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 41-60

  • Binder photo xxangixx

    07 September 2010

    xxangixx rated and commented on this recipe

    3 stars

    The cakes turned out really well but a little bland for my liking, although the butter icing was lovely. Well worth making if you dont like your cakes too sweet and quite moist.

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  • Binder photo Catherine

    16 September 2010

    Catherine rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Very tastey and easy to make...although I haven't mastered the piping bag yet! I made 18 cakes with these quantities and they were just the right size

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  • Binder photo AnnC:-)

    16 September 2010

    AnnC:-) rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    Fantastic, these were my first attempt at cupcakes and I'm now hunting the GF site for more recipes. Light and moist, everyone loves them..... I decorated with chocolate balls in an effort to 'man them up' abit with living in a house with 3 males.. looked very professional

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  • Binder photo Anouska

    17 September 2010

    Anouska commented on this recipe

    I made a selection of cupcakes - these lemon and poppyseed ones, rose and whote chocolate, coffee and walnut and strawberry and clotted cream. The lemon ones were the easiest and by far my favourite! Going to be making plenty more!

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  • Binder photo CRAS

    18 September 2010

    CRAS rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    A little too much icing following the recipe quantities- which made the cakes slightly sickly. the cakes were so fluffy and light on the first day. i took them into work 2 days later and they were a bit bready so definitely worth eating day of/day after baking

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  • Binder photo Missdecision

    18 September 2010

    Missdecision rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I've tried this recipe and two other cupcake recipes on this website - one for chocolate and vanilla cupcakes and one for raspberry and orange cupcakes - this one proved most successful although I am a beginner!

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  • Binder photo ant halesowen

    20 September 2010

    ant halesowen rated and commented on this recipe

    4 stars

    I have never made cakes before and these were easy and very tasty and light everyone loved them

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  • Binder photo Jen

    20 September 2010

    Jen rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I made these for my office and other half during cupcake week as we obviously couldn't let it pass by without indulging! Honestly I've never had such praise for a cake as I did with these, they are the lightest most delicious little cakes ever!! I made them without the poppy seeds but I'm sure they would be lovely with them in. Only problem now is I'm under demand to produce this as a giant birthday cake for my other half tomorrow!! :) Fingers crossed!!

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  • Binder photo lockheart

    22 September 2010

    lockheart rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    simple and delicious

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  • Binder photo bwyd neis

    27 September 2010

    bwyd neis commented on this recipe

    I have only ever made them as small cakes, and they aren't around for long, they are incredibly tasty & sophisticated to boot! As the icing is plentiful, I always follow the recipe and freeze half of the icing, I then have the comfort of knowing that I'll be able to whip up a batch at a moments notice if we have visitors coming.

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  • Binder photo d41d0y

    29 September 2010

    d41d0y commented on this recipe

    I just made these! I tried making the icing with quark for a healthier option, but it failed badly! So if anyone has a good quark icing recipe I'd appreciate it. The tangy buttercream really compliments the fluffy sponge! I did what others did and only made half quantity for the icing. I also didn't have any sprinkles for the top so I used poppyseeds! They look cute!

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  • Binder photo Aniemother

    13 October 2010

    Aniemother rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    These cupcakes are lovely! I'm not entirely certain about the icing, but they still get 6 stars as the cupcakes themselves are so tasty I prefer them without icing anyways. ;) I also turned it into a cake for a wedding and it was a success!

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  • Binder photo d41d0y

    17 October 2010

    d41d0y rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    oops, forgot to rate!

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  • Binder photo Nadine

    01 November 2010

    Nadine rated this recipe

    5 stars

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  • Binder photo Aneesa

    10 November 2010

    Aneesa rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    I've been looking for the perfect lemon and poppyseed recipe and happy to say that I have finally found it.DELICIOUS!!

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  • Binder photo Mrs H

    15 November 2010

    Mrs H commented on this recipe

    bwyd neis - how long does the frosting take to defrost once you have taken it out of the freezer. Does it go a bit runny or is it the same consistency as when you make it "fresh"? Thanks!

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  • Binder photo aleksandra

    16 November 2010

    aleksandra rated this recipe

    5 stars

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  • Binder photo Krissy

    17 November 2010

    Krissy rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    These were lovely! I forgot to toast the poppy seeds but I don't think this really makes much difference & won't bother for future batches. I also didn't add yellow colouring but the icing was a pale yellow colour anyway. Lovely and light and really tasty tho!

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  • Binder photo nancysadler88

    17 November 2010

    nancysadler88 rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    These cakes tasted amazing, really moist and lemony. There was a bit too much icing though so some of it went to waste.

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  • Binder photo muffins4metoday

    18 November 2010

    muffins4metoday rated and commented on this recipe

    5 stars

    this is super very tasty i used 2 bananas instead of the yoghurt and it worked great. 10-10 thanks

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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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