There is something about lemon desserts that makes me feel like I’m eating sunshine. They are the ultimate pick me up treat, full of bright bursting flavors. That is the perfect description for this great Lemon Cupcake recipe. It is made with lemon juice, lemon zest, and lemon extract for the best lemon flavor. That great flavor is perfectly balanced with the sweetness of the cupcake and the buttery smoothness of the frosting.
How to Make Lemon Cupcakes
How to Make Lemon Buttercream Frosting
The frosting for this recipe is based off of my Vanilla Buttercream Frosting. We are just swapping the vanilla extract for lemon extract and adding a little lemon zest. When the cupcakes have cooled, pipe the buttercream on to them. This recipe makes enough buttercream to top all the cupcakes as pictured.
Piping Lemon Frosting
I love this piping set. It is affordable, reusable, and very durable. You can see me using it in my Gingerbread House Recipe and I also used it to decorate our Soft Cut Out Cookies. However, for these, I wanted something big and bold. I used the Wilton 1M Open Star tip.
Tips and Tricks for Lemon Cupcakes
Use Cake Flour. As mentioned above, cake flour and all purpose flour are not interchangeable. For best results, use cake flour.Measure the flour correctly. Whisk the flour in the container you store it in. Then scoop it into a dry measuring cup and level it off with the flat edge of a spatula. This will prevent it from packing.Use room temperature butter. Your butter will feel cold to the touch, but should be easy to dent with your finger. To accomplish this quickly, cut the butter into one inch pieces and leave it on your counter for a half hour.Make sure your baking powder is fresh. To test, add a little baking powder to a small bowl of water. It should bubble right away.Fully beat your butter and sugar together. Like we mentioned above, make sure to fully beat the sugar into the butter until it is light and fluffy. This will take between 3 and 6 minutes.Scrape down the bowl between additions. Before you move on to the next step, scrape down the mixing bowl and the beater well. This will ensure a smooth and even batter.
Other Lemon Desserts
Lemon Curd: This takes 5 minutes to make in the microwave, and it is absolutely delicious.Lemon Sugar Cookies: These cookies have RAVE reviews. I know that you will love them.Lemon Cheesecake: A delicious and bright cheesecake you will love.
If you make this lemon cupcake recipe, leave me a comment and let me know what you think! While you will get the best results following the recipe and using cake flour, if you truly cannot find any, you can replace the 2 cups of cake flour in this recipe with 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour and 3/4 cup corn starch. Make sure to fully incorporate the corn starch into the flour before adding it to this recipe.
