Preheat the oven to 180ºc/160ºfan, and line a muffin tray with 12 cases - or get 12 baking cups ready.
In a large bowl, add the unsalted butter and caster sugar and beat together until light and fluffy.
Add the self raising flour, eggs, and lemon extract and beat again until smooth and perfect.
Add the yellow food colouring a little at a time, until you reach a bright yellow. How much you need depends on the brand, sometimes it's only a pea sized amount.
Split the mixture between the 12 cases and bake the cupcakes in the oven for 20-22 minutes, or until baked through.
Leave the cupcakes to cool fully.
Decoration
Once the cupcakes have cooled fully, beat the butter on its own in a large bowl until smooth. I do this for a few minutes.
Add the icing sugar and lemon extract and beat again until a buttercream is formed.
Only IF required, add a little boiling water, one tablespoon at a time, to smooth the buttercream ever so slightly (this is only if the buttercream is extremely stiff and not pipeable).
Add the yellow food colouring and beat on it's own until the buttercream is lovely yellow colour.
Remove a small spoonful and colour this with the orange food colouring (again, you may only need a tiny amount) - until you reach a beak/foot colour. Take another small spoonful and colour this black.
Add the yellow buttercream to a large piping bag with a jumbo round nozzle in, and add the orange and black buttercream to two small piping bags with small round nozzles in.
On each cupcake, pipe a larger 'ball' of buttercream, by piping directly downwards. Lift off the piping tip, and then pipe another 'ball' of buttercream on top, but slightly small than before (As you can see in the images).
Once this is done, use the orange and black colours to make the eyes, beaks, and feet for the chicks.
Enjoy!
Notes
These cupcakes are the perfect bake for easter, but you can of course make them any time of year.
I used lemon extract, but you can flavour them however you like.