Lemon & Raspberry Cupcakes

Hello, Cupcake! It’s been a while…

I made so many cupcakes last year I think I got a little bored of them.  They were everywhere!  Maybe I wasn’t the only one who got bored because I wasn’t getting anywhere near as many requests to make them.  It was all about big layer cakes instead.
I hadn’t made any for months, but yesterday I saw some gorgeous looking lemon and raspberry cupcakes on Sweetadventuresblog and that was it.  I wanted a cupcake!
I decided to make them that morning but the recipe I found used a box cake mix for the cupcakes.  I never buy ready made cake mixes so wanting to make a recipe from scratch, I did a quick Google search for lemon raspberry cupcakes and found this recipe on Annie’s Eats.
I didn’t follow this recipe to the letter because I wanted to use up what I had in my fridge/cupboard, plus I had recently made the most gorgeous lemon curd recipe ever that I wanted to incorporate in the cupcakes.  Seriously, you’ll find the best lemon curd recipe ever over at The Pink Whisk . You’ll never buy shop bought lemon curd again!

Lemon & Raspberry Cupcakes

Adapted from Annie’s Eats

Makes 16-18 cupcakes

250g Self raising flour

250g Caster Sugar

200g soft Butter (I used Stork)

3 Eggs, beaten

120ml Sour cream

60ml Milk

Juice and Zest of 1 large Lemon

Roughly 1/2-1/3 Raspberry Jam or Lemon curd to fill the cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 180C.  Line your cake tins with cases.  Finely zest the lemon.  Place the caster sugar in a large bowl.  Add the lemon zest to the bowl and rub the zest into the sugar with your fingertips until the sugar is damp and aromatic.  Add the soft butter to the bowl and beat for 5 minutes or until very light and fluffy.  Gradually add the beaten eggs, beating well after each addition.  Place the sour cream, milk and lemon juice into a jug/bowl and mix together.  Keep to one side.  When the eggs are all added in, add half the flour and stir gently to mix.  Add half the sour cream/lemon juice mixture and stir again.  Repeat once more.  You should have a nice smooth cupcake mixture.  Spoon into your cupcake cases and bake for 20-25 minutes or until risen and golden.  Cool on a wire rack.  

When the cupcakes are completely cold, use an apple corer or a sharp knife to cut out little circles in the middle of the cupcakes.  Fill the holes with raspberry jam or lemon curd. 

Lemon curd Cream Cheese Icing

****I made this recipe up as I went along…it tastes so good but it made a pretty large amount! I’m going to give you the full recipe I used but you might want to halve quantities if you don’t want  lots of leftover icing!  I’m planning to make a lemon curd layer cake later today which I’ll decorate with the leftover icing ***

300g Full fat cream cheese

200g Lemon curd

700-800g Icing Sugar

Place the cold cream cheese and the lemon curd in a large bowl and beat until nice and smooth.  Gradually add the icing sugar (if you are lucky enough to own a free-standing mixer, you might want to cover the mixer with a large towel to prevent your kitchen and yourself being covered in icing sugar! I’ve nearly choked on an icing sugar cloud, it wasn’t pleasant!) You may need to add more icing sugar to achieve an icing thick enough  to pipe.  You absolutely don’t need to use a piping bag by the way – a knife/spatula will also do the job (that’s the The Hummingbird Bakery does it!)

Ice your cupcakes however you like and top with a fresh raspberry.

I just wanted to show you some gorgeous cake cases the lovely people over at Dotcomgiftshop  very kindly sent me to try – aren’t they lovely?  I’m don’t normally do product reviews on my blog, but I took one look at their website and fell in love!  It’s gorgeous.

I’ve tried a few similar types of baking cases and I’ve encountered various issues such as the cases coming apart from the cakes as they are cooling, or the cases strangely becoming greasy when you take the cakes out of the oven.  But these are brilliant.  No issues whatsoever and they look very pretty.  I highly recommend them.  I also highly recommend their website if you’re looking for a beautiful gift for a family member or friend.  They also sent me some very pretty loaf cake cases which you’ll see later on this week.

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