This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our privacy policy.
Lemon cupcakes are filled with lemon curd and topped with a lemon-blueberry buttercream frosting for the spring and summer cupcake of your dreams.
I don’t have anything against a good chocolate cupcake. After all, making my doctored cake mix cupcakes is one of my favorite tricks.
But I’ll pick lemon over chocolate almost any day, so having a go-to lemon cupcake recipe is pretty important to me.
These lemon cupcakes are packed with tons of bright, citrusy flavor and are so pretty. Consider them your new spring and summer go-to cupcake recipe!
THE PERFECT LEMON CUPCAKES
If you love lemon as much as I do, then these lemon cupcakes are the cupcakes for you.
I took my homemade funfetti cupcake recipe and added lots of lemon zest. Then I filled them with lemon curd and topped them with a lemon-blueberry frosting.
That’s right, I found a way to pack lemon into these cupcakes in three different ways!
These may very well go into my lemon hall of fame alongside my lemon cream cheese pound cake and homemade lemon bars.
HOW TO MAKE THESE LEMON CUPCAKES
There are a few steps to making these lemon cupcakes, but I promise that they’re worth it!
Cupcake ingredients
For the cupcakes, you will need:
- 2 ¼ cups cake flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- 1 ¼ cups buttermilk, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon pure lemon extract
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- lemon zest from two lemons
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 4 large egg whites, room temperature
You do need to use cake flour for this recipe instead of all-purpose flour. If you don’t keep any on hand, you can use my cake flour substitute instead.
I also have a buttermilk substitute you can use if you don’t have any buttermilk in your fridge!
Make sure you also check out my tips for how to bring butter and eggs to room temperature, since having those at room temperature is important before you get started baking.
For the filling, I like to use my microwave lemon curd. You can use any lemon curd that you like best, though.
Frosting ingredients
For the frosting, you will need:
- 4 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- 2 pounds confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- pinch of fine grain sea salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- zest of one lemon (finely grated)
- ½ cup fresh blueberries, pureed with 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1-3 tablespoons very cold milk
If you run out of powdered sugar, don’t stress. I have a post on how to make powdered sugar, and you can definitely use that substitute in this frosting.
Making this recipe
This recipe makes 24 cupcakes, so make sure you line 2 standard cupcake pans with paper liners before getting started.
Sift together the dry ingredients: the flour, baking powder, and salt.
In another bowl or measuring cup, whisk together the buttermilk, vanilla, and lemon extract.
Add the sugar and lemon zest to the bowl of a stand mixer. Use your fingertips to rub these together until the sugar is moistened and fragrant.
Beat the butter and sugar together for about 3 minutes, or until very light and fluffy. Alternate adding the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, beginning and ending with the dry. Make sure to mix until well combined after each addition.
Use a hand mixer to beat the egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff peaks form. These will get folded into the batter for lots of lift.
Gently stir about ¼ of the egg whites into the batter, then fold in the rest one half at a time. To fold, cut the spatula down the middle to the bottom of the bowl, then sweep it around, up and over. Turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat until no streaks of egg whites remain.
Divide the batter between the prepared pans and bake for 18-22 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool completely.
When ready to decorate, fill the cupcakes with the lemon curd, following my instructions for how to fill cupcakes.
Beat together the frosting and then spread or pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes.
STORAGE TIPS
These lemon cupcakes can be stored at room temperature for up to 1-2 days if your kitchen is cool. Otherwise, store them in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Unfrosted, unfilled cupcakes can be frozen for up to 2 months. Wrap them in plastic wrap and store them in a zip-top freezer bag before freezing.
If you’d like to make the lemon-blueberry frosting ahead of time, you can store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days or in the freezer for up to a month. Let the frosting come to room temperature and whip it with your mixer for 1-2 minutes before frosting the cupcakes.
OTHER FROSTING OPTIONS
While I love these lemon cupcakes when they are filled with lemon curd and topped with the lemon-blueberry frosting, you don’t have to go that direction!
Try them with a classic vanilla buttercream frosting or even with cream cheese frosting instead.
Or try them with strawberry frosting for a cupcake version of strawberry lemonade!
Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon-Blueberry Frosting
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups cake flour I used Swan’s Down brand
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- 1 ¼ cups buttermilk room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon pure lemon extract
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- lemon zest from two lemons finely grated
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter room temperature
- 4 large egg whites room temperature
For the filling:
For the lemon-blueberry frosting:
- 2 cups unsalted butter softened
- 2 pounds confectioners’ sugar sifted
- pinch of fine grain sea salt
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- zest of one lemon finely grated
- ½ cup fresh blueberries pureed with 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1-3 tablespoons very cold milk
Instructions
For the Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350°F with a rack in the center. Line two standard cupcake pans with paper liners.
