Chocolate Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream

Hi everyone,

There is something that I have always wanted to do all my life but have never got around to doing it. I recently made an order on Baking Pleasures for some of the cutest cupcake holders aswel as some of the cake decorating tips and edible pearls!!!

I eagerly awaited the delivery package in the mail. It finally came....and that ladies and gentlemens, is the beginning of my first adventure of decorating my own cupcakes : )

As you can see from the picture above, I am very proud of my final outcome : ) my first creation!!!! After multiple attempts at piping, burst piping bags, and deformed looking butter cream flowers, I finally manage to make a few very cute looking ones!! I am sooo excited and happy by the outcome and would have uploaded more photos, but I promised you guys last time that I would try to take really nice photos, out of the hundred photos we took, this was the only one that looked perfect!! Special thanks to my boyfriend for editing the photos and making them look extra delicious, mmm aswel as designing the awesome labels for me, from now on all my photos will have either 'Food' or 'Beauty' labels on them!!! hopefully more catergories will come up in the near future!!!

Also, another special thanks to my little cousins Thy and Tanya, who helped me with the prep and cooking of the cupcakes that night!! We had heaps of fun taking turns piping the flowers, and had a good laugh at all the not so perfect flowers : P besides, it didn't really matter how it looked, because the cupcakes were super delicious!!!!!

Here is our little recipe:

Ingredients: (make 12)
125g soft margarine
125g caster sugar
150g sifted self raising flour
2 eggs
2 tbsp cocoa powder
25g melted milk chocolate

Lemon buttercream
100g butter, softened
225g icing sugar
grated rind of 1/2 lemon
1tbsp of lemon juice

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Place 12 paper cupcakes in a cupcake tin. Place the margarine, caster sugar, flour, eggs and cocoa powder in a large bowl and beat until the mixture is just smooth. Beat in the melted chocolate.

2. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases, filling them 3/4 full. Baked in the oven for 15 minutes, or until well risen. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

3. For the buttercream, place the butter in a mixing bowl and beat until fluffy. Gradually add in the icing sugar, lemon rind and lemon juice, beating well with each addition.

4. Spoon the butter cream into a piping bad with your choice of tip. Experiment away!!!!!!

This is only the beginning of my cupcake decoration journey, and there will be many more delicious and adorable cupcake recipes to come, I promise!!
Hope you guys enjoy this post as much as I did!!! In the mean time, keep warm and eat lots of cupcakes : )

Happy reading
Fat Pom Pom