These amazing Cherry Limeade Cupcakes are a flavor explosion and beyond moist! A soft lime infused vanilla cupcake paired with cherry buttercream makes for a fantastic baked creation that will remind you of drinking Cherry Limeade! Don’t miss all my perfect Cupcake recipes!
Cherry Limeade Cupcakes
There are a few “flavors” that come to mind when I think about the warmth and fun of summer. Drinking a refreshing limeade is one of them!
Secret to Real Limeade Cupcakes
Right after the cupcakes come out of the oven, brush on some extra lime juice. I made some with this method and some without and absolutely loved the extra little zing that it gives the final cupcake. If you want extra extra lime juice flavor you can poke holes into your cupcakes with a toothpick before brushing on lime juice.
How to Put Cherries on Buttercream
I recommend removing the cherries from the bottle and placing them on a paper towel prior to placing them on the frosting. Doing that will ensure that the cherry juice doesn’t drip into the frosting and all over the place. I only recommend this for appearance’s sake, if you don’t mind a little maraschino cherry juice dripping, there is no need to take any action before placing on the frosting.
I completely adore these simple and fun cupcakes and hope you will too!
More Cherry Treats
Cherry Limeade Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (187.5 g) all-purpose flour sifted
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon coarse salt
- ½ cup (1 stick/113 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- ½ cup (122.5 g) whole milk, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoon lime juice, divided
- 1 tablespoon lime zest
Frosting
- 3 cups (375 g) confectioners' sugar
- ½ cup (1 stick/113 g) butter
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- ¼ cup maraschino cherry juice
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350°F. Prepare cupcake pans with baking spray or cupcake liners. (This recipe yielded 15 cupcakes for me.)
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
- In stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream together room temperature butter and sugar on medium high until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low and add in eggs, one at a time and mix until just blended.
- Add in vanilla, 2 tablespoons of lime juice and milk and mix for about 30 seconds on low. Slowly add in dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
- Remove from mixer then fold in lime zest with spatula.
- Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Transfer muffin tin to oven and bake until tops are just dry to the touch, 18 to 20 minutes.
- Transfer cupcakes to a cooling rack.
- Use pastry brush to brush remaining 1 tablespoon of lime juice over the top of the cupcake.
- Let cupcakes cool completely and dry before topping with cherry frosting.
Frosting
- In a standing mixer fitted with a whisk, mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.
- Add almond flavoring and cherry juice continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute more, adding more juice if needed for spreading consistency
Did you make this recipe?
Thank you for making my recipe! You took pictures, right? Well go ahead and post them on Instagram! Be sure to mention me @iambaker and use the hashtag #YouAreBaker.
I have been scouring the internet trying to find retro themed cupcakes and your recipe caught my eye. I made these a couple of days ago and I had to come on your site and let you know how delicious they are. Just the right amount of lime flavor and the frosting is perfect (I did have to add more confectioners sugar to frosting for my liking) but the flavors of the cherry and lime combined in these cupcakes taste just like the cherry limeade drinks we used to drink a long time ago. I think the addition of brushing the lime juice over the cupcakes after taking them out of the oven is what really put them over the top. Thanks so much for posting this recipe. They are truly wonderful.
Made these last week for my grown daughter’s birthday. She said they were her all-time favorite and I’ve made LOTS of cupcakes in the last 6-7 years! Thanks for a keeper recipe.
For the Spumoni Cake, should I use a whole bash of this icing or make a half of it?
Thank you!! :))
Looks so yummy!
thanks Amanda for this!
Thankyou soo much i’ll love to try this recipe…..????????
Awesome!
Hi,
This may seem like a silly question but i need to measure 1.5 cups of flour and then sift it, right?
Thanks!
Yes. Shift it with the baking powder and salt.
I love the flavor of this cupcake!! The cupcakes were pretty dense. I was wondering if it’s supposed to be that way and how I can make it light and fluffy without loosing any flavor. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe.
I would love to see what you can do with blueberry and recipes