Lemon cupcakes

I have declared Spring! Fresh flavours and cheery yellow crockery. All I'm missing is a vase full of daffodils.

A very light, fluffy sponge with lemon zest, a sneaky dollop of lemon curd in the middle and a swirl of lemon buttercream on top. Perfect for zingy lemon lovers, which I definitely am. Sometimes I wish I categorised my blog posts better and added ingredients to my labels as I'd be interested to see how many times I've baked with lemons. They're definitely one of my favourite flavours. Does anyone else have an obvious ingredient they bake with again and again?

I followed the fresh lime meringue cupcake recipe from the Primrose Bakery book, page 26, although I swapped the lime for lemon and the meringue for lemon buttercream.

For the cupcake:
110g unsalted butter, at room temperature
225g golden caster sugar
2 large eggs, free range or organic
90ml semi-skimmed milk
30ml freshly squeezed lime juice (in my case, lemon)
1 tbsp sour cream
150g self-raising flour
125g plain flour
1 tsp grated lime/lemon zest

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Line a 12 hole muffin tray with muffin cases. (I halved the recipe and used 12 standard cupcake cases.) In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar together using an electric hand mixer, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition. Measure the milk into a jug, add the lime/lemon juice and sour cream and combine well.

Sift the flours into a bowl and stir together. Add alternate amounts of the flour and the lime flavoured milk to the creamed butter and sugar as follows: add 1/3 of the flour and mix well; add 1/2 the milk and mix well; add another 1/3 of the flour and mix well; add the remainder of the milk and mix well; finish by adding the last 1/3 of flour and then the lime/lemon zest and beat well. If the mixture looks as though it is curdling slightly don't panic - simply add another spoonful of plain flour and beat well. Spoon the mixture evenly into the muffin/cupcake cases, filling them about 2/3 full.

Bake in the centre of the oven for 25 minutes. To test if the cupcakes are cooked insert a skewer into the centre of a cupcake - it should come out clean. They should be light golden in colour. Leave to cool in their tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack. Once cooled, cut a small hole in the top of each cake using a small sharp knife, insert a teaspoon full of lime/lemon curd. (I put the tops back on rather than discard them and then iced with a lemon buttercream which I just mixed to taste).