Healthy Lemon Fairy Cakes with Raspberry Ricotta Frosting
If you're looking for healthier desserts for kids, these lemon fairy cakes might be for you. Without an ounce of refined sugar in the cupcake, or in the frosting, they're made with all natural ingredients and sweetened with maple syrup. They also have less butter than most cake recipes, and yet they're still the lightest, fluffiest and tastiest fairy cakes.
Servings 9 lemon fairy cakes
Ingredients
Lemon Fairy Cakes - wet ingredients:
- ½ cup maple syrup (120 ml)
- 45 grams unsalted butter softened or melted
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon Greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice freshly squeezed
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Lemon Fairy Cakes - dry ingredients:
- 1 cup plain flour (120 grams)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- ¼ teaspoon salt (remove if using salted butter)
Raspberry ricotta frosting
- 220 grams soft ricotta cheese
- 2 tablespoons Greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- ¼ cup fresh raspberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170°C (340°F) fan setting. Grease 9 holes of a cupcake tin or line them with cupcake cases.
- In a medium size mixing bowl, beat the maple syrup and butter together. Add in the egg and and whisk together for a minute or two.
- Add the rest of your wet ingredients: your Greek yogurt, vegetable oil, lemon juice and vanilla extract and mix well.
- Add in your dry ingredients by gradually pouring in the flour, followed by the baking powder, baking soda, lemon zest and salt. Stir until just combined. Your fairy cake batter is ready.
- Spoon the batter into your prepared cupcake holes until they're about three quarters full.
- Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 15-20 minutes until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.
- In the meantime make your frosting. Blend your raspberries, soft ricotta cheese, Greek yogurt, maple syrup and lemon zest together using a small mixer. You should have a thick, pink mixture by the end.
- Place your frosting in the fridge until ready to serve or until the fairy cakes are cooked and have cooled down to room temperature.
- Frost your fairy cakes. Either by simply spooning a little frosting onto the cupcake in one layer and swirling it round with the back of the spoon. Or place your frosting in a piping bag with a ribbed nozzle. Move in concentric circles starting from the outside and moving towards the the inside of the cupcake. Make swirls that slightly overlap each other, to build up a thick frosting layer.
- Enjoy these cupcakes straight away or store in an airtight container in the fridge overnight.
Notes
The Raspberry ricotta frosting is much more buttery and wet than ordinary buttercream frosting. We recommend chilling it before starting to get the best effect.