I love cupcakes – not because of the cutesy and girly connotations – but because they are already in single serving sizes which means at parties I can just hand them out without having to slice and serve. (Or I can grab one from the pantry at 11pm at night, leaving behind no evidence of late-night snacking….)
A really great cupcake is, sadly, a rare thing these days. Many store-bought cakes are packed full of stabilizers and emulsifiers, which can give a sickly sweet chemical taste, and the cupcakes at most weddings and baby showers are topped with cheap and nasty fondant which looks pretty but can be unpleasant to eat. (I have an old-fashioned view that fondant only belongs on a sturdy and rich fruitcake).
Luckily, a great cupcake isn’t difficult to make and you really don’t need a fancy KitchenAid – a cheap $15 electric hand mixer from Kmart will do the trick nicely.
Lemon Cupcakes
{Makes 24}
Cupcake Ingredients
- 200g butter
- 4 lemons, finely zested
- 1 and 3/4 cups caster sugar
- 4 eggs
- 1 tspn vanilla extract (or 2 tspn vanilla essence)
- 2 and 3/4 cups plain flour
- 1 cup milk
- 2 tspn baking powder
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees (celcius) and line two 12-hole cupcake tins with cupcake papers.
In a large bowl, beat the butter and lemon zest using an electric beater or mixer for 1 minute.
Add the sugar, a third at a time, beating for 2 minutes after each addition.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition.
Beat in the vanilla.
Now, lay the electric beater aside – trust me! Do this next little bit using nothing more powerful than a wooden spoon.
Gently stir in one-third of the flour (sift it as it goes in). Once it’s just combined, stir in half the milk. Repeat. Add in the final third of the flour along with the baking powder. Be careful not to over-mix – if you knock out too much air then the resulting cupcake won’t be light and fluffy.
Spoon the mixture evenly among the cupcake papers (a really efficient way of doing this is with an ice-cream scoop), filling each about three-quarters full. Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes until lightly golden on top and a wooden skewer or toothpick inserted comes out cleanly. Place cupcakes on a wire rack to cool completely.
Buttercream Ingredients
- 100g butter
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 4 cups icing sugar
Method
Using the electric mixer, beat the butter for 1 minute then add the lemon juice and 2 cups of sifted icing sugar. Beat for 3 minutes. Yep – 3 minutes! Trust me, doing this will whip air into the buttercream, making it really fluffy and pale.
Add the remaining icing sugar (and a few drops of yellow food colouring if you wish to use it) and beat for another 3 minutes (if the mixture feels too stiff, add a splash more lemon juice).
Pipe or spread this onto the cakes then dig in – there’s nothing better than fresh homemade cupcakes!
