Lemon Drizzle Cupcakes

If you are a regular follower of this blog (in that case, a special hello to you and welcome back!) you may notice that I have posted a similar recipe before, for lemon cupcakes. However, I have recently came up with a rivisited and, in my opinion, improved version, therefore I have decided to publish this one too and let the readers decide for themselves. This new version includes a lemon curd filling, and a couple of tablespoons of lemon curd also go to enrich the butter cream icing. Finally, the cupcakes are drenched in a tangy lemon syrup before the icing is applied.

INGREDIENTS (makes 12 cupcakes):

For the cupcake batter and the icing

• Please refer to this post. The only addition are two tablespoons of lemon curd to the ingredients for the butter cream icing; and approximately three tablespoons of the same for the for the filling. I used a good quality shop-bought lemon curd.

For the lemon drizzle syrup

• The juice of one lemon
• Three tablespoons of icing sugar

Make the cupcakes following the steps outlined in my previous post. While they are baking, gently heat the lemon juice and icing sugar in a small saucepan, until the sugar has melted completely. As soon as the cupcakes are out of the oven, pierce them all over with a toothpick (stab each one about five times) and immediately drizzle the syrup on them, until they are drenched and glistening. Leave them to cool completely.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, use a teaspoon to make a small hole in the centre of each one, about 1 cm deep. Discard the sponge you have spooned out (I find that the most efficient way to do this is to pop it directly in my mouth) and replace it with lemon curd. Lastly, pipe/spread the buttercream icing on top of the cupcakes.  I have given mine a finishing touch by decorating them with sugar flowers.