Summer Cupcakes

On the weekend I made these cute cupcakes using my favourite summer fruits: nectarines, strawberries and passion fruit.

Here's what you'll need to make them: 125g butter, 1 cup caster sugar, 2 eggs, 1 1/2 cups SR flour, 1/2 cup milk, and 2 nectarines, chopped. I didn't end up using the passion fruit in the mixture. I just realised that egg has a frowny face :( aww poor egg.

Begin by beating the (softened) butter for a couple of minutes.

Next add the sugar a little at a time and beat until light and fluffy. The method I use to make cupcakes is from the Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook.

Once all the sugar has been added, add 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind. Oops forgot to put that in the ingredients list.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating for about a minute after each addition.

Then add a third of the flour and mix on low speed until just combined.

Then add half of the milk and mix on low speed. Repeat with the remaining flour and milk, ending with the flour.

Fold in the chopped nectarines.

Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases. I got 11 cupcakes out of this mix but I think the cupcake cases I used were a bit bigger than normal ones. I used Robert Gordon cases by the way- aren't they pretty?
Bake for about 20 mins in a 180 degree C oven.

To top the cupcakes off I made passion fruit icing from the Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook and put a strawberry on top. Unfortunately the cupcake cases ended up a bit greasy and lost their colour a bit so I slipped another one over the top to cover it for these pictures.

The cupcakes were really yummy- you could taste the lemon in them and the icing was passion fruity and not too sweet.The perfect summer treat!