lemon cupcakes with lemon cream cheese icing

I've baked something. It's been a while, for me anyway. I'm still obsessed with my retro juicer so I made some zingy, lemon cupcakes as an excuse to use it.

As a slight variation to my usual lemon cupcakes, I followed the Peggy Porchen method of making a sugar syrup to brush over the freshly baked cupcakes and topped them with a swirl of lemon cream cheese icing.

The syrup gives the cupcakes an extra juicy lemon punch and the addition of cream cheese to the icing calms the sweetness and sharpness. All in all, a damn tasty cupcake... providing you love lemon.

I thought this was the first time I had made lemon cream cheese icing but I see I used it a couple of years ago in a birthday cake for my Dad. It's a good job I have this blog as an archive as my memory is terrible. Looking back at that cake, I'm a bit gutted I didn't consider adding lemon curd as a filling to my cupcakes. That would have taken them to another level of lemony goodness.

My brain feels too scrambled to write anything else vaguely coherent. June has been tiring and thanks to the EU Referendum the UK appears to be in meltdown. Nice.

I have things I want to make and bake, and blogs I want to catch up with, but I'm struggling to motivate myself in the evenings at the moment. All I want to do after work is sit and watch Dance Moms (I am so obsessed, it's embarrassing) X-Files re-runs and Tattoo Fixers (bizarre considering I'm not even a fan of tattoos.) Wimbledon can also be added to the tv list since it started this week. Wayhey!

Lemon cupcake
makes approx. 15 cupcakes

cupcakes:
6oz (175g) caster sugar
6oz (175g) softened butter or margarine
zest of 2 lemons
3 large eggs
6oz (175g) self-raising flour

sugar syrup:
juice of 3 lemons
caster sugar - same weight as the juice of 3 lemons

cream cheese icing:
100g full fat cream cheese icing
100g softened butter
250g icing sugar
zest of 1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4 and line two cupcake trays with cases. In a large bowl beat together the margarine, sugar and lemon zest for 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs to the mixture one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add a tablespoon of the flour with the last egg to prevent the mixture from splitting. Add the flour and mix everything together until fully combined. Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases, until 2/3 full. Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes until well risen, light golden and spring back when touched. 

Place the lemon juice and caster sugar for the syrup in a saucepan whilst the cupcakes are baking. As soon as the cupcakes come out the oven, bring the syrup to the boil on the hob. Let it simmer until the sugar has full dissolved then take the saucepan off the heat and set aside to cool slightly.

Brush the cupcakes with the sugar syrup whilst they're still hot (they absorb the syrup better this way). Once it has soaked in and the cupcakes feel warm, rather than hot, remove the cupcakes from the trays and cool on a wire rack.

For the icing mix together the icing sugar, lemon zest and butter until well combined. Add the cream cheese a little at a time then mix it all on a high speed for a minute or so until the icing is soft and smooth. Either swirl the icing on top of the cooled cupcakes with a spoon/palette knife or pop it into a piping bag. I used a Wilton 1M tip for mine and piped from the centre, swirling outwards.

happy purchases

Behold! I have found the most glorious/hideous ornamental teapot of all time. It certainly lives up to the "mental" part of "ornamental".

When I clocked this in the charity shop I could not stop staring at it. A carousel horse... as a teapot?! It was absolutely filthy with years of deep ingrained dirt and the man at the till definitely judged me for willingly spending £1 on it. But I love it! Doesn't it look fantastic all sparkly and clean? Now imagine tea pouring out the horse's mouth/spout... bahahaha! It's so weird, it's fantastic.

On the same trip I also found this 50s(?) green pyrex juicer-jug for the tiny sum of 20p. Isn't it the most adorable thing ever? 

This juicer has become my favourite little kitchen gadget. I used it when I baked my brother's birthday lemon drizzle cake last month and I can't even describe how much joy I got from using it. Never has lemon juicing been so much fun.

Other (more expensive, oops!) purchases in the last couple of months have been fabric. I went a bit wild with the credit card one Saturday night and bought myself this lovely stash to sew/stroke. Mostly stroke, let's be honest, as I am so slow at working through my sewing projects. I'll get there eventually.

From top to bottom we have:

Double gauze kitties - possibly another By Hand London Kim dress. Suddenly I "get" the fuss with double gauze. It feels lovely to touch.

Sewing paraphenalia jersey - how fantastic is this?! It's destined to become a  Lady Skater dress as I am getting frustrated with fitting cotton dresses. I could only get 1.5 metres from Kitschy Koo but I'm hoping it's enough... otherwise I'll cry.

Stripey mustard and plain navy jersey - my "practice" jerseys for lady skaters.

Mustard needlecord - a funky Arielle skirt

Green needlecord - a Turia dungaree dress since I love my shorts version so much. It's a bit brighter and cooler in tone than I expected, the perils of shopping online and not ordering fabric swatches, but still a nice needlecord. I'm debating dyeing it a slightly warmer shade of green but I'll let it lurk in the stash till I decide.

What has everyone else up to recently? Any other ornaMENTAL teapot enthusiasts out there? Any cool sewing projects on the go? Do tell!