Lemon scented cup cakes with raspberry jam centres

Last week Adam had to go on a very last minute work trip which is going to take him away over his birthday. So I decided to have a mini birthday party for him the afternoon before he left. I bought him a whole lot of little presents, baked him a batch of cup cakes and set a birthday tea table for him so we could spoil him a little.

I had to improvise the cup cakes as they were a spontaneous idea and I really didn’t feel like leaving the house to go shopping, so I just made do with what was in the cupboard. I think the result was pretty good.

I have wanted to make filled cupcakes for ages, so I browsed the internet for various methods and settled one which looked fool proof to me. I had some lovely raspberry jam which I settled on as a filling and then decided to try a raspberry icing as well. All the methods used fresh raspberry puree but in its absence I just used the jam softened in the microwave and strained the pips off.

I was going to make vanilla cup cakes only to find out I was out of vanilla so I decided to do lemon scented cup cakes instead.

Adam was delighted and decided to enjoy his tea in the pimp daddy robe I had bought him. We will miss him terribly.

Lemon scented cup cakes with raspberry jam centres and

raspberry butter icing

Makes about 8 medium cup cakes

125g of butter (room temperature)

½ a cup of castor sugar

2 large eggs

2 Tbsp whole milk

Finely grated zest of one medium sized lemon

2 Tbsp of freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 cup of cake flour

1 tsp of baking powder

4 - 6 tsp of raspberry jam

85g of butter (room temperature)

1 cup of icing sugar, well sifted

2 Tbsp of milk

4 Tbsp of raspberry jam

1 tsp of lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 180C˚ and place the rack in the middle of the oven.

With a cake mixer, blend together the butter and castor sugar until light and creamy. Add to this the eggs, vanilla and milk and blend to combine. Add the baking powder and cake flour and blend until smooth.

If you are using cup cake papers, place the papers into the holes of a muffin tin. If using silicone cup cake moulds place them onto a baking tray or into a muffin tin.

Spoon the mixture into the cup cake moulds until ¾ full. Flatten the mixture and push it up the sides of the moulds as much as you can with the back of a spoon.

Bake for 15 – 20 minutes until golden and springy.

Allow to cool, I put mine into the freezer for 10 minutes to speed up this process.

For the raspberry icing – Microwave the raspberry jam until it is runny. Pass it through a sieve to strain off the seeds. Refrigerate the jam until it has cooled. Blend together the butter and sifted icing sugar, add the milk and blend until just smooth. Do not over blend as the icing can split.

Add the lemon juice and raspberry jam and blend until combined. Set aside until ready for use.

To jam fill the cup cake - Microwave your raspberry jam for a few seconds to soften it a little. Using the process suggested in this link - http://bakingbites.com/2007/09/how-to-make-filled-cupcakes-step-by-step/

Cut a cone shaped plug out the top of the cup cake, spoon about ½ a teaspoon on jam into the hole. Cut the cup off the plug and cover the jam filled hole. Ice the cup cake as normal covering the plug.

I added a dollop of raspberry jam to the top of each cup cake just before serving.