Small bites – muffins, cupcakes, biscuits and slices – have a very special appeal, perhaps because they have a delightfully self – indulgent, ‘just for me’ feel about them!

Pretty and gorgeous look of cupcakes push me up to bake them. Top of these can also be decorated in a number of ways.

This is a recipe of simple lemon cupcake, top of which resembles like a butterfly. Children love small bites, so they will be thrilled to find a treat in their school lunchbox. I am sharing this recipe specially for my friends who are adorable mom to their children.

Ingredients for 12 cupcakes :

1. Self – raising flour – 115 gm.
2. Baking powder – ½ teaspoon
3. Soft butter/margarine – 8 tbspoon
4. Caster sugar – 115 gm.
5. Lightly beaten egg – 2
6. Milk – 2 tbspoon
7. Finely grated rind of ½ lemon

Lemon filling :

1. Soften butter – 6 tbspoon
2. Icing sugar/powdered sugar – 175 gm.
3. Lemon juice – 1tbspoon

   

Procedure :

Put 12 paper baking cases in a muffin tin, or place 12 double – layer paper cases on a baking sheet.

Sift the flour and baking powder in a large bowl. Add the butter/margarine, sugar, eggs, lemon rind and milk and, using an electric hand whisk, beat together until smooth. Spoon the batter into the paper cases (1 tbspoon in each paper case).

Bake the cupcakes in a preheated oven, 180°C for 15 minutes, or until well risen and golden brown.

Transfer to a wire rack to cool. As my muffin tin can bake only 6 cupcakes at one go, I had to repeat the process with the remaining batter. Here are my 12 cupcakes. Try to distribute the batter evenly in the paper cases as you can see in the picture below that my batter is not distributed evenly. Also the tops do not come out exactly even after baking, however that doesn’t make any difference.

To make the filling, put the butter in a bowl and beat until fluffy. Shift the icing sugar, add the lemon juice and beat together until smooth and creamy. Make sure that sugar is completely homogenized with the butter.

When the cupcakes are cold, use a serrated knife to cut a circle from the top of each cupcake and then cut each circle in half. Spread or pipe a little of the buttercream filling into the centre of each cupcake, then press the two semicircular halves into it at an angle to resemble butterfly wings.

Now you are ready to serve the delicious and pretty lemon butterfly cupcakes. 🙂

Note :

1. Since my oven is just a OTG oven which is much smaller than the modular ones, 180°C is the correct temperature for me. If you have a big one then set it at 190°C and bake for 15 – 20 minutes.
2. Scrape off only the rind of the lemon. Do not remove the pith, otherwise it will be bitter.