Blueberry & Lemon Cupcakes

After making my lovely blueberry crumble cupcakes, I had a few to spare and wanted to use them for some more baking. I also had some lemons in the fridge that desperately needed using, and so I came up with the idea of lemon & blueberry cupcakes. Not a flavour combination that I've ever really heard of, but I thought it sounded amazing and had to try them. A combination of my basic cake recipe, flavoured lemon with added lemon curd and blackberries, and finally topped with lemon buttercream. I have to say they are now in my top 5 favourite cupcake flavours - I absolutely loved them! 

Recipe (Makes 7 cupcakes)

•  2 eggs
• 113g (4 ounces) margarine/butter
• 113g caster sugar
• 113g self raising flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 7 teaspoons of lemon curd
• 100g blackberries (keep a few for decoration

Buttercream

• 300g icing sugar
• 125g margarine
• Juice of half a lemon.

Firstly, whisk together the margarine and butter until nice and fluffy.

Add the eggs, whisk until fluffy again. Then gently fold in the lemon zest, flour and baking powder. Finally, add the blackberries. Add to cupcake cases and bake for around 25 minutes, until they spring back when touched and a skewer comes out clean. 

To make the buttercream, mix together the butter and icing sugar. I find this is a lot easier with a stand mixer, however you can do it with a wooden spoon if you don't have one (it just takes a lot longer!). Add the lemon juice. Add it a few squeezes at a time and taste until it is as lemony as you like it. 

Before you add the buttercream, use a cupcake corer or a knife/spoon to cut out the middle of the cupcake. Add a teaspoon of lemon curd. Then add the buttercream to a piping bag with a star tip and pipe a nice big swirl onto the top (or just spread it on if you prefer). 

Liddie x