Easy Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream have a zingy lemon flavor in both the cupcakes and the buttercream for a sweet and tart flavor. I also have Strawberry Lemon Cupcakes which feature the same lemon cupcake base paired with sweet and fruity strawberry buttercream. Check out all of my cupcake recipes for even more varieties!
Ingredients & Substitutions
There are two parts to this recipe–the cupcakes and the frosting.
Room Temperature Ingredients: Using room temperature ingredients (specifically butter, eggs, and milk in this recipe) will help you get the best results when baking the muffins and making the buttercream.
Butter: Use unsalted butter in both the cupcakes and buttercream. Unsalted butter gives the cupcakes a better texture and it also allows you, the baker, to have control over the amount of salt.
Lemon Juice: For the best lemon flavor, use freshly squeezed lemon juice.
Lemon Extract: When adding the lemon extract to the buttercream, start with just 1 teaspoon, tasting as you go. Remember, the buttercream with the cupcakes will give you a full blast of lemon flavor!
Food Coloring: You don’t have to add yellow food coloring to the buttercream. However, the yellow buttercream makes this treat look like sunshine and really can brighten your day! Or, go for a totally contrasting color for a real statement!
How to Pipe the Frosting
To pipe the frosting on top, just fill your pastry bag fitted with an 8B tip. Starting at the center, apply pressure and then move the bag around the cupcake. If you want a tall frosting swirl, apply pressure and then build it up by going around 3 times. Easy peasy!
How to Store Lemon Cupcakes
Store the frosted cupcakes in an airtight container at room temperature. They will last 4-5 days.
Can I Freeze Lemon Cupcakes?
Yes! Freeze the cupcakes before they are frosted with the buttercream. To freeze, let the cupcakes cool completely before storing them in a freezer-safe container for up to a month. Let them thaw in the refrigerator when ready to enjoy or frost them.
Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream
Ingredients
Lemon Cupcakes
- 1 ½ cups (187 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup (1 stick / 113 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ½ tablespoons lemon zest
- ½ cup (122.5 g) whole milk, room temperature, divided
- 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, divided
Lemon Buttercream*
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1-3 teaspoons lemon extract
- 2 teaspoons whole milk, or more as needed
- 5 drops yellow food coloring, more or less as desired
- 2 cups (250 g) confectioners' sugar, or more as needed
Instructions
Lemon Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a 12-count cupcake tin with cupcake liners.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a separate large mixing bowl, add the butter and sugar. Using a hand mixer, beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Add in the eggs one at a time, beating each egg until fully incorporated after each addition. Add vanilla and lemon zest. Beat until combined.
- To the butter mixture, add about ⅓ of the flour mixture. Next, add half of the milk and lemon juice. Repeat the steps, ending with the flour mixture. Beat until just combined, making sure not to overmix.
- Fill the prepared cupcake liners about ¾ full. Bake for about 15-17 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. Let the cupcakes cool in the pans for about 10 minutes before removing them to finish cooling on a rack.
- While the cupcakes are cooling, prepare the buttercream.
Lemon Buttercream*
- To a large mixing bowl, add butter, lemon extract, and milk. Using a hand mixer on medium speed, beat ingredients together until smooth. If desired, add yellow food coloring.
- Add confectioners' sugar into butter mixture and beat on low speed until desired consistency is reached. You may want to add more sugar.
- Frost each cupcake with the buttercream.
Video
Notes
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.
Love this recipe. Can’t wait to try it. Lemon is so refreshing for s summer desert. Thank you. Keep these awesome recipes coming. BTW. Do you ever make anything gluten-free and dairy-free. Have 2 of these folks in our household! 🙂
Wow, they look so very fresh and pretty. clever girl! I would love to make them ….. but as I live in the UK, would u please, to able to give me the recipe in metric or imperial ?.. thank you v much.
You can get the metric conversion amounts on the internet. Just ask for what you need to convert.
Lemon is the perfect summer flavor! I really like adding a surprise oreo inside too 🙂
Well, most of the time I make all of my desserts from scratch but I have to admit this is not one of them. This is a lemon box mix but instead of using water I used limoncello and a dash of heavy cream. I also added a small box of lemon pudding mix to the cake for moisture.
Sounds good!
What is lemoncello?
Limoncello is a liquor
I made it substituted orange for the lemon because it’s all had. Great recipe!
Hey my buttercream always turns out to be really gritty and full of sugar and not that fluffy and smooth. It doesn’t seem as smooth as ur creams in the pictures. I’ve tried it a few times using different recipes but all in vain. Maybe im doing something wrong here? Would you be able to help me? Any kind of tips are welcome!
Are you using confectioners/icing sugar? Sounds like you might be using regular granulated sugar, which would cause the grittiness.
Powdered sugar not regular sugar is meant by confectioners sugar. Not sure why no one uses that since when buying it says powdered sugar on most bags.
Hi there, I made the lemon frosting from this post and the lemon cake from your other recent post. Based on the quantity of each ingredient for the frosting, I didn’t think there was any way the small amounts would pipe onto 12 cupcakes and, unfortunately, I was right. Your lemon cake recipe made 24 (FANTASTIC!!!) cupcakes so I knew I’d need to at least double the frosting recipe. Even with doubling the frosting recipe, it still didn’t look like it would be enough to pipe (as you did in the pictures) so I decided to use the cookie scoop method, which I’ve seen you do before. Using the medium scoop, I was only able to frost 13 cupcakes with the doubled frosting recipe. I loved the frosting but just wanted to let you know that your measurements appear to be quite low. 🙂
Thank you!
how many eggs do you use?
I made these tonight as a late night snack for me and my little sister. Le me just say, they were delicious. I added an extra teaspoon of lemon extract to the frosting and i loved the lemony flavor i got. Also, the cupcakes were nice and most and way better than my last baking attempt which were chocolate chip muffins. for some reason my muffins didn’t rise like i expected. The cupcakes are definitely 5 stars. At least that’s what my little sister says.
How many cupcakes does this make?
It says to use 12 muffin cups with paper liners , so I guess it is 12 or 1 dozen