Lemon Cupcakes Recipe

photo courtesy of jamieanne

I hope everyone is enjoying their summers and finding these cupcake recipes useful and delicious!
One of my favorite kinds of cupcakes is lemon cupcakes. I've always been a fan of anything with lemon, and when it comes to cupcakes there's no exception.
The great thing about lemon cupcakes is that they are a good substitute for regular vanilla cupcakes. Sometimes you just get bored of using the traditional cupcake base, and this recipe should offer you a nice alternative. If you scale back on the lemon a bit, it'll give the cupcakes a nice subtle zing. But the recipe I'm providing is for the lemon lovers!

Lemon Cupcakes - The Real Deal

2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cup milk
splash of vanilla extract
2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
2 Tbsp lemon zest


-Preheat oven to 325º and line the cupcake pan
-In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until creamy. Add the milk and lemon juice and lemon zest.
-In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda. You can either use your hands or a whisk to do this.
-Now add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Careful not to over-mix!
-Divide the batter up into prepared cupcake baking sheet.
-Bake for between 17 and 21 minutes.
-Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.
-Enjoy!

Let's talk about frosting now. Lemon cupcakes can be paired with many different frosting. The most popular is buttercream frosting of course! This balances out the tanginess of the cupcakes with a softer, sweeter frosting. You can also use cream cheese frosting for a nice and tangy finish. A favorite of mine (not everyone may enjoy this) is chocolate frosting. This is a great way to finish off your lemon cupcakes!

If you like the idea of having a subtler lemon zing, you can halve the amount of lemon juice and lemon zest in the cupcakes. Then these cupcakes will be a great alternative to vanilla cupcakes and they will go with virtually any frosting. Lemon cupcakes are my favorite thing to eat in the winter, as they remind me of warmth and spring. They go great with any type of fruit, and you can add poppy seeds if you'd like. Raspberries are especially compatible with these cupcakes, and taste great sprinkled on top of buttercream frosting. Or, if you're feeling really adventurous why don't you try to add some raspberries to the batter and bake them in there! I promise you won't be disappointed.

Well folks, that's all for now! I hope you enjoy this. I'll post a recipe for lemon frosting soon to go with these and come back for more of the best cupcake recipes!!!!

Cupcake Recipe Ideas

Hello fellow cupcake lovers,

I am pleased to say I received an overwhelming amount of emails following my posting of the strawberry cupcakes recipe last month. It's really nice to know these cupcake recipes are falling into the right hands, and I was very touched by how many of you welcomed me back to my blog, after a long hiatus in which I was focusing on other things (non cupcake-related things).

I'll be posting more regularly from now on, and have a lot of recipes and ideas to share with all of you. Cupcakes are my passion and I'm excited to share that with all of you. In the past I've gotten some great ideas from emails and comments left by my readers, and I encourage you to keep on sending those ideas over. I have so many cupcake recipes that it's hard to pick out what you all would want to read about most!

A few cupcake posts that will be coming your way soon (and these are all in response to requests I've gotten by cupcake fans) are:

Vegan Cupcakes
Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes (these are some of my best cupcakes, vegan and non-vegan alike)
Gluten Free Cupcakes
Fondant Recipe and How to Use Fondant
Marshmallow Fondant
Lemon Cupcakes
Peanut Butter Frosting

If you are interested in seeing any other cupcake recipes, frosting recipes, baking techniques, decorating ideas, or anything else related to cupcakes, please leave a comment on this post and I'll be sure to add it to the list! I'm excited to start posting again and have been getting back into baking cupcakes and I'm coming up with new recipes all of the time. I've been more and more creative with my recipes, and I'm trying to think up ways to make cupcakes a little healthier. While I realize that butter and sugar are the main ingredients in most of my cupcakes, I've been experimenting with substitutes and will let you know as soon as I find something delicious!

Thanks again for reading my cupcake recipes and frosting recipes. Come back soon!

--The Cupcake Gal

Strawberry Cupcake Recipe

photo courtesy of elana's pantry

It's been a while, but I'm back! I appreciate all the lovely comments and I'm glad you're all enjoying my cupcake recipes!

I get a lot of requests for a strawberry cupcake recipe. I've never been a big fan of strawberry, but I set out to make a great cupcake, and I did! I wanted to share it with you. Strawberry cupcakes are great for any occasion. The 4th of July is just around the corner and these will make great 4th of July cupcakes. You can also use them for Valentines day, Christmas, or any other time you're in the mood for a tasty treat.

This recipe makes 2 dozen

1 1/3 cup fresh strawberries (not frozen)
3  cups flour
2.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp coarse salt
1/2 cup strawberry milk (regular milk is fine, too)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
4 large egg whites

Preheat oven to 350

-Place strawberries in a food processor and puree them. You should have 2/3 cup puree. If you're a little short go ahead and add a few more strawberries!
-In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
-In a separate bowl, mix together milk, vanilla, and strawberry puree.
-In another bowl cream butter with an electric mixer on high speed until the butter becomes fluffy. Gradually add sugar and continue mixing. Reduce the speed to medium and add the eggs and the egg whites.
-Now reduce the mixer speed to low and add about half of the flour mixture. Mix until combined, and be careful not to over mix or your cupcakes won't rise. Then slowly add the milk mixture, and mix just enough until combined. Add the remaining flour mixture.
-Pour batter into prepared cupcake tins and place in the preheated oven.
-Cooking times may vary, but it should take somewhere between 20-25 minutes.

Oh, and the most important step is to enjoy your cupcakes!
These taste great with virtually any frosting you can imagine. Buttercream frosting is great for a basic cupcake, and if you want to have more fun you can use chocolate frosting, coconut frosting, boiled frosting, pink frosting, or strawberry frosting! I like to thinly slice a few strawberries and decorate the tops of the cupcakes with them.

As we approach summer, it is the perfect time to use fresh fruit in our cupcakes. For a tasty idea, try replacing the strawberries with your favorite fruit. Peaches work great, as does a mix of summer berries. If you're really up for an experiment, try strawberry banana cupcakes, try adding some chocolate chips or coconut flakes. This recipe is so easy to alter to use other fruit and you should take advantage of that.

Well, folks, that's all I have for you today. I'll be back soon with some more delicious cupcake recipes. Right now I'm working an a new take on chocolate cupcakes, so check back soon and you'll be in for a real treat!