Lemon Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting
A yummy lemon cupcake paired with buttercream frosting. Add raspberry preserves to a bit of buttercream for a decadent filling.
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 1/2 tbsp lemon zest
- 1/2 cup half and half
- 1/4 cup Greek yogurt
Frosting
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 1/4 cup butter
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 3 tbsp cream
Filling
- 1/4 cup seedless raspberry preserves
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two muffin pans with 15 liners.
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Add lemon juice, zest, half and half and yogurt. Mix until fully combined.
- Add dry ingredients to wet, stirring just until combined.
- Fill cupcake liners 1/2 to 2/3 full, dividing batter equally. Bake for 16-18 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes back clean.
- Remove cupcakes from oven and remove from pan. Let cool on wire rack.
Frosting
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter for 5 minutes, scraping with a spatula once or twice.
- Add powdered sugar, vanilla, lemon juice and zest and cream. Mix until well combined.
- Pipe onto cooled cupcakes. Store in refrigerator. To serve, top with fresh raspberries or lemon slices. Let refrigerated cupcakes come to room temperature before serving.
Filling
- For filling, mix preserves with a small amount of buttercream frosting until desired consistency.
- Pipe filling into cooled cupcakes--cupcakes will rise a bit as you fill. Don't overfill--they will crack. Pipe additional lemon buttercream onto tops. Garnish with raspberries.
Notes
- These are great on their own or with the raspberry filling. Blackberry preserves would also work well with the lemon flavor.