Last week I made a really, really lovely lemon and elderflower gin meringue pie and I had a little bit of the lemon filling left over. Usually I save this to spoon over ice cream, but as I was in a baking mood, I thought I’d make some Lemon and Elderflower Surprise Cupcakes. My son who loves to bake got in on the action too, so he can vouch that they’re great to bake with kids.
If you don’t happen to have some lemon and elderflower gin meringue pie filling left over, you could use some lemon curd instead. If you opt for the lemon curd option, but feel you’re missing out on the elderflower gin, you could always pour yourself a refreshing Lakes Distillery gin to have on the side.
I would normally ice my cupcakes with a buttercream swirl, but I had a squeezy pouch of Cake Angels Zingy Lemon Frosting in the cupboard, so I thought I’d use that. I thought it would swirl like buttercream, but I couldn’t get it to pipe the way I wanted it to. In the end I put enough frosting on each of the lemon and elderflower surprise cupcakes to cover the top and let in run so it was more of a glaze than a cupcake topping. If you don’t have this, I think these cupcakes would be lovely with a lemon drizzle topping.
To make the cupcakes, I used my fail-safe sponge recipe which worked an absolute treat. The recipe is enough for 12 good-sized cupcakes. Here’s how we did it.
Lemon and Elderflower Surprise Cupcakes
Ingredients:
150 g caster sugar
150 g softened butter or margarine (I use Stork)
3 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 tbsp milk
150 g self-raising flour
1 level tsp baking powder
Leftover Lemon and Elderflower Gin Meringue Pie filling – or – half a jar of lemon curd
Cake Angels Zingy Lemon Frosting – or – lemon drizzle icing
Method:
Heat your fan oven to 190c. In a large bowl, beat your butter and sugar together until fluffy (I used a hand mixer). Add the eggs, milk and vanilla and combine. Add the flour and baking powder and mix together until you have a smooth batter.
Put 12 cupcake cases in a muffin or bun tin, divide the mixture generously between the 12 cases and bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Once bakes, remove and leave them to cool.
Once cool, using a sharp knife cut a deep circle out of the top of the cake, remove the circle and fill the hole with leftover lemon and elderflower gin meringue pie filling or lemon curd. Cut some of the cake off the cupcake lid and put the lid back on top of your cupcake.
Cover with the Cake Angels Zingy Lemon Frosting or a spoon or two of the lemon drizzle icing if you’re using that. Leave to set and then serve with a nice cup of tea, or a large G&T.
Oh, and the surprise? The lovely, slightly runny lemony loveliness in the middle of the cupcake.
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