Lemon Curd Cupcakes

These cupcakes are really delicious. They are a vanilla sponge containing ground almonds with a lemon curd filling and zesty lemon icing. These taste great straight out of the oven when the lemon curd is still warm and oozes out of the centre when you bite into it – but they are equally lovely when left to cool and iced and the lemon curd soaks into the sponge to create a moist and lemony sponge. I used Nigel Slater’s recipe for the lemon curd.

150ml yogurt
3 eggs
1tsp vanilla extract
175g caster sugar
140g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
100g ground almonds
175g melted butter
Lemon Curd
100g Icing sugar
zest and juice of half a lemon

Beat the eggs, yogurt and vanilla extract in a bowl and set aside.

In a larger bowl add the sugar, flour, baking powder, almonds and make a well in the centre. Fold in the yogurt mixture and the melted butter. Make sure that you do not over-mix otherwise the sponge will become to heavy.

Line a muffin tin with paper cases and fill two thirds of the case with the cake mixture. Then add a teaspoon of lemon curd and top with some more of the mixture. Make sure the lemon curd is totally covered in the mixture otherwise it will bubble out the top of the cake when it cooks in the oven.

Bake at 180c for 15-20mins and until golden. Leave the cakes to cool while you mix the icing sugar with the lemon juice and zest. When cakes are completely cool top with the icing and enjoy!!!