Lemon Cupcakes with Rose Buttercream- Recipe

Aren't they pretty? I flavoured the pink part of the frosting with rose syrup I found in Tescos, but you can use rosewater and pink food colouring, or rose extract. I flavoured the yellow part with lemon, but feel free to use all lemon or all rose.

Ingredients for Cupcakes

6 oz Caster sugar
4 oz Slightly salted butter, room temperature
4 tbsp Olive oil (or any non-strongly flavoured oil, like sunflower or vegetable)
3 Eggs
6oz Self raising flour
Zest and juice of two lemons
4 tbsp milk

Ingredients for Buttercream

250g Unsalted butter, room temperature
5 Cups (ish) icing sugar, plus two half cups extra
A few teaspoons of rose syrup/ water. drops of rose extract to taste
1 tbsp Lemon juice
Pink and yellow food colouring (as usual, I use paste colouring)

First, as usual, make the cupcakes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Always cream the fat and sugar together thoroughly first- in this case the caster sugar, butter and oil. Then whisk in the eggs one by one.

Now carefully add the flour- you don't want a snowstorm- and lastly the lemon bits and milk. Don't beat for too long or the mixture will become tough and chewy- you want it light.

Divide equally between twelve cupcake cases- the proper ones, not the diddy fairy cake ones, unless you want a larger quantity of smaller cakes.

Bung in the oven for about 15-20mins, or until the cakes spring back when you poke them gently. Now cool completely on a wire rack.

Now you can make the frosting.

Beat the butter and sugar together (again carefully to avoid a snowstorm) until light, fluffy and white. Some recipes call for milk, but I don't bother- also add the sugar in bit by bit, believe it or not atmospheric pressure and the weather/ temperature/ humidity can make a difference to quantities here.

Once that's ready, divide your buttercream mixture into two. In one bowl, add a bit of yellow colouring and the lemon juice, and about half a cup extra icing sugar to balance out the liquid you've just put in. Whisk thoroughly, and for the second bowl add the rose flavouring along with colouring and the other half cup of icing sugar.

Now prepare your piping bag: I use a Wilton 2D tip to make cupcake roses. Fill one side of the bag with one colour and the other with the other, and (providing your cakes are now cool) get piping! Start from the middle, and, holding the bag upright all the time, steadily pipe a spiral towards the outside. I'll post showing how to do this later.

Eat, and enjoy.