A lesson in reading the instructions carefully…

I found this recipe online but did not quite register that this was a recipe for 4 muffins. Instead I ended up with very lemony 12 mini cupcakes. They were not so bad, once they were iced, they tasted much less zingy. I also, because that was what I had in my cupboard, replaced the butter and sugar with the coconut varieties, however I am not really sure that this recipe lends itself to those ingredients. I have another poppyseed bottle in my baking cupboard so I will be making these again.

Ingredients
150g plain flour
1 level dessertspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
zest and juice of 3 lemons (reserve 1 tablespoon of juice for the icing)
25g poppy seeds
1 large egg
40g golden caster sugar
2 tablespoons milk
50g block butter, melted and cooled slightly
For the icing:
110g fondant icing sugar, sifted
3–4 teaspoons lemon juice

METHOD

1.Begin by sifting the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl, lifting the sieve up high to give the flour a good airing. Then, in another bowl, whisk together the lemon juice and zest, poppy seeds, egg, sugar, milk and melted butter. Now return the dry ingredients to the sieve and sift them straight into the egg mixture. (This double sifting is crucial because we won’t be doing much mixing.)

2.What you now need to do is take a large metal spoon and fold the dry ingredients into the wet ones – the key word here is quickly (i.e. in about 15 seconds). What you mustn’t do is beat or stir, just do the folding – ignore the uneven appearance of the mixture because it’s precisely this that makes the muffins really light.

3.Now divide the mixture between the muffin cases. Bake near the centre of the oven for 25–30 minutes until well-risen and golden brown. Remove the muffins from the oven and transfer them straight to a wire rack to cool.

4.When they’re absolutely cold add enough of the reserved lemon juice, a teaspoon at a time, to the icing sugar until you have a spreadable consistency. Then divide the icing between the cooled muffins and smooth it over the tops with a small palette knife.

When set, store in an airtight tin.