Dan Lepard's orange custard cream cupcake recipe

The supermarkets and small online sellers such as bakerybits.co.uk are starting to stock authentic flavour extracts with mafioso-sounding names such as Sicilian lemon or Calabrian orange. No matter, where the flavour is useful in cakes and complex mixtures is when natural fruit zest would be drowned by more dominant ingredients. Here I still use the zest in the icing, so each bite releases its fresh flavour. Makes 10-12.

175g caster sugar
50ml sunflower oil
50g unsalted butter, softened
3 medium eggs
1 tsp orange extract
100ml double cream
250g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder

For the icing
225g icing sugar, ideally the fondant sort
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 orange

For the custard cream
2 egg yolks
200ml double cream
3 tsp cornflour
2 tsp vanilla extract
25g caster sugar

Line the pockets of a muffin tray with muffin papers and heat the oven to 160C (140c fan-assisted)/320F/gas mark 2½. Beat the sugar, oil and butter until light in colour, then beat in the eggs one at a time until smooth. Add the orange extract and cream, beat well, then add the flour and baking powder, and beat again until smooth. Fill each muffin case about two-thirds full with the mix and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the cupcakes are neatly domed and golden. Remove and leave to cool.

To make the custard cream, beat together all the ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a boil, whisking often, then beat until smooth. Cover and leave until cold, then pipe it with a plain 8mm nozzle deep through the top crust and into the cupcake heart; alternatively, scoop out a little of the cake with a small knife, spoon in a little custard and top with just a slice from the cake plug.

Beat the icing sugar, zest and enough juice (probably 25ml) to make a thick icing and drizzle over the top of the cupcakes, thereby covering your tracks. (Alternatively, omit the cream filling altogether and just ice the cupcakes as they are.)

danlepard.com/guardian