Poppies for Poppy!

I'm a very proud aunt to the delightful little Poppy, who is just a few days old. My brother and sister-in-law are just chuffed to bits with her, if a little spaced out from lack of sleep.

Its a little surreal thinking of my little brother being a daddy, but I think it will be a change for the better, he'll make a wonderful caring father.

The whole family is just so excited for them and I thought a fitting tribute would be to make some lemon poppy seed cupcakes with poppy decorations.

What a shame they are so far away in Melbourne, Australia! I think I'll have to bite the bullet and buy an insanely expensive ticket to see them all in the New Year.

I recently caved and bought Hello Cupcake! which is just such a fun little book with lots of tips on making creative cakes, I cant wait to try some of the super cute cupcakes!

This time I just wanted a nice little cupcake with a fluff of frosting and a poppy on top. I had some colored marzipan, so I shaped the petals with that and piped some chocolate frosting in the middle, scoring with a toothpick to get the trademark poppy center. The marzipan isnt quite as forgiving as maybe fondant would be but it certainly tastes better! The poppies wilted a little overnight.

They came out pretty good. The 7 minute frosting is very common, so it was good to give it a try. Very similar to a buttercream, but it just misses out the last step of adding a ton of butter to it. I think it needed something to temper the insane sweetness. Maybe I should have tried adding the juice of a lemon to tart it up a bit.

Lemon Poppy Seed Cupcakes (from Hello Cupcake) makes 12

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp poppy seeds

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

2 oz cream cheese

2 oz butter (or 1/2 stick, 4 tbsps)

3/4 cup sugar

grated zest of 1 lemon

2 med/large eggs (I found the smallest from my pack of large eggs!)

1/4 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350f, line 12 muffin tins with cupcake liners

Combine sugar and lemon zest in the mixer and mix up to release zest. Add butter and cream cheese and beat until light and fluffy

Meanwhile, mix together the flour, poppy seeds, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating in between. Beat until fluffy again.

Add half of the flour to the bowl and just mix until combined. Add the milk, mix a little, then the rest of the flour and mix just until incorporated.

Divide between the 12 cups and bake for 15-20 mins, until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack.

Seven Minute Frosting (from Hello cupcake), makes 4 1/2 cups

1 stick (8 tbsps butter)

1 cup sugar

2 tbsps corn syrup

2 tbsps water

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Set a saucepan onto boil. Place the ingredients in a heat proof bowl (I used my kitchenaid bowl) and whisk vigorously over gently simmering water until very warm. Transfer to the mixer and whip until light and fluffy. This should take about 7 mins! Serve the day it is made.