150gunsalted butter at room temperature | 1 1/4 sticks
Juice of 1/2 lemon
A few drops lemon extract
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Raspberry buttercream
2-3tbspraspberry purée
Pink food colouring
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Syrupoptional
Juice of 1 lemon
2tbspcaster sugar
1tbspwater
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Lemon glaze
Juice of 1 lemon
100-200gicing sugar | 1-2 cups
Boiling water if needed
1pot pastel sprinkles
Instructions
To make the raspberry purée, put all the ingredients in a pan. Bring to the boil then simmer gently until the sugar dissolves and the sauce reduces slightly. Use a potato masher to muddle the raspberries then sieve them to get rid of the seeds. Set aside to cool.
Preheat the oven to 180C | 350F. Combine the flour, almonds, baking powder, salt and zest.
Cream the butter and sugar until pale coloured and fluffy. Add one egg and whisk until completely incorporated. Repeat with remaining eggs adding 1 tablespoon of flour mixture with each one.
Add remaining flour and lemon extract and whisk until combined. Note: best if all ingredients are at room temperature otherwise the batter may curdle.
Put 1/3 of the batter in a bowl and add the raspberry purée and enough food colouring to create a nice pink colour. Pour into a small tray (or in cupcake cases) - you will need a thin layer. Bake for 10-15 minutes then cool. Stamp out small heart shapes with a cutter.
Line your muffin tin with cupcake cases. Put about 1 tablespoon of batter in each case then place a heart at the centre facing up. Carefully spoon more batter around the heart and then just cover it with a thin layer of batter. It is important not to overfill the cases as the batter will rise. Bake for 20-25 minutes until firm. Try not to overbake as cupcakes may become a bit dry.
While the cupcakes are baking put all ingredients for the syrup in a pan and heat gently until sugar dissolves. Brush a little of the syrup on each of the cupcakes as they are cooling (optional - it increases moistness and flavour though).
To make the lemon glaze mix all the ingredients together with a whisk until you have a thin glaze. Adjust the consistency with boiling water if too thick. Pour your sprinkles in a plate. Either brush or dip the cupcakes in the glaze then immediately dip into the sprinkles.
To make the buttercream, whisk all the ingredients together on high speed for several minutes until you have smooth, stiff peaks. Put half of the buttercream in a bowl. Tint the remaining buttercream with raspberry purée and a bit of food colouring - you will need to add more icing sugar to achieve stiff peaks as the purée will thin it out.
Fit a large piping bag with a large star tip. Lay the bag on it's side and carefully fill half the side of the bag with lemon buttercream. Flip over and fill the other side with raspberry buttercream. This will create the swirl effect. Pipe the buttercream on the cupcakes.