Easy Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Frosting make the perfect spring or summer dessert, for any type of celebration!
Is lemon your favorite flavor?
Oh good, now I feel like I’m talking to my husband! 😉 He’s lemon crazy, so while I’d reach for chocolate first for any dessert, he’s always super excited when I make a dessert that’s fruity and bright! For Valentines Day, instead of a traditional chocolate dessert, I made him these Lemon Cupcakes.
When making a lemon-flavored dessert it’s always important to make sure you get just the right amount of lemon in it.
Too much and it’s mouth puckering and extremely overbearing. Too little and you’re left thinking… is this vanilla with an accidental lemon zest or something?? Snooze...
These Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Frosting are THE perfect flavor of an “OH YEAH these are lemon!” 🙂
The recipe itself for these Lemon Cupcakes is simple too – perfect for any baker.
To begin making your Lemon Cupcakes, you’ll need to make “buttermilk” with your milk and lemon juice.
This helps keep the cupcakes deliciously moist. Simply mix your milk and lemon juice together in a separate, small bowl. Let them set for a few minutes.
The milk will start to look a little funky as it sours into buttermilk. That’s a GOOD thing! You want that.
After that, preheat your oven to 350 and line a muffin pan with cupcake liners. I like to spray a little nonstick spray inside too, just in case!
In a separate, small mixing bowl, combine your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt) and mix them together.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your coconut oil and sugar. Add in your vanilla AND your lemon zest!
The second most important detail in making these Lemon Cupcakes is using lemon ZEST.
Shortly after my husband and I got married I tried to make my first ever lemon-flavored dessert without lemon zest, because we didn’t have a tool to zest a lemon with. I ignored all the warnings and guess what, it was seriously lacking in lemon flavor. 🙁
Lemon zest is the KEY to having full lemon flavor in your baked goods. DO NOT skimp on it!
After you add your vanilla and lemon zest, whisk in your eggs and then your “buttermilk.”
Now, pour your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and stir them until all is well incorporated. You should see beautiful little specks of lemon zest throughout a nice, thicker cupcake batter.
Fill each cupcake cavity in your muffin pan about 2/3 way full, or till you’ve used all of your batter evenly among the 12 cupcake cavities.
Bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes, or till the cupcakes have set on top and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
And don’t forget the Lemon Buttercream Frosting!
In a medium sized mixing bowl, add your butter, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla and mix together using a hand mixer. Add your powdered sugar in and mix together again, till a beautiful Lemon Buttercream Frosting has formed.
After your cupcakes have cooled you can spread or pipe your frosting on top. Then DEVOUR! 😉
These Lemon Cupcakes are moist, a little thick, filled with fresh lemon flavor and topped with a sweet Lemon Buttercream Frosting.
I have a feeling my husband will be asking for these for birthdays, Valentines Days, and whatever other days he can come up with that call for cupcakes 🙂
Craving other citrus recipes? Check out my gluten-free Lemon Pancakes or my gluten-free Lemon Honey Granola.
- 1/3 cup almond milk (or other milk of choice)
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 1/3 cup flour (regular or gluten-free all purpose, I use Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted (or butter)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- zest of 2 lemons
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups powdered sugar
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In a small bowl, combine your milk and lemon juice and let them sit for a few minutes to sour, to create your “buttermilk.”
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Preheat your oven to 350 and line a muffin pan with cupcake liners (and lightly spray them with nonstick spray too!).
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In a small mixing bowl, stir together your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt).
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In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your coconut oil and sugar. Add in your vanilla, lemon zest, and eggs and whisk together again. Lastly, add in your “buttermilk” and stir till all is well incorporated.
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Pour your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and stir until you have a nice, thick cupcake batter.
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Fill each cupcake liner about 2/3 way full, filling all 12 liners with the entire cupcake batter.
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Bake in the oven for about 15-18 minutes, or till the cupcakes have set on top and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
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In a large mixing bowl, using a hand mixer, combine your butter, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla.
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Pour in your powdered sugar and blend till smooth. If your batter is too thick you can add a tbsp of water to thin it out a bit.
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After your cupcakes have cooled, either spread or pipe the frosting onto your cupcakes.
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Devour!
Stored in an airtight container, these lemon cupcakes last about 2-3 days.
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