FEBRUARY FELICITATIONS

Valentine’s Day is all about love.  As the saying goes, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.  It’s also the way to a woman’s heart, especially if you give her these luscious lemony beauties to show her you how much you care.

Valentine’s Day will go down a treat once she bites into one of these fluffy and citrussy packages of perfection!  And if you’re really lucky, she might just share one with you!

LUSCIOUS LEMON CUPCAKES

INGREDIENTS

Muffin Batter

225g self-raising flour

175g golden caster sugar

Zest 2 lemons

1 tbsp toasted poppy seeds

3 eggs

100g natural yogurt

175g butter melted

Icing

225g soft butter

400g icing sugar, sifted

Juice 1 lemon

Few drops yellow food colouring

Decorations (optional)

Method

• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line a 12-hole muffin tin with cupcake or muffin cases.
• Mix the flour, sugar, lemon zest and poppy seeds together.
• Beat the eggs into the yogurt, then tip mixture in with the dry ingredients, then add the melted butter.
• Whisk until lump-free, then divide equally between the cases.
• Bake for 20-22 mins.
• Cool in the tin for a few minutes, then lift onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

• To ice, beat the softened butter until in a large bowl for two minutes, then gradually beat in the icing sugar and lemon juice.
• Stir in the food colouring drop by drop for a pale lemon colour, then spoon the icing into a piping bag with a large star nozzle.
• Hold the piping bag almost upright and pipe one spiral of icing around the edge. Break the flow before moving the nozzle nearer the centre and piping a second, smaller spiral that continues until there are no gaps in the centre.
• Dot the nozzle into the icing as you stop, squeezing to finish neatly.

Repeat to cover all the cakes, then top with decorations (optional)