Strong lemon cupcakes

I was inspired by Simmon Rimmer lemon drizzle cake recipe and decided to change it into cupcakes. I was only partly happy with my decision, as I had plenty leftovers. No... not cupcakes them self, they were lovely, although very sour, but the amounts of cream and lemon juice were too big, calculated to big cake not small cupcakes. Coming back to cupcakes they were really nice, cake was spongy and delicate, cream lemony. They were very tasty.

Ingredients for lemon drizzle:

• 4 lemons, juice only*
• 75g caster sugar

* next time I will squeeze only two lemons, first of all I got too much liquid, second of all the mixture was to sour

 

Squeeze lemons over a sieve. Get rid of stones. Pour the juice into a jug add sugar and stir together. Set aside.   

Ingredients for sponge (12 cupcakes):

• 200g caster sugar
• 200g butter
• 2 lemons, zest only
• 3 eggs
• 200g flour
• 1 tsp baking powder

Grease muffin tin holes and sprinkle with some flour, set aside. Preheat the oven to 180C.

Put the sugar, lemon zest and butter into electric mixer bowl and beat until pale and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs one at a time, let the egg to be completely incorporated into the mixture before adding the next one. With a metal spoon carefully fold in the flour and the baking powder.
Spoon the batter evenly between muffin tin holes. Bake for 20-25 min until toothpick stick in the middle comes out clean.
Let them cool for a 5 min in baking thin, then transfer to a plate. Prick the top of each cupcake with toothpick and pour over the lemon drizzle mixture to soak the sponge. Set aside. I haven't used all of the lemon juice as the cupcakes became to sour for me. I kept this mixture in the fridge as I think is great to add to the tea.

Ingredients for lemon cream:

• 2 egg yolks
• 75g caster sugar
• 50g butter
• 2 lemons juice and zest
• 300g mascarpone

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a pan over a low heat until the sugar is melted. Add the butter, lemon and lemon zest and continue to cook, whisking continuously until the mixture has thickened and is smooth and well combined.  Set aside to cool down completely. 

With a spoon stir in mascarpone. I added more than recommended 100g as lemon cream was to sour for me that's way I received too much of a cream.

When the cream is ready. Slice each cupcake into half and place some cream in the middle, cover with remaining cake. You can add some cream on the top as a decoration and dust with icing sugar. Enjoy !