I've been a bit quiet on here for a few weeks because I've been busy completing my final year at university. But after handing my last ever assignment in today, I am now free and able to continue blogging about my bakes again! First up are these gorgeous lemon cupcakes I made a couple of weeks ago. At Christmas I was given these adorable wafer daisies as a secret santa present, so this was a great excuse to use them! I've also continued using sugar substitute to make healthier bakes, but if you'd prefer to use normal sugar all you have to do is times the quantity by 10.
Ingredients
- 110g butter
- 11g sugar substitute
- 2 eggs
- 110g self raising flour
- 1 lemon
- icing sugar
- cupcake cases
- Wafer Daisies
Before you begin, as usual, preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Now mix together the butter and sugar substitute into a large bowl. Don't be alarmed if it fizzes slightly, that is just the sugar substitute reacting to the butter! Now lightly beat the two eggs before adding to the mixture. Then grate the zest of the whole lemon into the bowl, cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice from one half into the mixture too. You may want to squeeze the juice through a sieve so that no pips accidentally fall in. Stir until the mixture is thoroughly combined and then sieve in your flour before folding it in. Once all of the ingredients have been mixed together, you can begin to spoon the mixture into your cases. First lay out your cupcake cases onto baking trays, leaving space between each one. Now fill 3/4 of each case with the cake mixture and then bake in the oven for approximately 15 minutes. Check your cakes after about 10 minutes incase they've cooked quickly. Check by putting a cake tester or knife in the middle of a cake and seeing if it comes out clean.
Once they are done, take your cakes out of the oven and leave to cool. Once cool, make some lemon icing by sieving icing sugar into a bowl and then squeezing in lemon juice to the taste you prefer before stirring. You can add a small amount of water if needed. Now pour a small amount of the icing onto the top of each cake and use as a glue to stick your wafer flowers on with.
And there you have it, some really cute and tasty lemon flower cupcakes, perfect for a picnic or garden party in the summer! But if the summer doesn't turn up, they taste just as good when it's raining too. I would suggest in this case that you eat them inside though!
As a treat for my upcoming birthday, my mum and I went to a cupcake decorating class in Birmingham. I've always struggled with the decorating part of my baking and so was excited to find how to do certain things, particularly the swirly icing on top of cupcakes! There were about 8 of us in the class, the perfect amount I thought so that you could share the fun of decorating cakes and learning whilst also being able to hear the instructions clearly. 
During the class, we were shown a number of decorating tools (and I'm already planning to get some of my own to use on future bakes) and taught the technique for icing cupcakes. The best part was when we got to try the tools and icing bags for ourselves. We then got to take the cupcakes home with us at the end to show off to our friends and families. And they tasted great too which was a bonus!
