Lemon Drizzle Cupcakes

Today's bake was very much spring inspired. It has felt so warm recently and definitely not like winter at all. The daffodils have started blooming two months early and there was some definite frog movement in our pond this afternoon! 

I have always been a huge fan of lemon drizzle cake but it is never a cake I have attempted to make myself. It is traditionally made in a loaf tin and cut into slices however I do enjoy mixing things up a bit when I bake so I decided to try making them cupcake style. 

Ingredients

for the cake:

8oz margarine or butter

8oz caster sugar

4 eggs

8oz flour

zest of 2 lemons

for the drizzle:

5oz caster sugar

juice of one lemon

for the icing:

4 tablespoons icing sugar

enough lemon juice to mix to the consistency you want

lemon zest to decorate

Method

for the cake:

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees c/gas mark 5

Cream together the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy

Crack in the eggs and beat until the mixture is smooth

Mix in the flour until fully combined

Stir in the lemon zest

Spoon into cake cases and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown

for the drizzle:

Mix your caster sugar with the lemon juice and stir until combined

While the cakes are still hot poke small holes all over with a skewer

Spoon some of the drizzle over each of your cakes

for the icing:

Once the cakes are completely cool you can ice them (this step is optional)

Mix your icing sugar with lemon juice until it is a pourable consistency

Using a spoon, drizzle the icing over each cupcake to create the line effect

Sprinkle a little lemon zest on top for decoration

Then all you need to do is grab a cup of tea, put your feet up and enjoy!

Lemon and Blueberry Cupcakes

It is no secret that I love to bake and I spend hours of my life scrolling through the internet looking for new cake ideas. This was one of my favourite recipes from the summer. I made these cakes for my Parent's 30th Wedding Anniversary and they were a big hit. 

Ingredients:

6oz of caster sugar

6oz of margarine or butter

6oz of self raising flour

3 eggs

1 punnet of blueberries

2-3 lemons (depending how lemony you like it)

softened butter, cream cheese and icing sugar (for the frosting)

mint leaves to decorate 

Method:

pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees/ gas mark 6 and line a 12 hole cake tin with paper cases

cream together the margarine and caster sugar until light and fluffy

beat in the eggs

sift in the flour, add the zest of one lemon and two tablespoons of lemon juice

mix well until combined

fold in the blueberries slowly (leaving some to decorate) being careful not to crush them

spoon into cake cases and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown

while the cakes are cooking, prepare the frosting

I did this by eye so I don't have the exact measurements but you can find cream cheese frosting recipes easily online.

once the frosting is to the consistency you want it add lemon zest and juice to taste

remove the cakes from the oven and leave to cool

once they are completely cool pipe or spread the frosting onto them

to decorate i put a couple of blueberries on top and finished them off with a mint leaf, i love the pop of colour you get from the blue and green!

Cupflakes

At the start of the summer I celebrated my 21st Birthday with a big party at my house. This meant there had to be cake, and lots of it. Cupcakes are a bit of a trend at the moment with little shops popping up all over the place. However, to buy from a 'professional' can be quite expensive so we decided to make our own and I was extremely happy with the results!

I had a little team of helpers including my best friend, Granny and Mum to help with the icing and decorating but I slaved away all morning making batch after batch of cakes. We ended up with about 60 and yes, we are still eating them now!

The recipe:

10 oz sugar

10 oz margarine

10 oz self raising flour

5 eggs

I repeated this recipe about 3 times in the end, I think it is fair to say I got a bit carried away!

For the icing my Granny made the most delicious butter cream. She told me not to ask for the measurements because she always judges it as she goes along but I know we got through 5 and a half blocks of butter and two and half boxes of icing sugar! Her secret ingredient is a dash of milk which made the icing as light as air, it really was delicious. She also added a drop of vanilla essence followed by pink or yellow food colouring.

We then spent the rest of the afternoon decorating the cakes with different toppings that we got from the supermarket which was definitely the most fun part! My personal favourites are the ones which look like little ice creams with flakes in which my friend cleverly named 'Cupflakes'.

I was so pleased with how the cakes came out and everyone at the party commented on how great they looked and tasted. We saved so much money making the cakes ourselves and had a lot of fun at the same time!