Lemon & Chocolate Fairycakes

As easy and effortless as these are I really don’t know why I don’t bake more often. Although I suspect the answer has something to do with the bathroom scales... Anyway, today was a really hectic day at work, so I decided we all could do with a little reward and cheering up, and so when I got home this evening I whipped these up in no time at all.

Makes 12 fairycakes

For the fairycakes

130g butter

130g granulated sugar

the zest of ½ large lemon

20g milk chocolate

2 medium eggs

150g plain flour

¼ teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon lemon juice

For the icing

75g cream cheese

30g butter

180g icing sugar

the zest of ½ large lemon

½ teaspoon lemon juice

¼ teaspoon yellow food colouring

sweets for decoration

Pre-heat your oven to 180^oC

Cream the sugar and butter in an electric mixer until the mixture is light and fluffy. Alternatively, do it by hand. This takes a little while, but it is worth getting the mixture as light and as fluffy as you can, as this improves the texture of the cakes.

Zest a lemon, and add half of this to the cake mixture. As always when zesting lemons; make sure you don’t get any of the white pith in with the zest, as this is very bitter.

Also grate the milk chocolate on a fine grater, so that you have a fine powdery result.

Add the eggs, one at a time, and stir well until you have an even mixture.

Mix the flour and baking powder and sift these into the mixture. Carefully stir until you have a smooth cake dough. It’s worth being careful here, as you don’t want to overwork your mixture. This releases the gluten in the flour, and makes the cakes more rubbery.

Finally add the lemon juice and mix it in.

Fill 12 cupcake cases and bake in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean after being inserted into the middle of a cake.

To make the icing; mix the butter, cream cheese and icing sugar in a large bowl. When the mixture is smooth; add the lemon zest, lemon juice and food colouring. Mix well, and spoon into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle. Squirt the icing onto the fairy cakes, and decorate with sweets.