In the Brown Kitchen: Lemon and Poppyseed Cupcakes

I've always enjoyed cooking but for the first few years we lived together our kitchen was so small it diminished my enthusiasm a little. When we moved to Barnsley and my kitchen was suddenly dramatically bigger - not huge, but you could put a pan down without losing half your counter space - I found my cooking enthusiasm renewed. I'm not the world's best cook and I'm certainly not the tidiest or best at presentation, but I enjoy it. With a personal benchmark of 'Dave ate it and he did not die', I'm never going to be a Masterchef but I can at least share my culinary fun along the way!

Lemon and Poppyseed Cupcakes

I love BBC recipes as they are usually so straightforward and easy to follow. This recipe was a classic example of both and my first attempt at these cupcakes worked brilliantly.

I will admit that I cheated on the icing, buying Morrisons pre-made lemon icing. Icing just isn't my strong point and I wanted to practise my piping and try and do these cupcakes justice. I was very happy with the results but I'd definitely like to try them again in future with homemade frosting.

What went wrong?

Clearly I didn't make enough because these were gone in double quick time!

What would I do differently next time?

I'd like to attempt the icing myself but otherwise I was really happy with these.

Success or failure?

A definite success for the sponge. Ask me again about the full product when I've mastered the icing!

An extra note

I also attempted rhubarb cake, which was great. I didn't take a picture of this one, so perhaps it's destined for another 'In the Brown Kitchen' but in the meantime, here's the recipe.

Lemon Poppy Seed Fairy Cake

It was a double dose of baking from Mrs B with the privilege of a rhubarb cake and some lemon poppy seed fairy cakes for us to enjoy. I'm quite fussy when it comes to things like seeds and nuts so I was looking at the addition of poppy seeds here with some anxiety. I needn't have worried. Mrs B did a superb job once again. The sponge was delicious with the poppy seeds being a welcome bonus, while a lemon icing topping rounded off what was another successful bake from my talented other half. How long did the fairy cakes last? More than one day but less than two so, yes, they were really good!

Rhubarb Cake

It's been many years since I had any rhubarb and I'm not sure why. How long exactly? Probably 20 years or so, definitely before my voice broke. The prospect of a rhubarb cake, expertly crafted by Mrs B was one I was intrigued by. It was a pretty large cake in the end and took 2-3 days to finish. The end result was a beautifully baked cake which didn't dry out even after day 3 and the sweet tasting rhubarb enhanced it wonderfully. Next time we're at the supermarket I may have to surreptitiously help some rhubarb into our trolley and plead ignorance if/when questioned about it.