Lemon Curd Frosting:
250g icing sugar
80g butter
50g lemon curd
To decorate- Crushed lemon sherbet sweets, grind in a food processor or crush with a rolling pin
Method
- Heat oven to 180°C/ 160°C fan and line a 12-hole muffin tin with muffin cases.
- Mix the flour, sugar, lemon zest and poppy seeds together in a large mixing bowl. Beat the eggs into the yogurt, then tip this into the dry ingredients with the melted butter. Mix together with a wooden spoon or whisk until lump-free, then divide mixture between the cases.
- Bake the cupcakes for 20-22 mins until a skewer poked in comes out clean or the surface springs back when lightly pressed – the cakes will be quite pale on top still. Cool for 5 mins in the tin, then carefully lift onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
- Next, prepare the lemon curd. Sit a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, but don't let the bowl touch the water. Then place the eggs, sugar, lemon zest and juice in the bowl and whisk together. Now add the butter piece by piece and cook for about 15 minutes, giving it a good whisk from time to time, until the curd has become smooth, glossy and thickened. Allow to cool.
- Once the cupcakes are cool use an apple corer to cut out a dip in the centre of each cupcake and once the lemon curd is cool fill each dip/hole with 1-2 tsp. lemon curd.
- Finally, prepare the lemon curd frosting. Beat together the butter, icing sugar and 50g of your homemade lemon curd until the frosting is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Then pipe a swirl of the frosting onto each cupcake and scatter with the pieces of crushed lemon sherbet sweets.
This time next week I'll be queuing up to see McBusted so I can't wait to revert back to my 10 year old self again as I sing and dance along to Year 3000 and Air Hostess. As much as I pride myself on loving rock music, I do love a good boyband and I always will! McFly and Busted are two of my favorites as well so I can't wait to see them, I think it will be a lot of fun and McFly are also singing Shine A Light which, I'm really happy about as it's one of my favourite songs. Dougie Poynter also happens to be one of the most beautiful men alive so, he'll also be pretty wonderful to look at, Ellie Goulding you lucky girl!
Have you got any exciting plans for the rest of may? How will you be spending your summer?
