I have been loving the sour things recently- grapefruits, lemon in iced tea, lime curd, passionfruits- and the other week I bought a bag of lemons, so of course I made some cupcakes with them.
I also bought some poppy seeds, as I keep seeing recipes for lemon and poppy seed muffins/ cakes, so I thought the flavours must go. In the end I could not find a recipe that I liked the look of, so I based it on a lemon cupcake recipe from this Cupcakes book, but changed a few things and added in the poppy seeds.
Ingredients:
125g butter (I used Pure spread)
125g caster sugar
125g self raising flour
1 medium egg
30ml almond milk (but any liquid would work)
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
20g poppy seeds
1 tsp lemon extract (optional. One recipe had vanilla in it so that could be tried too)
Method:
Mine made 10. Preheat the oven to 190C.
Cream together the butter and sugar until it is fluffy.
Add the egg, almond milk and lemon extract, and beat again.
Then add in the lemon juice and zest. It might go lumpy, but don’t worry.
Finally add in the flour and poppy seeds and stir together gently. Mine did not rise that much, so next time I might add in a tsp of baking powder.
Spoon into cases and bake for 12-15 mins until lightly golden and just firm in the centre.
Put on a cooling rack.
Optional- top with a little icing.
I used the juice from 1/2 a lemon, and then added enough icing sugar to make a paste, and then some lemon zest too. Although it would look better if I had reserved the zest and sprinkled that on top instead of mixing it with the icing.
It was a real “drizzle” of an icing, not a thick frosting, but it went perfectly with the zingy lemon cupcakes.
I had one with some tea and it was lovely- very zingy indeed. Having never had poppy seeds in a cake before I was not sure what to expect, but they added some texture to it. But you could leave them out for plain lemon cupcakes and they would be lovely still.
It reminded me of when I tried that lovely seed & bean lemon poppy seed white chocolate (although that tasted like lemon cheesecake too).
Are you a fan of lemon cakes?
Favourite zingy food?
LOVE lemon poppyseed cupcakes, love the icing idea – I might try that next time I make them 🙂
I think I saw you make them last week 🙂 The icing was so tasty- just amped up the lemon flavour even more 🙂
I love anything lemon, particularly lemon cake! 🙂 Lemon just adds such a gorgeous fresh taste to anything, sweet or savoury.
Yes it does make everything so fresh 🙂
Mmmm I love lemon poppyseed sometimes. I’ve never made it though!
I love lemony cakes and desserts. Starbucks used to do a lemon and poppy seed muffin that was my favourite (they might still, but I haven’t had one for ages). I haven’t had a go at making cupcakes yet, so it might be next on my list.
I have seen them in a muffin before too- must be a “normal” flavour combination.
YUMMY! One of my favourite cakes is a lemon drizzle so good : )
I really love lemon cakes, especially lemon drizzle cakes, I think that might have to be my next baking project. As the summer gets closer I love lemon flavoured things!
Yes I think they are perfect for summery weather 🙂
Mmm, these look lovely 🙂 I made lemon poppyseed muffins with a similar lemon icing for Easter 2011, but don’t think I’ve made them since! Silly really as they were a hit with everyone!
I do still regularly make lemon drizzle cake – either just as a loaf cake or as a birthday style cake with extra icing…that seems to be the most popular cake with my extended family!
Yum I love lemon drizzle cake too- so refreshing but I hardly ever make lemon cakes either.