And a little baking....

It was one of my friend's birthday a few weeks ago and I offered to make her birthday cake... and we agreed after much deliveration that we would make cupcakes!

And though I LOVE making cupcakes, it is always the question of when making them for grown ups of how to make them a little more interesting. I here is what I came up with!

Lemon wet sponge cupcakes with buttercream frosting and topped with candied lemon peel... uff it is more daunting to name them than actually make them... so feel like a little recipe for the cupcakes?

Ingredients

250g butter (110g for the cakes and 140g for the frosting)
110g sugar (plus a small cup of sugar)
110g self risig flour (or normal flour and a tea spoon of baking powder all mixed)
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 tea spoon of vanilla extract
2 lemons
280g icing sugar
a few tea spoons of milk if necessary.

How to make the cakes

Preheat the oven at 180C and line a 12-hole cupcake tray with liners. Cream the butter for the cakes with the 110g of sugar in a mixer until smooth. Add the eggs, the vanilla and the zest of one of the lemons. Then fold in the flour until the mixture is smooth. Add some drops of milk if necessary to make the mixture easier to work. Distribute the mixture in the baking tray and bake for 10-15 min until the cakes spring back when lightly tapped.

While you wait peel the second lemon with a potato peeler and then cut the skin in julienne (very thin stripes). It should look like this:

Boil some water in a pan, and then with the heat off add the peel for 30 min. Strain and make s syrup with the cup of sugar and a cup of cold water. When all the sugar is disolved add the peel and cook for 30 min (until the peel is soft to eat). Save in a glass jar (it keeps in the fridge like jam).

Make lemon juice with the two peeled lemons.

Finally make the butter cream frosting. I follow the instructions in this (HERE) great video by My Cupcake Addiction of you tube.

Once cooled, pinch the top of each cake with a knife. I generally make two cuts in the shape of a cross. And slowly introduce two teaspoons of lemon juice in each cake. Then frost the cakes and decorate with a few strands of the candied lemon. And voilà, lovely lemon cupcakes.