Lemon Cupcakes
This lemon cupcake recipe is for those who love lemon. Moist, zesty, yet, light and airy. Filled with lemon curd and topped with lemon buttercream. Based on my one-bowl recipe, these cupcakes are simple and easy to make.
Why make these cupcakes?
- The recipe is based on my one-bowl recipes. If you have not tried one-bowl vanilla or chocolate cupcakes, you must. So easy and so delicious. These hardly ever get frosted because they are so good on their own.
- And of course, the lemon buttercream enhances the lemon flavor beautifully in these cupcakes.
- For me, lemon cupcakes with lemon curd are absolute heaven, but they also pair well with blueberry filling to make lemon-blueberry cupcakes.
- I’m using my homemade lemon curd, but you can also use store-bought.
Ingredients and substitutes
- Flour – I use regular all-purpose flour and plain flour (maida) for most of my cakes and cupcakes. This is readily available and is usually always on hand in most households.
- Butter – I like to use unsalted butter, but if salted butter is all you have, use it. However, omit salt in the recipe.
- Sugar – I prefer to use fine-grain white sugar in my one-bowl recipes. This helps the sugar dissolve easily in the batter. If coarse-grain sugar is all you have, pulse it in the food processor for a few minutes.
- Eggs – This recipe has only two eggs, so use two good, large eggs.
- Lemon juice – Fresh is the way to go when making lemon desserts. I use fresh organic lemons. You can also use lime for a zestier flavor.
- Zest – Use only the yellow part of the zest, not the white, because the white is bitter and can alter the taste of your cupcakes. Alternatively, you can also use 1/4 tsp lemon extract.
Step-by-step instructions
Lemon cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 325°F/160 °C/Gas Mark 3.
Pro tip – The batter gets ready very quickly. But make sure the oven is preheated well. - Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners – and set aside.
- Add all cupcake ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer. You can also use just a bowl and a whisk. Combine well until you have a smooth batter.
Pro tip – It is essential that all ingredients are at room temperature. Otherwise, you will have a lumpy batter. - Divide the batter between 12 cupcake liners using an ice cream scoop or 1/3 measure cup.
Pro tip – These make 12 regular-size cupcakes. You can also make 8 large cupcakes in baking cups. - Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until a skewer inserted in the center comes clean.
Pro tip – Turning the baking pan halfway through will ensure they bake evenly. (As you can see in the video, I forgot that some were baked with sideways domes.) - Cool cupcakes completely before you decorate.
Pro tip – It is essential to cool cupcakes or cake completely before frosting, or the frosting will melt.
Lemon buttercream
- Add all buttercream ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer, including the lemon curd.
Pro tip – The success of a one-bowl recipe is to ensure that all ingredients are at room temperature. Otherwise, it could result in a lumpy buttercream. - Combine well. Once all the powdered sugar has been incorporated, whip for 3 minutes until light and fluffy, similar to whipped cream.
Pro tip – When whipped, buttercream becomes light and airy, similar to the consistency of whipped cream.
Assemble
- Place buttercream in a piping bag with your favorite piping tip. I used a star tip. Pipe a swirl on each cupcake, starting from the base towards the top.
Pro tip – You can also color this frosting with as many colors as you want. - You can garnish the cupcakes with a slice of lemon, zest, or a sprinkle of lemon zest.
Storage
- These cupcakes will stay at room temperature for two days.
- If wrapped properly, you can keep them in the fridge for up to 3 to 4 days (the fridge can dry out the cakes and cupcakes easily).
- You can even freeze these cupcakes for up to a month.
More lemon recipes
- Lemon blueberry cupcakes
- Mini Lemon Cheesecake Tarts
- The Ultimate Lemon Curd Tart
- Watermelon Lemonade
- Lemon Crinkle Cookies
- Lemon Butter Cookies
Frequently asked questions
How to bake perfect cupcakes?
Baking perfect cupcakes is not hard to achieve if you follow the above 12 tips for perfect cupcakes.
How do you prevent cupcake liners from peeling after baking?
There are a few things you can do—I discuss them in this post—to avoid cupcake liners peeling after baking.
My cupcakes don’t bake evenly. Why?
There are a few things you can do to bake similar-sized cupcakes – we discussed that in detail here – How to bake same-size cupcakes.
Can I bake this batter to make a lemon cake instead of cupcakes?
