Lemon Cupcakes

It didn't take me long on returning home after my holiday to get my bake on. After more than a fortnight since I had last put flour, butter, eggs and sugar together I was itching to get back into the kitchen. Luckily, a friend had requested some lemon cupcakes in imitation of some found in Tesco, so I set to work.

The Tesco cupcakes were lemon cupcakes with lemon icing, topped with meringue and candied lemon peel. I've not made proper crispy meringues for a long time, and certainly not in my current oven. Though I followed Delia's baking instructions, the oven seems to have been too hot because the meringues that I made to top the cupcakes turned brown and unattractive. I had leftover meringue, however, so I baked a larger meringue but had a different problem where I didn't let the meringue cook for long enough and ended up with squishy meringue, which I broke up and put on top of the cupcakes.

I wasn't sure how the cupcakes would look with the meringues on top so photographed them both ways; they seem to have turned out alright though. They look like the overpriced ones you might find in an overpriced bakery's window. Anyhow, the cupcakes taste very good and I recieved good feedback from the friend I made them for, so the meringue can't have been too big a disaster.

If you're a lemon addict or are in need of a reminder that spring is supposed to have sprung, these cupcakes should do the job. I would advise using ready-made meringues if you're in a hurry, or make them following this recipe from Delia Online. Using liquid colouring instead of gel colouring gives the pastel yellow colour.

Makes 12
Ingredients

• 200g Plain Flour
• 300g Butter
• 200g Caster Sugar
• 3 Eggs
• 1 Tsp Baking Powder
• 2 Lemons
• 3 Tsp Lemon Juice
• 400g Icing Sugar
• 1 Tsp Liquid Food Colouring

Recipe

• Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan and line a cupcake tin.
• Cream the caster sugar and 200g of the butter together until light and fluffy. 
• Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until smooth.
• Sift the flour and baking powder into the batter and fold in.
• Grate the rind from both lemons into the batter and fold in, then slice the lemons in half and squeeze their juice into the batter. Fold in until smooth.
• If the batter does not have a soft dropping consistency, add a tablespoon or so of milk and stir in.
• Dive the batter between the cupcake cases and bake in the oven for 22 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.
• While the cupcakes cool on a rack, make the icing by sifting the icing sugar into a bowl and beating into the remaining butter with an electric mixer. Add the food colouring and lemon juice, then continue to beat for one minute.
• Decorate the cupcakes as desired.

From tomorrow I'm going to be undertaking a self-imposed sugar ban for twelve days (more on that next time) so next weekend I'm going to try and concoct something sugar free for you. See you then!