As you probably all know, cupcakes are the sweet treat du jour so when I was invited out for a rather girlie teaparty this Sunday, it seemed like the perfect excuse to use the copy of The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook I was given for Christmas since this bakery is one of the hottest cupcake spots in London.

I flipped through this stylish little number several times for inspiration before deciding that since there would be many other sweetmeats at the tea party, I would go for lemon cupcakes as hopefully the citrus would be sharp and cleansing after tonnes of sugar. Plus I had accumulated a lot of lemons in the fruit bowl…

The recipe seemed straightforward, except that it calls for an electric mixer or whisk to make the batter. I don’t usually bake this way, so I was a little bit apprehensive about how easy this would be since I only have the whisk attachment to my handblender. I feared it would make more of a mess (and washing-up!) than the usual hand made method, but I figured there was only one way to find out!

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