Lemon poppyseed cupcakes {Recipe}

These lemon poppyseed cupcakes are from the book, Bake Me I'm Yours... Cupcake Love, by Zoe Clark.  It is such a good book and I love the ideas she has given for decorating cupcakes as well as all her recipes.  These cupcakes are yummy and very light and fluffy.  You can also switch the lemon for orange, which is equally tasty. The only thing I have changed is not soaking the poppyseeds in milk as I found the texture a little too crunchy, but that is my personal preference.

Recipe for Lemon poppyseed cupcakes (makes 12)


1 1/2 tbsp poppyseeds
200ml milk
100g butter
120g sugar
2 tsp lemon zest
2 eggs
240g self-raising flour

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees C.
2. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs, one at a time.
4. Sift flour and add poppyseeds to the flour.  Add flour mixture to egg, folding in til just combined.
5. Add milk and fold into mixture.
6. Spoon into cupcake liners and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of a cupcake comes out clean. 
7. Cool for 5-10 minutes in the pan before turning out onto a wire rack.

Happy Baking!

Angelina Ballerina and Tinkerbell figurines

A while ago, I was asked by one of my students if I could help her make a couple of figurines for her niece's birthday.  I jumped at the challenge to make Angelina and Tinkerbell and I was really happy that she liked them.  Angelina was pretty easy to do, but Tinkerbell was a challenge.  I guess it's harder to try to sculpt a  'human' face than a cartoon (for me anyway) and it was my first time doing both.  I was really pleased with how Angelina turned out and Tinkerbell came out alright as well I guess. 

I used a long bamboo skewer as a head to toe support for both figurines as well as thin florist wires to help hold the arms and legs up.  If you've ever watched Cake Boss, you will see they do something similar so I was trying to go with that in mind.  I think they use modelling chocolate for their figurines as it is easier to sculpt with and perhaps even more forgiving, but I used fondant.  Certainly something to try in the future with modelling chocolate.  I started of making the wings for Tinkerbell with gelatine but they didnt turn out too well (too many bubbles) so I will have to work on that.  As they did not have to be edible, I finally went with plastic transparency and I painted them with silver dust. 

For a basic tutorial on how to make a simple fondant figurine, please click here.

Happy decorating! :)