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
- In a measuring cup, combine the buttermilk, vanilla, and lemon extract.
- Rub sugar and lemon zest together until the sugar is moistened and fragrant. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar at medium speed for 3 minutes, or until the butter and sugar are very light and fluffy. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture, beating on low speed. Beat in half of the milk mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until well incorporated. Add the rest of the milk, beating until the batter is fully incorporated and smooth, then add the last of the dry ingredients, beating until the ingredients are thoroughly combined.
- Add the egg whites to a medium bowl and beat with a hand mixer on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form.
- Gently stir ¼ of the whipped egg whites into the cupcake batter with a rubber spatula until no streaks of egg whites remain. This will help lighten up the batter. Gently fold in the remaining whipped egg whites, one half at a time, by cutting the spatula down the middle to the bottom of the bowl, then sweeping it around, up and over. Turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat until no streaks of egg whites remain.
- Using a large scoop (about 3 tablespoons), distribute the batter between 24 muffin wells, filling each well 2/3 full.
- Bake for 18-22 minutes, or until the cupcakes are springy to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the centers come out clean. Cool on wire rack.
- Once cupcakes have cooled, hollow out a small circle in the center of each cupcake. Add a spoonful of lemon curd into each hollow. Frost with lemon blueberry buttercream or as desired.
For the Lemon-Blueberry Frosting
- In a large mixing bowl, cream butter until fluffy. Slowly add in confectioner’s sugar, and continue creaming until well blended.
- Add salt, vanilla, lemon zest and blueberry puree and mix until well combined. If buttercream is too thick, slowly drizzle in milk until you reach the desired consistency. Beat at high speed until frosting is smooth and fluffy.
Video
Notes
- Learn how to make a cake flour substitute.
- Learn how to measure flour correctly.
- Get tips for how to bring butter and eggs to room temperature.
- Find out how to make powdered sugar.
- Learn how to fill cupcakes.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These cupcakes were delicious!! But one problem was that they didn’t rise like in the picture. They stayed flat. can you tell me how to make sure they rise next time? thanks. :)
DELICIOUS!!!! :D
I love these cupcakes but when i made them i substituted the buttermilk for sour cream and a bit of whole milk and the only problem i had was they came out small. However much batter i put in the cup is the size it came out. Have i done something wrong or do i just need to fill them up more?
Also how many grams is a stick of butter?
Thanks for sharing your recipes and the pics are beautiful xx
did not meet my expectations. They rose in the oven, but once cooled they shrunk quite a bit. so either there needs to be more baking powder, or the recipe needs to say to whip the egg whites until peaks form. And not as lemony as i would have liked.
I just want to THANK YOU a million times over for this recipe. It is absolutely perfect! Light and fluffy but with GREAT structure — not crumbly! I wish I could hug you! Thanks so much!!
Do you really need 2 lbs of the sugar for the frosting?
Elizabeth-
You can certainly experiment with the amount of sugar you use.
Jamie
OMG this recipe is amazing. My new favorite! Perfect hint of lemon taste!
I made these and they are soo delicous. Everyone keeps wanting me to make more. Thanks for sharing!! :)
this past summer, i have harbored a new passion and fascination for baking cupcakes – and i actually started selling my creations at the deli i was working at (just until i head back to college – last day there is tomorrow!) to see what would sell.
well, i decided to try these out for a friend because he wanted lemon blueberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for his grad party.. i made them once and have been making them at least once a week for one reason or another ever since! i sold them today at the deli and i only had 2 left at the end of the day (out of 12).. keep in mind my average sales are about 3 cupcakes per day.
so i add about a cup of blueberries to the batter and then use my mom’s cream cheese frosting and it is SO WONDERFUL.
the real winning party of this recipe is the batter – moist and light and not too lemon-y or over the top.
i’m going to try a spin off it with raspberries this afternoon to make a “pink lemonade” version of it..
THANK YOU SO MUCH for this recipe! :)
I just made these and they are amazing! So light, fluffy and tasty. I’ve eaten 2 already and I haven’t even frosted them yet. The next time I make these and yes there will be a next time I may add a little more lemon emulsion to the mix because I loooooove anything lemon. I was searching for a homemade lemon cupcake recipe and this it. Thank you so much for sharing!! I look forward to trying more of your recipes.
Happy Baking,
Sherry