Lemon & poppyseed cupcakes

Lemon & poppyseed cupcakes

These zesty cupcakes look so gorgeous you won't want to eat them, but once you start you won't be able to stop

Difficulty and servings

Moderately easy

Makes 12

Easily doubled

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 40 mins

Cook time

Cook 22 mins

Plus cooling
Freezable

Can be frozen un-iced

Method

  1. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line a 12-hole muffin tin with cupcake or muffin cases. Mix the flour, sugar, lemon zest and poppy seeds together in a large mixing bowl. Beat the eggs into the yogurt, then tip this into the dry ingredients with the melted butter. Mix together with a wooden spoon or whisk until lump-free, then divide between the cases. Bake for 20-22 mins until a skewer poked in comes out clean - the cakes will be quite pale on top still. Cool for 5 mins in the tin, then carefully lift onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
  2. To ice, beat the softened butter until really soft in a large bowl, then gradually beat in the icing sugar and lemon juice. Stir in enough food colouring for a pale lemon colour, then spoon the icing into a piping bag with a large star nozzle.
  3. Ice one cake at a time, holding the piping bag almost upright with the nozzle about 1cm from the surface of the cake. Pipe one spiral of icing around the edge, then pause to break the flow before moving the nozzle towards the centre slightly and piping a second, smaller spiral that continues until there are no gaps in the centre. Slightly 'dot' the nozzle into the icing as you stop squeezing to finish neatly. Repeat to cover all the cakes, then top with sugar decorations or scatter with sprinkles.

Per serving

529 kcalories, protein 4.0g, carbohydrate 66.0g, fat 30.0 g, saturated fat 18.0g, fibre 1.0g, sugar 51.0g, salt 0.75 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, May 2010.

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Latest comments and suggestions

Results 1-20

  • 2010-04-18 20:02:23.289269

    Joanna rated this recipe

    5 stars

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  • 2010-04-19 08:14:23.716342

    Nicola rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Lovely! Very simple to make, come out very light and airy, delicious tasting and they also keep quite well for a few days! They are so good, I'm making them for my wedding!

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  • 2010-04-19 16:43:09.573801

    Potatohead commented on this recipe

    Are the eggs large or medium??

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  • 2010-04-19 18:00:32.329701

    annamac rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Cakes turned out really nicely and the lemon in the butter icing made them not too sickly.

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  • 2010-04-23 16:53:53.416978

    Morven2 rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    These are delicious and incredibly easy. Everyone that tried mine loved them. I'll need to bake a batch a week to keep the office happy now!

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  • 2010-04-24 12:12:33.764627

    Smilin rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I made these instead of a birthday cake for a friends daughter (her twin brother had a chocolate cake from an earlier issue made for him) and they went down a storm. I was told that they were incredibly light and fresh tasting and were very moreish. They looked beautiful and were very simple to make, I am going to try to make them gluten free so that I can sample them myself. Perfect for a girls birthday when you fancy something slightly different.

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  • 2010-04-26 10:54:08.187996

    Carmen commented on this recipe

    Very quick and easy. Everbody loved them. Wondering if I can make a lighter version substituting some of the butter for something else. Open for suggestions.

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  • 2010-04-30 07:36:55.044244

    Carla commented on this recipe

    I made these for a girly party I had and they went down a storm, easy to make and look very very impressive!! :D In answer to the egg question, i usually buy medium eggs so I'm assuming I made mine with those.

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  • 2010-05-02 23:13:11.176811

    Maggie rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I made these cupcakes for a bbq last week and it went down a storm. So easy to make, and taste fantastic!!!! Would recommend to everyone to try

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  • 2010-05-06 07:49:16.822817

    meryl commented on this recipe

    great recipe, easy to make, made some for a church cake stall and sold them in minutes with requests for more. Definately a 5* recipe

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  • Binder photo KJ

    2010-05-09 11:58:50.90929

    KJ rated this recipe

    4 stars

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  • 2010-05-10 17:39:50.129529

    jkarens rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Delicious and incredibly easy! Sponge is light and fluffy and the poppy seeds give a great texture!

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  • 2010-05-13 22:54:25.565771

    gdit89 rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Great recipe, would recommend. However i followed the quantities for the buttercream icing, and found it to make far too much for 12 cupcakes. 400g of butter between 12 cupcakes is a lot; the next time i will cut the icing in half which will keep the butter quantity under 300g. I also used the juice of 2 lemons to make the icing a bit zingier. This was lovely though the icing is a lot thinner as a result.

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  • 2010-05-15 16:27:11.733467

    Anneli rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Great recipe! Turned out well - although my mixture made about 18 cakes, rather than 12 - more than enough icing, but that was because my icing bag split half-way! How do make the cakes rise straight up - mine kind of went outwards and upwards so didn't exactly look like the picture...! Oh, and I used large eggs. Not sure it makes much difference, but am new to this baking!

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  • 2010-05-17 08:47:26.185473

    becky rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    someone asked me, 'do you make these professionaly'? Ha, no but that tells you how good people thought they were!

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  • 2010-05-18 12:12:18.217978

    Claire.Pie rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    I made these cakes last week and was really pleased with how they turned out, but I think next time I'm going to split the mixture into maybe 20 smaller cakes rather than 12 as they were just a bit too big to manage!

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  • 2010-05-21 11:49:27.855399

    Rocklobster rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Took some of these to work and so far four people have asked me for the recipe. I also halved the icing, which made enough for twelve large cupcakes, with the added bonus of leaving enough in the bowl for my teenage to eat with a teaspoon!

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  • 2010-05-25 15:12:16.626536

    parheff rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Really lovely cupcakes, nice and simple to make. Would have to agree gdit89 about using two lemons for the icing - I did that and probably could have gone for a bit more (but I love lemon!). Would make them again.

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  • Binder photo Kim

    2010-05-29 18:33:49.501983

    Kim commented on this recipe

    I make these cakes with Doves Gluten Free Flour, with gluten free Baking Powder, and because of a Bovine Dairy intolerance made with Goats yoghurt. Brilliant! I have the pickiest three teenagers in all of Christendom and they never noticed a thing. Scoffed the lot and asked for more. Just remember use different icing if bovine dairy intolerant -try the pistachio cupcake icing with yellow colour instead. Also a spoonful or two of soya milk to avoid the cakes being dry. Gluten Free flour tends to be dry.

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  • 2010-06-04 20:50:04.970541

    Ruxandra commented on this recipe

    Hi! I was browsing through the site and i was wondering how much does "a serving" (per serving) mean? In this case, a cupcake? Thank you

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Difficulty and servings

Moderately easy

Makes 12

Easily doubled

Preparation and cooking times

Preparation time

Prep 40 mins

Cook time

Cook 22 mins

Plus cooling
Freezable

Can be frozen un-iced

Ingredients

  • 225g self-raising flour
  • 175g golden caster sugar
  • zest 2 lemons
  • 1 tbsp poppy seeds , toasted
  • 3 eggs
  • 100g natural yogurt
  • 175g butter , melted and cooled a little

FOR THE ICING

  • 225g butter , softened
  • 400g icing sugar , sifted
  • juice 1 lemon
  • few drops yellow food colouring
  • icing flowers or yellow sprinkles, to decorate
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Per serving

529 kcalories, protein 4.0g, carbohydrate 66.0g, fat 30.0 g, saturated fat 18.0g, fibre 1.0g, sugar 51.0g, salt 0.75 g

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