cupcake anyone?

on tuesday i was hanging washing on the line when my newish neighbour whom i hadn't met before called out to ask me if i wanted some lemons from her tree which i surely did thankyou very much indeed..i wanted to ask her if she had psychic powers when she gave them to me because i'd had my lustful eye on that burgeoning tree so full of delicious looking lemony goldenness for a while..it's not as if i can't buy lemons but for me a home grown lemon is so much better and these home grown lemons are truly beautiful..they are large with bright yellow unblemished flesh with just the right amount of pith and juice..

i never tire of cupcakes even though i've been making them since my children were little and 

despite the fact that they are in danger of taking over the world..and because i wanted to use those luscious lemons and because i needed to make a sweet for dinner last night i decided to make lemon curd cupcakes..i make all sorts of different cupcake batters and the one that gets an airing depends on my mood at the time..but yesterday i decided to try a new cake batter and it's success means that the other batters are in serious danger of being served with a recipe folder eviction notice..

cupcake batter

ingredients

155 gms self raising flour sifted

155 gms castor sugar

155 gms unsalted butter

2 eggs

75 mls milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

method

cream butter and castor sugar until pale and fluffy

beat in eggs one at a time 

add flour, milk and vanilla and beat until mixture is smooth

place in 12 cupcake cases and bake at 180 deg c for approximately 15 minutes or until golden and cooked in the centre 

lemon curd*

ingredients
2/3 cup castor sugar
60 gms unsalted butter
yolks 4 eggs
100 mls lemon juice
2 tsp grated lemon zest
method 
beat sugar and egg yolks until well incorporated
place in saucepan with other ingredients and cook over medium heat stirring constantly until just simmering and thickened
cool before use

once the cupcakes are cooled cut a large deep circle from the top of each cake, fill with a teaspoon or so of organic double cream and a generous teaspoon of lemon curd, put the circle back on and then dust with icing sugar..

and then eat one..or two..

* lemon curd recipe from 'the cook's companion' by stephanie alexander

edit note 17 october 2011: since my original post i've made these cupcakes again and i increased the sugar in the lemon curd from 2/3 to 3/4 of a cup (unusual for me because i usually find i need to decrease the sugar in recipes) and i cooked the curd in a double boiler to prevent it catching on the bottom which it did last time..