Lemon Mess Cupcakes

I bake. No shit right? I mean I wouldn’t be writing a blog called United Cakedom if there wasn’t cake and cakes are baked.

Basically I bake and I use my baking skills to make things for friends and family as gifts.

I like to think they appreciate it. If they don’t… well I don’t want to know because I like baking things for gifts.

These were made for the teachers and staff at my girl’s school as a thank you for educating and watching my girls for a good portion of the year.

They were a bit fiddly to make and very sticky, but totally refreshing and delicious!

The reason I know this is because I stole one before giving them to the school. There is nothing wrong with stealing my own baked goods. I don’t think?

This recipe was adapted from Jamie Olive FoodTube Presents The Cake Book by Cupcake Jemma. Which is a great little cupcake book that I would recommend to anyone.

Lemon Mess Cupcakes

250g self-rising flour

250g golden caster sugar

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

270g unsalted butter, room temperature

4 large eggs

zest from 4 unwaxed lemons

1 ½ tbsp lemon juice

1 ½ tbsp full fat milk

Heat the oven to 170C fan/ 375F/ gas 5. Line 2 cupcake pans with liners. Sift the flour and bicarb together into your stand mixer bowl before adding the sugar, butter, eggs, zest, and lemon juice. Beat on medium for about a minute, scrape down the sides before adding the milk and then beat again for about a minute. I use an ice cream scoop to add my batter to the cases. These only need about half of an ice cream scoop to fill each cupcake liner ¾ full. Bake for 20 minutes or until the sponges spring back when pressed, leave to cool and make the frosting….

Buttercream Frosting

300g unsalted butter, room temperature

670g icing sugar

4 tbsp lemon juice, about 1 lemon

4-6 meringues, store bought or homemade

Beat the butter in the stand mixer until it’s soft, remove about half of the beaten butter and then sift the icing sugar into the bowl. Beat until crumby and then add the rest of the butter and beat until smooth before adding the lemon juice and beat until combined. Then crumble the meringues on top and fold in.

to finish:

Jar of Mackay’s Lemon Curd or homemade

Using an apple corer or cupcake corer take out the middle of the cupcakes once they are cool. Fill with a teaspoon of lemon curd and place the cupcake bit that was removed back. I used my ice cream scoop again to top the cupcakes with frosting before using a spatula to rough up the frosting. Drizzle any left over lemon curd on top of the cupcakes.

notes: I apologize if I have offended anyone by swearing above, but I am writing this when I am over tired. I bought my own copy of The Cake Book by Cupcake Jemma. Mackay’s Lemon Curd was given to me to use in my baking. Please see my contact/policy page above and my post where I talk about the book here!