THE BEST LEMON AND RASPBERRY CUPCAKES!
August 06, 2017
First of all, no, the title is not an exaggeration!
Lemon and raspberry is one of our all time favourite flavour combinations. You might have guessed this by the other lemon and raspberry recipes on our blog such as the Blondies, Mothers Day Cakes or Berry Cake. There's not many cupcake flavours we like more or even as much as this, so we just know you're going to LOVE it! This is sure to get your taste buds tingling!
We've made these (or versions of) quite a few times now, and honestly we just always want more. The sponge is a gorgeous, fluffy lemon cake filled with an intensely raspberry filling and topped with a raspberry and lemon swirled buttercream. They are fruity and super flavourful cupcake, sure to impress your friends ~ but of course we wouldn't judge you if you just want to eat them all!
Ingredients:
For the Lemon cupcakes...
4oz butter
4oz caster sugar
2 eggs
1 lemon, zest and juice
4oz self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
For the Raspberry Purée...
200g fresh raspberries
2 tbsp lemon juice (or juice of 1 lemon)
For the Lemon buttercream...
2oz butter
1 tbsp lemon juice (or juice of 1/2 lemon)
7oz icing sugar
For the Raspberry buttercream...
2oz butter
1 tbsp home-made raspberry purée
8oz icing sugar
For Decoration (all optional)...
100g white chocolate
pink food colouring
sprinkles
fresh raspberries
So this first part is completely optional, but if you want to decorate with these super cute chocolate brush-stroke shards then here's how...
To make these chocolate shards perfect, you ideally need to temper your chocolate. This makes sure it stays shiny and hard at room temperature. To do this chop up the white chocolate into small pieces and place about 1/4 into the fridge. Melt the other 3/4 either in the microwave or over a pan of hot water and bring it up to 45°C. When it reaches this temperature, quickly take it off the heat, add your cold chocolate and stir to reduce the temperature down to 26°C as quick and you can. We have found recently that if you stand your bowl of melted chocolate into a bowl filled with cold water (not too cold though), it really speeds up the process. When you have it down to 26°C, you want to bring it back up to 28°C but make sure not to heat it up any higher or you will have to start all over again. Then stir in your food colouring (completely optional). To create these brushstroke-esque shards, spoon a small spoonful onto a sheet of greaseproof paper or tin foil, and then spread it out using the back of a teaspoon. Decorate with sprinkles!
This tangy raspberry purée/coulis/whatever you want to call it is arguably the part that makes these cupcakes. We use it to fill the centre for a sharp hit of raspberry, and in the buttercream to make the best raspberry buttercream you've ever tasted!
To make the raspberry purée, place your raspberries and lemon juice in a pan and simmer on a medium heat until the raspberries become soft enough to mush, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. Leave to simmer until the purée is thick, and can coat the back of your spoon, then take off the heat. Leave to cool completely before using!
Now onto the cakes! Preheat your oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/Gas mark 6 and line a cupcake tray with 10 cupcake cases.
To start, beat together the butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Then, beat in the eggs. Add in the flour, baking powder, and zest and juice of 1 lemon and mix until combined into a smooth batter.
Spoon your mixture into your cupcake cases and bake in your pre-heated oven for around 18 minutes or until golden brown and an inserted skewer comes out clean. Set aside on a wire rack to cool.
Once cool, use a small sharp knife to cut a small hole in your cupcakes. Fill the centres with your homemade raspberry purée, and eat the sponge middles!
To make the lemon buttercream, beat together the butter and lemon juice. Then, beat in the icing sugar a bit at a time, until you have the right consistency. You may need less icing sugar than stated, or you may need more. It really depends on the butter you use, and the size of your lemon, so just add what feels right - thick enough to hold its shape but not too thick that it's impossible to pipe.
Making the raspberry buttercream is very similar to the above. Start by beating together the butter and spoonful of raspberry purée. Then, slowly beating in the icing sugar to get the right consistency.
To get the swirled buttercream, you need to put both buttercreams into the piping bag at the same time. You can do this two ways: putting two separate piping bags together into one, or as we did spooning your two buttercreams into two lines on a piece of clingfilm and then wrapping that up into a kind of buttercream sausage before cutting the end and placing that into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle.
Pipe your buttercream onto the cupcakes, and then decorate with your chocolate shards and raspberries. If you didn't want to make the chocolate shards you could always top with a slice of lemon, and a few raspberries and sprinkles.
All that's left to do is share these divine cupcakes with the ones you love, (even if that's just gorging on the whole lot yourself ~ you love yourself, right?)
These cupcakes are sure to impress anyone, with the tangy and zesty mix of flavours. The raspberry purée is sure to be winner, we just cannot get enough of its intense raspberry flavour against the spongy cupcake, and sweet buttercream.
Thanks so so much for reading this post, we really hope you liked it!
Please let us know what you think, and feel free to leave your favourite flavours or bakes, and we will be sure to give them a try!
Thanks so much for reading this post!
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Lots of love, Antonia and Imogen x
