This is a pretty, summery cupcake. I made it for Mother’s Day and it went down a treat!

Ingredients:
makes 12

• 100g unsalted butter, softened
• 100g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 100g flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 lemon (zest)
• 1 punnet of raspberries

For the frosting:

• 50g butter, softened
• 100g cream cheese
• 250g icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp rose water (less or more depending on the strength of your rose water)

For the decoration:

• 12 raspberries
• red food colouring
• rose petals or lemon sweets

Tips before you start:

• Take the eggs out of the fridge and let them come to room temperature before you start, as cold eggs can make your mixture curdle. If this happens none the less, you can save it by taking a little of your measured flour and mixing it in slowly.
• Make sure you let your raspberries dry well after washing them, as any extra moisture could make your cupcakes soggy.
• Test the strength of your rose water, I’ve experienced huge differences in the strength of the flavour. If it’s very subtle, you will need to add more and therefore reduce the amount of cream cheese, as the frosting will otherwise become too runny.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Sift in the flour and and the baking powder, add the zest of one lemon and mix until just combined. Fill into the cupcake cases. Now comes the fun bit: carefully press one or two raspberries into the middle of each cupcake and smooth over the mixture on top. Bake for 10-15 minutes. Place onto a wire rack to cool. Meanwhile, cream the butter with half of the icing sugar. Incorporate the cream cheese, then the rest of the icing sugar. Add the rose water. Mix until smooth, but don’t over-mix. You want the frosting to be fairly stiff, so that it will hold its shape. Divide the mixture into two. Colour one half with the red food colouring, making a deep pink colour. Fill your piping bag with the pink frosting on one side and the white on the other. This should give a pretty swirl effect when piped onto the cupcakes. Place a raspberry and a lemon sweet on top of each cupcakes or sprinkle with rose petals. Enjoy, preferably outside in the sunshine with a cup of flowery Earl Grey!