I am going out of my comfort zone and baking! I have never had an easy time doing it at sea level, and now my baking is at 6,000 feet up. I started with some baby steps and referenced a book as well as easy frosting short cuts.

The book is by Yotam Ottolenghi & Helen Goh called SWEET and has an AMAZING lemon raspberry cupcakes also BuzzFeed did a great write up on it as well– I added my pudding of choice Petit Pot. It is a great short cut and tastes so very delicious!

Hope you like this easy recipe – its well done. My modifications are noted below!

Recipe – Makes 12

Cupcakes

1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp/125 g unsalted butter, at room temperature

finely grated zest of 2 lemons (2 tsp)

1 cup plus 2 tbsp/225 g granulated sugar

3 large eggs

1/2 cup/120 g sour cream

1 ¼ cups/160 g all-purpose flour

1½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

1 ¼ cups/150 g fresh raspberries, plus 12 extra for garnish

Frosting

2 – Petit Pot pudding in Lemon Curd

8oz of mascarpone cheese

PREPARATION

To make the cupcakes,

1) Preheat the oven to 375°F/190°C ( or 400 if you are at high elevation like me) and line the 12 molds of a regular muffin pan with paper liners (if you don’t have liners, brush the molds and the top of the muffin pan with barely melted butter and dust all over with flour, tapping away the excess).

2) Place the butter, lemon zest and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment in place. Beat on medium-high speed for about 3 minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the paddle and sides of the bowl after each addition. Add the sour cream and beat until incorporated. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and add this to the mixer.

3) Continue to mix until combined, again scraping down the paddle and sides of the bowl. Increase the speed to high and beat for another 20 seconds. Lower the speed, add the raspberries and mix for just a few seconds so that the fruit breaks up and the mixture is roughly rippled with the raspberries.

4) Spoon the batter into the paper liners—they will be nearly full—and bake for about 22 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center of a cake comes out clean. Set aside in the pan to cool for 5 minutes before transferring the cakes to a wire rack to cool completely.

6) To make the frosting, place the lemon curd and mascarpone in the bowl of an electric mixer with the whisk attachment in place. Beat on medium speed until thick, about 1 minute.

Use a small spatula or butterknife to frost the cupcakes. Finish with a whole raspberry in the center of each cake and serve.

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