Lemon Yoghurt Cake with Lemon Basil Syrup

Every time  a new year begins , I always wonder whether that year will be happy or crappy .Well so far, its been a teeny bit of happy and a bucket load of crappy and at the rate it's going it seems the bucket is going to overflow . The only way I find my worries melting is by baking cakes , which I haven't done lately .So to make up for my happy , I decided to make one .This is a simple lemon yoghurt cake with lemon basil syrup .It's a very moist and zest cake and I hope you guys like it , so here goes..............

INGREDIENTS

150 gms butter room temp
1 and 1/4 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 and 1/2 cup flour
1 and 3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup yoghurt
1/4 cup milk
zest and juice of a lemon

for the syrup 

1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
zest and juice of a lemon
a handful of basil chopped

METHOD

Cream the butter and sugar till pale and fluffy .
Add the eggs and vanilla and beat well .
Sift the dry ingredients together .
Mix the yoghurt and milk .
Now add the wet and dry ingredients to the batter ending with the dry .
Stir in the zest and juice of a lemon .
Grease and flour a bundt pan and add the batter in it .
Bake in a prehated 180 c oven for about 30-35 min .
For the syrup add all the ingrdients except for the basil in a saucepan and bring it to boil .
turn off the heat and add the basil .
Cool the cake and pour syurp over it and garnish with extra basil leaves .
Serve and enjoy .

Lemon Cupcakes with Raspberry Fool Filling

Thank you everyone for your kind wishes. Remember my last post where I said I was taking a break for a couple of days from all the unpacking , well I am still on it . Never got back to unpacking , just dumped everything in the garage and waiting for some magic where the cartons will unpack by itself ( still crossing my fingers and hoping for it ).
While I am waiting for a genie to grant my wish , I thought I would sneak in a post fit for this month  .Sweet and moist lemony cupcakes with a tangy and tart raspberry fool filling , so here goes..............

INGREDIENTS

1 recipe lemon cupcakes

for the filling

3/4 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
1/4 cup or more icing sugar
1 cup liquid whipping cream
2 tbsp icing sugar for sprinkling

METHOD

Make the lemon cupcakes according to the recipe given  and leave it to cool .
Using a fondant heart cutter , cut out in the middle .
Now for the filling , mash the raspberries and icing sugar with a fork .
Whip the cream till stiff .
Fold in the mashed raspberries .
Fill the cupcakes with the raspberry cream and sprinkle with icing sugar and enjoy.

Zesty Passion Fruit and Blueberry Cake

This Cake got created coz I had all these fruits about to go bad in my house and wanted to use them and not throw them , I just hate throwing away food . Surprisingly , this cake turned out really great , the combination of flavours worked really well and thankfully I got a good recipe to post.The tartness of the passion fruit and orange juice works really well with the sweet blueberries plus the aroma of this cake is just too good ,  so here goes......

INGREDIENTS

100 gms butter room temp
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
Zest and juice of 2 oranges
Zest of 1 lemon
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
Pulp of 1 passion fruit
1 cup of fresh or frozen blueberries

METHOD

Cream the butter and sugar till pale and fluff
Add the eggs one at a time ,then the vanilla and beat it well.
Sift the flour and baking powder together and add it in the butter mixture alternating between the orange juice . Stir in the zests , passion fruit pulp and the blueberries .
Grease and line a loaf tin and bake in a preheated 180 c oven for 1 hr or till a toothpick inserted in the middle  comes out clean .
Cool on a wire rack and enjoy .

Lemon and Mint Lassi Cupcakes

The temperatures have started rising , the dreaded summer is on it's way and drinking lassi is one sure way to beat the heat .Lassi is an indian smoothie made with yoghurt or buttermilk  . It can be flavoured with fruits and spices and I love all of those but my fav is the lemon and mint lassi coz nothing is refreshing as that and I wanted to incorporate this into my cupcake , I wanted to make something light and refreshing and I achieved  that .The cupcakes were really light and fluffy and the topping was tangy and sweet and very refreshing so here goes.......

INGREDIENTS

100 gms butter
1 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
grated zest of one whole lemon
juice of half a lemon
1and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1and 3/4 tsp baking powder
1 cup cold milk
3 egg whites

for the frosting

150 gms cream cheese
50 gms greek yoghurt / labneh
1/4 cup whipping cream
50 gms icing sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint leaves

METHOD

Cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy
Add in the lemon juice ,zest and vanilla essence and beat well
Sift the dry ingredients and add this to the mixture alternately with the cold milk
Beat the egg whites till stiff and slowly fold into the mixture ( you get a nice light and fluffy batter )
Line  muffin mould and bake in a preheated 180 c oven for about 15-20 min .
Beat the cream cheese , yoghurt and the whipping cream till stiff .
Fold in the lemon zest and mint leaves .
Frost the cupcakes and enjoy .