Lemon and Marzipan Cupcakes

I saw this recipe in the Guardian's Cook section and pretty much instantly fell in love with it, thanks to the combination of two of my favourite things - marzipan and cake. I've made these three times now, and hopefully I've worked out the best way (for me) to do them.

Most photogenic lemons in the world?

Yum

There is a lot of marzipan in these, but I'm definitely not complaining.  The original recipe only makes 10-11ish, so last time I doubled the quantities. This meant using up an entire block of marzipan, half grated and half broken into pieces.  By the third time I tried this recipe, I figured out the best way to grate the marzipan - keep it in the fridge until you need to use it and then grate it directly into the bowl.  The first time I did this the marzipan had softened slightly (it's squishy at best anyway) and was pretty tricky to grate, and then the second time I grated it onto a surface where it all collected and compacted back into a lump. By the way, the marzipan chunks are without doubt the best bit about these cupcakes, but the actual chopping/breaking bits part is seriously sticky, so either turn your phone off or make someone else answer it if it rings.

Pre-baking stage

One thing about these cupcakes is that the marzipan seems to have a habit of sinking to the bottom, which means that as tempting as it is to have one of these as soon as they come out of the oven, it's better not to because half of it tends to stick to the bottom of the cupcake case.  Once they cool they stick together better.

Post-baking stage

I wasn't entirely sure how much lemon juice and how much sugar would be needed in the drizzle suggested in the recipe, so I went with a glazy-drizzle I've used before consisting of quite simply icing sugar and lemon juice.  The ratio I've been using is one tablespoon of lemon juice to 25g of icing sugar and it's worked out fine.  The drizzle may not look very decorative but it's simple and complements the marzipan perfectly.