Dairy-free lemon cupcakes with lemon curd

I should definitely be heading to bed, but seeing as I don't have to be in work until 7 tomorrow (I can't believed that 6.30am is now a bit of a lie in....) and I haven't updated this for over a week I thought I should . I've made a couple of things since my last post. I should really admit that I've made a set of mini apple pies, strawberry cupcakes, lemon cupcakes, dairy-free lemon cupcakes, and an 18th birthday cake.

I think I can safely say that I bake too much. I have, however, made a discovery. If you use butter instead of marg in a cake it doesn't curdle! Magic, I know! I haven't decided which taste I prefer though, as marg does give a lighter texture. I'm determined to do a proper test soon.

I only have photos of the finished product, but I wanted to share my dairy-free lemon cupcake recipe. It was a friend of mine's birthday a while ago, and I hadn't got her a birthday present (shame on me). So I decided to make her rose cupcakes as I recently saw a youtube video on how to pipe the icing into a rose - it's easy to do, you just need to right nozzle - a Wilton 2D, and then type into youtube 'pipe rose cupcake icing', and it'll show you how to do it :)

Now, I decided this time to put a spoonful of lemon curd in the bottom of each cupcake case, which worked nicely! So, for this recipe first you need to make lemon curd - which is happily a very easy process. I follow Delia Smith's recipe. Just substituting soya marg for butter for dairy-free goodness.

grated ring and juice of 1 large, juicy lemon
3 oz caster sugar (75g)
2 large eggs
2 oz unsalted butter (50g)

Place the grated lemon rind and sugar in a bowl.

In another bowl whisk the lemon juice together with the eggs, then pour this mix onto the sugar. Add the butter, cut up into little pieces, and place the bowl over a saucepan with barely simmering water.

This is what it looks like as it starts to melt

Once the butter melts you'll need to stir a little more frequently

It'll eventually start to thicken, just keep stirring until it's fairly thick - though remember it'll thicken up more later once it's been in the fridge for a bit

She says stir frequently for about 20 mins, but the first while (maybe 10) mins, you don't really need to. The key is to catch it just before it turns!! It gets quite thick, but not the thickness you expect, but once you've put it in the fridge for a bit, it'll spread nicely onto scones :) It'll keep for about a week in a sealed jar. It'll look funny for a while at the beginning (particularly when using soya marg) but just keep stirring and it'll take shape eventually, and it tastes gorgeous!

Then for the lemon cupcakes

125g self raising flour
125g soya marg
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
1 lemon, zest and a bit of juice

1. Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy
2. Add eggs one at a time following each by a spoonful of flour. Beat until light and fluffy.
3. Add the lemon zest and a squeeze of the juice
4. Sieve in remaining flour and fold in.
5. Spoon into cake cases and cook for 12-15 mins at 180C
6. Leave in tin for a few mins after cooking, then remove and leave on cooling rack to cool completely

For the icing...
Soya marg/butter/normal marg
icing sugar
lemon juice
lemon zest or lemon essence

Beat the marg/butter. Add icing sugar until it tastes good. Then add a squeeze of lemon juice. I also add half a spoonful of lemon essence, as I didn't want to put any zest in which would block the nozzle that I used to pipe the icing. (Lemon essence is a brilliant thing and you can find it in the baking section of any supermarket - it's the zest flavour, rather than the juice flavour that you get from it, which is very handy if you like lemony things like I do)

This was the result of my first attempt at piping roses. I want to have a go again soon. Probably with ganache next time. I've seen some really beautiful ones that others have done, so I'll keep practising :)