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Recently, I asked my following on Instagram a question. “What kinds of recipes do you need in your life?”
I got great responses and I loved the ideas my followers had! Sure, I could scour Pinterest and search for recipes. But, those recipes wouldn’t be as valuable to my social audience.
So, after I got some input from my comments, I set out to craft those recipes. The first recipe being scrumptious lemon cupcakes with a bright lemon frosting! Yum!
Kitchen Essentials I Like to Use for this Recipe:
Why This Recipe Was Needed?
The lemon cupcake recipe idea came from a woman who really loved lemon pound cake but didn’t want to make a whole cake. Instead, she wanted cupcakes.
Since traditionally a lemon pound cake is glazed instead of frosted, you can totally choose to glaze these cupcakes! It would be delicious I’m sure. But there’s just something fun about having a cupcake topped with whipped fluffy frosting.
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Something great, there are no super technical steps that you would see in most cake recipes. No creaming butter and sugar together first and no alternating wet and dry ingredients. This lemon cupcake recipe really is super easy and could be done with a whisk if that’s all you have!
Ingredients for Lemon Cupcakes:
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- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 3 large eggs
- Zest and juice of 2 lemons. (if you desire a stronger lemon flavor, use bottled lemon juice instead).
Ingredients for Lemon Frosting:
- 1 stick softened salted butter
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tsp lemon extract
- 1 tablespoon milk
- zest and juice of 1 lemon (Again, use bottled lemon juice for a stronger flavor)
Lemon Cupcakes with Zingy Lemon Frosting
Light lemony cupcakes that are sweet, tart, and scrumptious!
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 2 cups AP flour
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup +2 tablespoons milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp lemon extract
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 3 large eggs
- zest and juice of 2 lemons
Frosting
- 1 stick salted butter
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp lemon extract
- zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tablespoon milk
Instructions
For the cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake pan with paper cups.
- Place flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a mixing bowl. Stir together.
- Pour in milk, extracts, and melted butter. Beat ingredients in with a mixer or whisk.
- once well combined, add in eggs one at a time. Making sure each is well incorporated.
- Add in the zest and juice. Beat in.
- Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop into cupcake liners. Bake for 20 minutes. Check with a toothpick for doneness. Let cool.
For the Frosting
- With a mixer, beat softened butter until light and fluffy.
- Add in the powdered sugar a little at a time and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Once fluffy, add in extracts and zest and juice.
- If frosting is too dry, add in the milk.
- Whip until light and fluffy. Frost the cooled cupcakes.
Notes
To give a stronger lemon flavor, use bottled lemon juice in place of fresh. The cupcakes have a very light lemon flavor while the frosting has more of a punch.
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