Lemon Drizzle Cupcakes!

these little beauties are bitesize, syrupy lemon scented pieces of deliciousness. i woke up this morning with an urge to bake - and as i haven't baked since before christmas, i couldn't resist, so i laid down the revision books and went off to the kitchen. originally, they were going to be lemon butterfly cakes, but there was no icing sugar, so i couldn't make some buttercream, instead, i created a warm sticky syrup to pour onto the warm cupcakes, and tadaaaaaa, yumminess.

i used my trusty weight of an egg sponge recipe, works everytime! just a few tweaks, and you can have a large range of flavours, really, as long as you have a steady base, you make just about any cake. also means that you can make cakes in next to no time - the more you do it, the faster you do it!

this gave me the oppurtunity to try out my new cupcake pans - i used no cupcake liners as we only had about 2 in the house, and plus, i think they looked rather sweet without them anyway. they stuck a tiny bit on the first try, but i think that was more to do with them being brand new, as on my second go they came out perfectly!

i also got to use my new cupcake stand! it holds a rather convenient amount of cakes - 23, which means there is exactly one left just for me to eat :)

Ingredients;
2 eggs
that weight in self raising flour
that weight in caster sugar and about a cup more
that weight in butter
the zest of 1 1/2 lemons and some more for decoration
the juice of 1 lemon
cup of water

cream the butter and sugar (minus the cup) until light and fluffy.
add the eggs and mix until just combined.
add the half the lemon juice, the zest of 1 lemon and half the flour, mix until just combined.
add the rest of the flour, and mix until light, fluffy, and can hold a shape.
place teaspoons of the mixture into the cupcake pans.
put in the oven at 180 degrees for 15 minutes (i have a dodgy oven so need to turn them halfway through, check that you don't need to do that)

whilst they're in the oven, put the cup of sugar, the rest of the lemon juice, and about a cup of water in a saucepan, warm until the sugar is dissolved and the mixtre is slightly thicker.
when they're still warm, prick the cakes twice with a fork and pour over a teaspoon of the syrup.
scatter over some lemon zest for decoration.

(i just realised that picture really looks photoshopped - i promise, its all real!)
eat warm and sticky with a mug of tea. yums

ciao for nowww,
sarah xxx