This recipe makes just 12 cupcakes, which is not enough for a cake. You can double this recipe to make two 7-inch round cakes. Increase the baking time to about 25 to 30 minutes.
Lemon Cupcakes
This lemon cupcake recipe is for those who love lemon. Moist, zesty, yet, light and airy. Filled with lemon curd and topped with lemon buttercream. Based on my one-bowl recipe, these cupcakes are simple and easy to make.
Ingredients
Lemon cupcake
- 4 tbsp (60 g) Unsalted butter room temperature
- ¼ cup (60 ml) Oil cooking oil
- ⅔ cup (130 g) White sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 1 ½ cup (190 g) All-purpose flour
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- ½ tsp Baking soda
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 2 tbsp Lemon juice
- ½ tsp Lemon zest
- ¼ cup (60 ml) Buttermilk
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
Lemon buttercream
- 1 cup (227 g) Butter unsalted room temperature
- 4 cups (480 g) Powdered sugar
- ½ cup Lemon curd or 2 tbsp lemon juice
- ½ tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
Plus
- ½ cup (120 ml) Lemon curd
- 12 Lemon slices or zest, for garnish
Method
Lemon cupcakes
- Preheat the oven at 325°F/ 160°C/ Gas Mark 3.Pro tip – The batter gets ready very quickly. But, make sure the oven is preheated well.
- Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners – and set aside.
- Add all cupcake ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer. You can also use just a bowl and whisk. Combine well until you have a smooth batter.Pro tip – It is essential that all ingredients are at room temperature. Otherwise, you will have a lumpy batter.
- Divide the batter between 12 cupcake liners using an ice cream scoop or 1/3 measure cup. Pro tip – These make 12 regular-size cupcakes, you can also make 8 large cupcakes in baking cups.
- Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until a skewer inserted in the center comes clean.Pro tip – Turning the baking pan halfway through will ensure they bake evenly (I forgot as you can see in the video – some baked with sideway domes ?).
- Cool cupcakes completely before you decorate.Pro tip – It is essential to cool cupcakes or cake completely before frosting or the frosting will melt.
Lemon buttercream
- Add all buttercream ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer including the lemon curd. Pro tip – the success of a one-bowl recipe is to ensure that all ingredients are at room temperature. Otherwise, it could result in a lumpy buttercream.
- Combine well. Once all the powdered sugar has been incorporated, whip for 3 minutes more until light and fluffy similar to whipped cream. Pro tip – When whipped, the buttercream will become light and airy similar to a whipped cream consistency.
Assemble
- Place buttercream in a piping bag with your favorite piping tip. I used a star tip. Pipe a swirl on each cupcake starting from the base towards the top. Pro tip – You can also color this frosting with as many colors as you want.
- You can garnish the cupcakes with a slice of lemon or zest, or sprinkle of lemon zest.
Notes
- The success of a one-bowl recipe is to take note of the temperature of your ingredients. You want all the ingredients to be at room temperature.
- If the butter is not at room temperature, it will not cream well but lumpy.
- On the other hand, if the butter is too soft (or melted) the batter will be denser rather than light and fluffy resulting in dense cupcakes.
- The same goes for the eggs. Cold eggs will curdle the batter.
- Don’t overbake cupcakes so it is easier to dry out. Similar to cake, cupcakes are done when a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
- These cupcakes today were frosted with my one-bowl lemon frosting but they are perfect with so many other frostings too. Cream cheese frosting, Strawberry Buttercream, whipped cream, American, French, German, Swiss, or Italian buttercream.
Storage
- These cupcakes will stay at room temperature for 2 days.
- You can keep them in the fridge for up to 3 to 4 days if wrapped properly. (fridge can dry out the cakes and cupcakes easily)
- You can even freeze these cupcakes for up to a month.
Equipment you will need
Nutrition
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The cupcakes were so good! They were so fluffy and moist and lemony. I will be making them again, thank you!
Thank you, Sam.
Hi veena
I have 1 question do the lemon juice quantity change as per location. Here in India limes are very sour. But abroad they are less sour. Pls tell if we need to reduce the quantity?
Hey Harshada. I do not reduce the lemon juice. The small lime is more sour compared to the large lemons. SO if you use lime then reduce the juice by half if you use regular lemons use the same quaniity
I ma drooling over these lemon cupcakes. They look so desirable and perfectly baked. OOh that frosting. Can’t wait to try them.
Thank you, Gunjan. I hope you try these soon