What a great food week, Pancake day and Valentines all shoved into one gloriously spectacular food week. Last night after munching down on some chorizo, pepper and mozzarella pancakes I started to ponder the joy of food. Not only the fun of making it but also the joy of giving it as a gift.

Now I am not really one for Valentines Day, I would much prefer to have my own Lucie day which is all my own. And I don’t like the pressure it seems to put of people to spend a lot of money. That said I do like the sentiment behind it. Why wouldn’t you want to spend time telling and showing people how much you love them. So instead of just one person and just one day, why not make it a week, heck a month, of going a little bit out of your way to spread some love. That’s certainly my secret agent mission for the next few weeks.

When I think like this, I usually think of phone calls I can make, letters I can write and food I can bake.

So I have made a phone call and sent a card and now it is time for some Lemon Drizzle Sherbet Cupcakes. Another perfect way to say I love you.

Ingredients 

4oz butter

4 oz caster sugar

2 eggs

4oz self raising flour

Zest of 1 lemon

Icing:

Juice of one lemon

2 tbsp icing sugar

2oz icing sugar

1oz butter

A few lemon sherbet sweets

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180C degrees
2. In a bowl cream your butter and sugar together
3. In a separate bowl beat your eggs until they are light and fluffy
4. Slowly combine the eggs into the butter and sugar mix
5. Fold in your flour and lemon zest
6. Place into cupcake cases and bake in the oven for 20 mins
7. While they are baking heat the lemon juice in a small pan and combine with 2 tbsp of icing sugar until you have a thin syrup
8. Once cooked remove cupcakes from the oven, poke holes in the top (I used a kebab stick) and drizzle over syrup
9. Leave cupcakes to cool
10. For the icing cream the butter and sugar together
11. Crush your lemon sherbets ( I used a pestle and mortar – but a rolling pin and a sealable sandwich bag would work just as well)
12. Once the cakes have cooled, ice with butter cream and sprinkle some crushed lemon sherbet over the top

And thats it, love and lemons the ultimate combo. To make them an even nicer gift why not package them up in a cake box and tie with a yellow ribbon.

Go on surprise someone with some cake.

Lots of Love Lucie x