Yes — this is an easy stand-mixer bake. The stand mixer does the two jobs that actually cost you arm ache: rubbing the zest into the sugar and creaming the butter. Everything else is a bowl and a spoon. Cream on medium, never above it, or you will whip air into the batter and the cupcakes will dome and then sink.
Heat the oven to 180 °C and line a 6-hole cupcake or muffin tin with paper cases. Fit the stand mixer with the paddle attachment — not the whisk, which whips air in and makes the crumb spongy.
10 min · until the oven is at temperature
Using: Sheet pan
Zest all 3 lemons straight into the stand mixer bowl using the fine side of a grater, taking only the yellow — the white pith underneath is bitter. Add the 150 g caster sugar and rub the zest into it with your fingertips until the sugar is damp, pale gold and smells loudly of lemon. Then attach the bowl and give it 30 seconds on low to knock out any clumps.
30 sec · until no clumps of zest left
Using: Stand mixer, Grater / microplane
Halve the lemons and squeeze 100 ml of juice through a fine strainer into a jug. Set aside for the syrup and the icing.
Using: Fine-mesh strainer
Add the 125 g soft butter to the lemon sugar and cream on medium speed until it is pale, fluffy and no longer looks grainy, about 3 minutes. Stop once and scrape the bowl and paddle down with a spatula so nothing is left unmixed.
3 min · until pale, fluffy and no longer grainy
Using: Stand mixer
Beat in the eggs one at a time on medium, letting each one disappear before the next. If the mixture looks like it is splitting, add a tablespoon of the flour with the second egg and it will come back together. With the mixer on low, pour in the 60 ml milk.
Using: Stand mixer
Take the bowl off the mixer and finish by hand. Tip in the 175 g flour, 1½ tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt. Fold with a spatula in a figure-of-eight until the last streaks of flour just disappear — stop there. Overworking the batter makes the crumb tough, which is exactly why this last bit never goes back on the machine.
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Using: Mixing bowl
Divide between the 6 cases, filling each about two-thirds full. Bake in the middle of the oven until risen, golden and springy to a light press in the centre, 18–22 minutes.
20 min · until risen, golden and springy to a light press
Using: Sheet pan
While the cakes bake, put the 60 g caster sugar and 4 tbsp of the reserved lemon juice in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir just until the sugar dissolves, then let it bubble for 1 minute without stirring until it is clear and slightly thickened.
1 min · until clear and slightly thickened
Using: Saucepan
Prick each warm cake a few times with a skewer or thin knife and spoon the syrup over the tops. Leave them in the tin for 10 minutes to drink it in, then lift them out onto a rack to cool completely.
10 min · until the syrup has soaked in and the cakes are cool enough to lift
Using: Tongs
Sift the 120 g icing sugar into a bowl and whisk in the rest of the reserved lemon juice a teaspoon at a time until you have a thick, glossy icing that falls from the spoon in a slow ribbon. Too runny and it will slide off the cake.
Using: Mixing bowl, Whisk, Fine-mesh strainer
Spoon the icing over the cooled cakes and spread it to the edges so it can set into a crisp shell. Leave them uncovered for 20 minutes before eating.
20 min · until the icing has set to a crisp shell