Having made my raspberry curd I wanted to make something special with it. My friend Laura returned to work following her maternity leave this week, and this seemed like a perfect excuse! I had a little look online for some recipe ideas and was inspired by this one on the Smells Like Home food blog, but I actually decided to use my tried-and-tested recipe for lemon Victoria sandwich by Mary Berry and make cupcakes instead.

Ingredients (makes 18 muffin-sized cupcakes)

225g butter, softened
225g caster sugar
4 eggs
225g self-raising flour
2 level teaspoons baking powder
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

Filling/topping

Raspberry curd (click on the link at the top of the page for the recipe)
250g icing sugar, sifted (plus extra for dusting)
80g unsalted butter, at room temperature
25ml semi skimmed milk
Finely grated zest of half a lemon

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/160F/Gas 4. Place some muffin cases into a muffin tin.

2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl. Beat the eggs and add the grated lemon zest and mix well. Pour the mix in a little at a time and mix well. Sift in the flour and baking powder and combine together. (Mary’s original recipe suggests using an electric whisk – put all ingredients into a bowl and beat for a couple of minutes).

3. Divide the mixture between the muffin cases – about 1 and a half tablespoons in each is enough as they will rise quite a lot. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until well risen and golden.

4. Leave the cupcakes in the tin to cool for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Ensure they have completely cooled before adding the filling.

5. To make the buttercream, cream together the butter and icing sugar. Add the milk and lemon zest and beat until smooth.

6. Cut out the middle of a cupcake, and then fill the hole with a spoonful of raspberry curd (you can eat the bit you’ve cut out!).

7. Fill a piping bag (using nozzle of your choice) with the buttercream, and pipe over the top.

8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 with the rest of the cupcakes.

I really need to get a new piping bag – the new one that I tried out for this was pretty rubbish! But they tasted really good so I was pleased with how they turned out. Definitely something to enjoy during an extended tea break!

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