White Chocolate & Lemon Cupcakes

Preparation

• 1
  Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, 160 degrees fan oven.
• 2
  Chop 100g of white chocolate into small pieces. Zest the lemon finely and squeeze the juice into a small bowl.
• 3
  To make the cake mixture, cut the butter into small pieces and cream until smooth. Add the caster sugar and cream together well. Whisk the eggs and then beat the egg into the mixture a little at a time. Stir in the vanilla extract, a good pinch of lemon zest and a tablespoon of lemon juice, reserving the rest of the juice for the topping.
• 4
  Sift and fold in the flour, then stir in the chopped chocolate. If the mixture is too stiff, just mix in a splash of milk.
• 5
  Spoon the mixture into small paper cases, placed in bun tins. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-18 minutes, until the tops begin to brown and a skewer comes out clean. Set aside to cool.
• 6
  To make the topping, cut the butter into small pieces and cream until soft. Gradually add the icing sugar and cream together well. Stir in the vanilla extract, and the lemon juice to taste.
• 7
  Roughly chop the chocolate then melt over a low heat. Allow to cool slightly before beating in to the buttercream.
• 8
  Spoon the mixture into a piping bag and pipe on to the cakes, then press a sugar daisy on the top of each one. (I chose daisies to match the colours of white chocolate and lemon, but any sugar decorations, flowers, butterflies etc. will look just as pretty.)