I had someone ask me to make lemon cupcakes for an event they were having. I have made literally thousands of cupcakes, but I had not ever made any lemon cupcakes. How could this be??? I actually have a lemon tree in my backyard that has tons of lemons! 
I was worried about the cupcakes not being “lemony” enough so I got some lemon extract…just in case. I didn’t even need the extract. The cupcakes came out really light & delicious. Plus, the lemon zest really made it taste so fresh. Since it’s almost springtime & close to Easter, I think these will be perfect for the upcoming season. The frosting pretty much tastes like lemonade. I’m surprised I had enough left to frost the cupcakes because I couldn’t help eating it by the spoonful! This was a fun cupcake to make & yuuuuuummy!!!!
- 1 stick butter
- 1 ¼ cups sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 ½ cups Cake Flour
- ½ t salt
- 1 t baking powder
- ½ cup milk
- 2 T yellow food coloring, if desired
- ¼ cup lemon juice (2 lemons)
- 2 T lemon zest
- 1 T vanilla
- Lemon Frosting
- 2 sticks butter
- 1 bag (2lbs) confectioner’s sugar
- ¼ cup lemon juice (2 lemons)
- 2 T lemon zest
- 2 T milk
- Preheat oven 350°F.
- Cream butter in a mixing bowl. Add sugar. Add eggs one at a time until fully incorporated.
- Sift together the cake flour, salt, & baking powder.
- In a measuring cup add milk, yellow food coloring, lemon juice, & vanilla to mix together. The milk will curdle but just add to the batter.
- Interchangeably mix in milk mixture & flour mixture ⅓ at a time just until incorporated. Do not overmix.
- Line cupcake tin with cupcake liners & fill ⅔ full with batter.
- Bake 16 minutes for regular cupcakes/9 minutes for mini cupcakes or until the top is springy & a toothpick is clean when inserted. If the toothpick is wet, put the cupcakes back in the oven for 2 more minutes. Repeat as many times as needed.
- Once the cupcakes are fully cooked & are easy to handle, pull the cupcakes directly from the cupcake tin to a wire rack to cool.
- Place a piping tip in a piping bag & fill with frosting. When the cupcakes are fully cooled, frost the cupcakes.
- Decorate the cupcakes with sprinkles, candies, or decorative picks.
- Enjoy! ♡
KITCHEN TIPS ♡
♡ I use a hand grater for lemon zest. They are affordable & can be used for many other things such as ginger, garlic, carrots, cheese. This hand grater is much easier for me to grasp than a box grater, especially for smaller ingredients.
♡ If using a stand-up mixer, the paddle attachment is the best attachment to use. I have made cupcakes with people recently that had no idea what the paddle attachment is! It is the best attachment to make the batter with. In general, it works best for creaming butter which means the batter & the frosting. I use my paddle attachment more than my whisk or the dough hook. Ingredients get really stuck in the whisk attachment & the dough hook is for kneading purposes.
♡ I use cake flour for my vanilla cupcakes instead of all-purpose flour. AP flour will work, but cake flour makes the cake light & spongy whereas the AP flour will create a texture that can be heavier & dense. I like to make my own cake flour because it is less expensive to make than to buy it & it is easy to make! Scale 1 cup of flour in a bowl & then take 2 tablespoons of the flour back out of the bowl. Replace that with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. Yes! Cornstarch! Cornstarch has a silky feel to it & it helps take out some protein content which makes a difference with gluten forming.
♡ I sift my dry ingredients of flour, salt, & baking powder. Sifting is important in cupcakes because it makes the flour lighter which helps all the ingredients to incorporate easier. To sift, a strainer is needed & a medium-sized bowl. Simply put the flour, salt, & baking powder through the strainer by hitting the sides of the strainer or if the flour is going outside the bowl, use a spatula to push the ingredients through.
♡ In order to try & keep my cupcakes uniform, I use a scoop & a bowl of water when I am putting the batter in the muffin tin. I use a 1/4 cup scoop for regular cupcakes & a tablespoon for mini cupcakes. The bowl of water keeps the batter from sticking to the scoop. I place my scoop in the water in between each cupcake scoop. A little bit of water won’t affect the baking process!
♡ My oven has hot spots which means that the oven is hotter in certain places than in others. When I check my cupcakes, I turn the cupcake tins around & switch the sides of the cupcake tins. This helps me cook my cupcakes more evenly!
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