Lemon Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes to take to  Kara's Hen's Afternoon Tea. 

I used the cupcakes from one recipe and the icing from another.  The cupcakes were made using the "Basic Cupcake Recipe" from Masterchef

Basic Cupcake recipe recipe by Katie Nichols

100g unsalted butter

185g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract (I left this out and substituted the grated rind of 2 lemons in an attempt to make cupcakes similar to the ones Julie made on the show)

2 rggs

200g self-rasing flour

1/2 cup (125ml) milk

1. Preheat oven to 180c (160 fanforced). line muffin pans with paper cases

2. Beat Butter, sugar and vanilla (or lemon rind) with an electric mixer until pale.  Add the eggs, one at a time and beat until just combined.  Add the flour and milk in alternate batches and stir with a wooden spoon until just combined.

3. Spoon mixture into paper cases. (i managed to get 14 cupcakes from this mix)  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until cooked through.  Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.  Decorate as desired.

For my icing I changed the "Orange Icing" from the "Orange Marshmallow flower cupcake" recipe from Goodtaste magazine's September 2008 issue (page 95)

Orange Lemon Icing

300g (2 cups) Icing Sugar Mixture

1 tsp butter at room temp

2-3 tbs orange lemon juice

3-4 drops food colouring

To make icing, place the4 icing sugar, butter and juice in a small heatproof bowl and stir until a thick paste forms.  Place bowl over a sauceoan of simmering water and stir until smooth.  Stir in the food colouring.  Transfer to a piping bag and ice the cupcakes.

I had a slight disaster when the plastic bag I was using as a piping bag burdt.  But by then I had iced most of the cupcakes, so some of them were iced with a knife instead.  I decorated the tops of my cupcakes with "Sour Peach Hearts"  Pretty!!