Lemon Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream butter and sugar until it is very pale.

Add lemon juice and zest from 2 of the lemons and mix well.

Keeping the mixer on the slowest speed, slowly add about half a cup of the sifted flour and baking powder to the creamed mixture, adding about half a cup of the buttermilk as you go. The mixture should be not too runny or too thick, if it is a little thick add more buttermilk, if its too thin, add a little more sifted flour.

Place cupcake liners in your muffin pans, then fill each liner approximately two thirds full.

Bake in fan forced oven for 17 minutes at 180 degrees celsius.

Check the cupcakes with a skewer to make sure they are cooked, they should be a light golden colour.

Allow to cool for at least an hour, while they cool make your cream cheese frosting.

Place soft (room temperature) cream cheese in your mixer, cream this until it is smooth with no lumps.

Slowly add the sifted icing sugar, adding the juice and zest from the third lemon as you go, continue to cream until the frosting is light and fluffy, this takes around 5 minutes.

Place frosting in a piping bag, using a large frosting nozzle is best to get plenty of frosting on the cupcakes, but a smaller one will work too.

Starting on the outer edge of the cupcake, squeeze the frosting on to the cup cake. The trick is to not stop once you have started. Just keep squeezing the icing until your rosette is finished you have your desired amount of frosting on the cupcake.