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 4g, carbohydrate 66g, fat 30 g, saturated fat 18g, fibre 1g, sugar 51g, salt 0.75 g

Recipe from Good Food magazine, May 2010.

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Latest comments and suggestions

Results 121-140

  • Binder photo Haylz85

    31 May 2011

    Haylz85 rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Delicious! I haven't done any baking since leaving school 10 years ago but these were a dream to make and are being gobbled up happily by the guys at the office. I made 3/4 quantity of the icing and still had plenty left over, but husband didn't seem to mind cleaning out the bowl.....

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  • Binder photo Adina

    07 June 2011

    Adina commented on this recipe

    It looks very very delicious might be my next dish to eat. looks very easy to ;)

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  • Binder photo monochromic

    10 June 2011

    monochromic rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    So pretty and incredibly tasty. Some cupcakes are incredibly sweet and stodgy but these were very light and the lemon lifted the laste beautifully. Perfect spring/summery cupcakes. I took these to work and people didn't believe that I'd made them myself! I bought poppy seeds from Sainsburys, they don't sell them in Tescos. Very highly recommended indeed.

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  • Binder photo monochromic

    10 June 2011

    monochromic commented on this recipe

    Oh and also, I didn't bother toasting the poppy seeds. Also had sooo much icing left over - I didn't go nuts with the icing though to try and keep the cals down a little - I didn't want inch-thick icing - mine did still look really pretty though.

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  • Binder photo VikCakeStar

    10 June 2011

    VikCakeStar commented on this recipe

    Tried using vanilla yogurt and replaced zest with teaspoon vanilla extract then upped sugar and flour by 10g eack. Success! Recommend for kids parties... but they take 10 mins LONGER to cook than said

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  • Binder photo bettyabout

    16 June 2011

    bettyabout rated this recipe

    5 stars

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  • Binder photo Betty Bakewell

    19 June 2011

    Betty Bakewell rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Easy to make and so delicious! These look great and very professional. Will be making these again next weekend for my afternoon tea party.

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  • Binder photo bythewey

    23 June 2011

    bythewey commented on this recipe

    Re: the egg situtation, if you look at the click on the eggs in bold and underlined in the ingredients list above, it takes you to a glossary page which states all Good Food recipes use large eggs unless stated!! Off to make some now, can't wait!

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  • Binder photo kitkat911

    23 June 2011

    kitkat911 commented on this recipe

    Does the yogurt make it guey inside?

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  • Binder photo kitkat911

    23 June 2011

    kitkat911 commented on this recipe

    Oh and can you make it with vanilla yogurt?

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  • Binder photo kitkat911

    23 June 2011

    kitkat911 commented on this recipe

    Oh and can you make it with vanilla yogurt?

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  • Binder photo mini-me

    27 June 2011

    mini-me commented on this recipe

    The recipe was very easy to follow n they also a hit @ my local golf club. Would def make again.

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  • Binder photo suepatterson

    04 July 2011

    suepatterson rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Fabulous cupcakes.. made them without the poppy seeds and where still gorgeous.. very moist.. five star from me!

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  • Binder photo gill, the family cook!!

    15 July 2011

    gill, the family cook!! rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    i made these cupcakes with the kids and they are fabulous. we found we had the prefect amount of icing! but we got 18 cakes out of receipe.....we will be making these on a regular basis for sure!!

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  • Binder photo ElianeSweety

    15 July 2011

    ElianeSweety rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    THE BEST cupcake I ever tryed!! Really delicious. I made it Flora Light and it is fantastic taste!! Thank you sooo much for that recipe.

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  • Binder photo Bonnie

    18 July 2011

    Bonnie commented on this recipe

    What a fantastic recipe!! I'm starting up my own home cooking business, and this was an absolute bestseller! I would love to find some more recipes by you , :) Bonnie Glendinning Age 13

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  • Binder photo ms armstrong

    19 July 2011

    ms armstrong commented on this recipe

    i made these cakes this evening for our daughter to give to her teacher, instead of using yogurt i used buttermilk, and i must say that they are to die for thankfully i got 16 out of the mix, so i will be able to part with a few for the teacher :-)

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  • Binder photo cake expectations

    29 July 2011

    cake expectations commented on this recipe

    Lovely cakes - light, airy, moist and easy to make. Very popular with everyone who ate them. Two things worth noting: no need to toast the poppyseeds at all; and the juice of a whole lemon for the icing makes it FAR too runny to pipe. Not the end of the world if you're happy to just drizzle it over the top of the cakes with a spoon or palette knife, but not great if you want pretty swirls of piped icing, in which case I'd suggest you add the lemon juice cautiously, a bit at a time. If you're worried about the frosting not tasting lemony enough because of using less juice, I'd just add some zest into the frosting instead.

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  • Binder photo cake expectations

    29 July 2011

    cake expectations rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    Forgot to rate! One other thing - they'd be lovely without the icing too.

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  • Binder photo home cooking

    02 August 2011

    home cooking commented on this recipe

    I made this recipie and substitited the butter in the cake for Flora Cuisine, to make them slightly lower in fat. They were a complete hit especially amongst my work collegues. I would highly recommend.

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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 4g, carbohydrate 66g, fat 30 g, saturated fat 18g, fibre 1g, sugar 51g, salt 0.75 g

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