Playful yummy bakes for modern home bakers
This is a delicious, simple, homely recipe that really makes me happy. Blueberry lemon drizzle bars. A comforting, rustic recipe that’s perfect for a casual teatime treat. Sweet and tart jam (with extra fresh blueberries for added zing) with comforting lemon shortbread. Yum. A simple …
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Lemon drizzle baked doughnuts are full of spring time flavours. If you love a lemon drizzle you’ll love this playful and delicious bake. This is a light baked doughnut full of lemon and topped with a zingy lemon icing and drizzle topping. Light, fresh and full of citrus. Such a winner and a perfect bake for Easter.
No mixer, just a bowl and spoon needed to make these goodies. If you have special doughnut tins that’s great, if not, using a muffin pan and decorate with the icing– it’ll still be just as delicious.
250g self rising flour
120g caster sugar
2 large eggs
¼ tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
180ml milk
Zest 2 lemons
450g icing sugar (sifted) Plus extra 75g icing sugar and hot wat
4 tbsp lemon juice (approx 1 ½ lemons)
Yellow food colouring (optional)
Plus extra 75g icing sugar and hot water approx 1 tbsp for the white drizzle (optional)
If you like you can add the zest from another lemon to the tops of each doughnut for extra flavour.
Makes 12 baked doughnuts
Pre-heat the oven to 220°C (200°C in fan oven) Gas Mark 7.
Line the doughnut tins with baking spray and flour and leave to one side. If you don’t have baking spray, pop a bit of oil onto some kitchen towel and wipe across the inside of each doughnut mould.
Weigh out the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder) and sift into a large mixing bowl. Then add the caster sugar. Stir to combine then leave to one side.
Measure the milk into a jug. Crack in the eggs and add the vanilla extract, lemon zest and oil into the liquids. Stir to combine.
Add the wet ingredients into the dry, gradually to avoid lumps. (Don’t worry too much if there are a few lumps, it’s a bit like making muffins, better not to overmix and have a light batter than to have a super smooth consistency and have heavy doughnuts.)
Pour the mixture into a jug then fill each mould ½ full (the mixture rises quite a bit).
Bake in the middle shelf of the oven for 7 minutes. (It honestly doesn’t take long at all – you just want the mixture to be springy to the touch and just coming away from the sides).
Leave to cool for 5/10 minutes in the tin and then using a knife gently go around the outside of each doughnut to loosen and take out of the tin. They should come out easily. Leave on a wire rack to cool.
Measure and sieve out the icing sugar (this can sometimes feel quite time consuming but you really need to, nobody wants lumpy icing). Then gradually add the lemon juice from the lemons you zested earlier. . The lovely thing about this type of icing is that if it’s a little thick, just add more water or lemon juice and if its too runny add another tablespoon of water. It’s very forgiving that way. No stress here. The consistency you’re after is pretty thick; just pouring off a spoon. Too runny and it will just run off the sides.
If you want to add in a few drops of yellow food colouring at this stage. I like to add a little because it creates a lovely lemon colour which contrasts well with the white drizzle if you choose to add it. Gel food colouring is so great. It adds so much colour even with the smallest amount and compared to liquid colouring doesn’t water down your icing. I always use ProGel, it works so well.
Using a spoon, coat each baked doughnut in the icing and place back on the cooling rack.
Once you’ve iced all of the doughnuts, you can fill a piping bag with some additional water icing and drizzle it over the iced doughnuts and then add some extra lemon zest to each.
The doughnuts are best eaten on the day they are made and will keep in an airtight container for 2 days.
Love lemon and want more baking ideas? Try our Raspberry ripple lemon mousse or Lemon and blueberry cupcakes or Lemon ginger carrot cake cupcakes
Want more baked doughnut recipes? Try our Double Chocolate Baked Doughnuts
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These lemon and blueberry cupcakes are such a treat. Beautiful, stylish but most importantly delicious. A gorgeous lemon sponge covered in a smooth and vanilla buttercream spiked with a dash of lemon curd and topped with tart and sweet blueberry jam. A gorgeous treat for citrus lovers and particularly a springtime treat as we emerge from the frost and the warm and comforting flavours of winter.
170g self rising flour
170g caster sugar
170g softened unsalted butter
3 eggs
¼ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
Zest of 2 lemons
For the vanilla, lemon curd buttercream icing:
400g sifted icing sugar
220g softened unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp lemon curd
¼ tsp salt
Approx. 1tsp blueberry jam on each cupcake
Decorate with blueberries and lemon slices
Makes 12 cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 170°C, GM3.
Line a muffin tin with 12 cases and leave aside while you make the mixture.
Weigh out all of your ingredients.
In a separate bowl, sift the self rising flour and salt.
Using a food mixer, or free standing whisk, combine the sugar and butter together until it forms a light, creamy consistency. This will only take a few minutes with a food mixer. Then gradually add one egg at a time, leaving plenty of time for the egg to incorporate into the mixture before adding the next and keep the mixer running at a fairly high speed while doing this; this will help the mixture from curdling. You can also add a tablespoon of flour after each egg at this stage to help prevent curdling too.
Once the eggs have all been added, add in the dry ingredients and on a slow speed mix until they have only just combined. Then add the vanilla extract and lemon zest and fold into the cake mixture.
Using a medium ice cream scoop or two spoons, portion the mixture out amongst the cake cases. Take care not to overfill the cases as the mixture will rise more as it bakes. Half fill each case with batter.
Bake in the middle shelf of the oven, turning the pan ¾ way through cooking time to help the cakes cook evenly. This should take between 18-20 minutes.
To test if the cakes are cooked, use a cake skewer and insert into the middle of one of the cakes and if it comes away clean then they are cooked. The cakes should also spring back when touched.
Transfer the cakes to a wire rack to cool completely before icing. Cupcakes cool down really quickly so this will take less than 30 minutes.
While you wait, you can prepare the icing.
To make the icing add the butter to a food mixer and cream it for a few minutes to make sure everything is very smooth before gradually starting to add the icing sugar. Once the mixture is combined and everything is light and fluffy (the longer you mix, the fluffier the mixture will get) then add the vanilla extract, lemon curd and salt and mix for a final time.
Then using a piping bag, swirl the buttercream onto each cupcake (or if you don’t have a piping bag you can use a palette knife and smooth it over the cupcakes). In the middle of each cake add a spoonful of jam and then top with the blueberry jam and blueberry or lemon slices. You can either use lemon zest, fresh lemon slices or dehydrated lemon for decoration.
The cakes should keep well in an airtight container for up to 3 days. It is best to decorate the cakes with the fruit toppings on the day that you are planning to serve them, otherwise they could go a little soggy.
For baking, make sure that all of your ingredients are at room temperature, including the eggs, it will help all of the ingredients combine together well.
An ice cream scoop is a great tool to help ensure that your cupcakes are the same size when they are baked.
Weigh out all of your ingredients in advance; yes this means more bowls and more washing up, but the positive is that you have everything ready before you start, so you only have to think about the process of making the cake, instead of rushing to find the next ingredient and weigh it out while the mixer is running.
The easiest way to fill a piping bag is to open the bag into a tall glass and bend the top over the sides of the glass, then fill with the icing.
Looking for more cake recipes? Why not try my Chocolate nutella muffins – with a crunchie topping – these are so simple, no mixer required and with the nutella topping and crunchie sweets on top, a real crowd pleaser.
Love citrus? Give my Lemon ginger carrot cake cupcakes a go – they are gorgeous. Sweet, rich with spice and the ginger and lemon are super together.
Want more lemon inspiration? Check out BBC food for more lemon recipe ideas. So much to choose from.