Summer is here (although you wouldn’t think it with the rain we’ve had recently in the UK), nevertheless, one of my favourite summer cake flavours is lemon.  I adore cakes that have been lemon drizzled, the tangy citrus flavour of the syrup, combined with the sweetness of cake is just delicious.

I love the lemony baking aroma drifting though the kitchen, which usually means that I can’t wait to eat one (okay, usually two) when they’re fresh out of the oven, soaked in syrup and warm to eat.

These lemon poppyseed cupcakes combines fresh lemon zest with poppyseeds

The poppyseeds give them  a rustic texture and are packed with protein, so they feel a little healthier, and they look more wholesome.

This recipe has been adapted from Zoe Clarks ‘Bake Me I’m Yours… Cupcake Love’. I was really pleased with the taste, they were very moist and tangy. However, I would advise to level the batter with the back of a spoon, as a few of them rose unevenly.

Recipe for 12

100g/3 ½ oz Butter

120g/4 ½ oz Caster Sugar

240g/8 ¾ oz Self-Raising Flour

1 ½ tbsp Poppyseeds

2tsp Lemon zest (grated)

200ml/1/2 pint full fat milk

2 large eggs

Lemon syrup

75ml/2 ½ fl oz water

75g/2 ¾ oz caster sugar

Juice of one whole lemon

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas Mark 3

Place liners in your cupcake tin

Put the poppyseeds into the milk and let them soak for ten minutes.

Mix together the butter and sugar, then add the lemon zest, until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time and add a little flour to prevent the mixture from curdling.

Then add the milk mixture and flour, alternating between the two until the mixture is combined.

Evenly place the batter into the cupcake cases and bake for approximately 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean.

For the sugar syrup

Put the sugar and water into a saucepan and bring to the boil

Add the lemon juice

Allow to cool

When the cupcakes are baked, brush the sugar syrup over the cupcakes and allow them to cool in the tins before placing them on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 18th, 2011 at 10:21 am and is filed under Baking Recipes, Cupcakes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.