homemade lemon cupcakes

These sunshine sweet homemade lemon cupcakes with vanilla frosting are incredibly soft and bursting with lemon flavor! 

Homemade Lemon Cupcakes

(115 grams) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

(200 grams) granulated sugar

eggs,

vanilla extract

baking powder

salt

(120 milliliters) whole milk*

lemon zest*

(80 milliliters) fresh lemon juice*

vanilla buttercream and additional lemon slices

Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners.

Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on medium-high speed in a large bowl until creamed, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Add eggs and vanilla extract, then beat on medium-high speed until combined, about 1 minute. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Set aside.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, start the mixer on low speed, then slowly add the milk, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Once combined, stop the mixer. Do not overmix this batter.

Spoon batter evenly into 12 cupcake liners, filling them about 2/3 full. Bake for about 18-22 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the middle will come out clean when they&#8217;re done. For around 30 mini cupcakes, bake for about 11-13 minutes, same oven temperature. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before frosting. I usually let them cool completely in the muffin pan.

Frost cooled cupcakes with vanilla buttercream. If topping with lemon zest, do so right before serving. There may be leftover frosting depending how much you use on each cupcake.

Leftover cupcakes keep well covered tightly in the refrigerator for 3 days.

I was looking for a lemon cake recipe that wasn't as involved as the last one I made (which had lemon syrup and lemon glaze and took all afternoon).  This recipe was just what I was looking for.  It made 12 regular-size cupcakes and 4 minis.  Since the regular cupcakes are supposed to go with me to celebrate my grandson's birthday tomorrow, having 4 minis to "taste test" was just right!  I found that it took the juice of 1 large lemon, but needed 2 large lemons for the zest.  My aluminum cupcake pan took 22 minutes.  I will use my dark cupcake pan next time, to see if they bake faster in that one.  The minis took 11 minutes.  I used my tried-and-true Betty Crocker buttercream frosting recipe.  I did add lemon extract to both the cupcake batter and the frosting (about 1/2 tsp to each).

Update on the cupcakes.  They were delicious!  I loved the texture -- they were more dense than some of my other cake recipes and I really liked that.  This recipe is a keeper!

I often have trouble baking here at altitude but these worked perfectly! They rose beautifully and didn't collapse at all like I sometimes experience.  Only thing I did differently was bake at 375 instead of 350. Now to make your lemon buttercream! Thanks for such great recipes - love your site!

these are delicious, but could i replace the juice and zest for orange, and then convert it to a 6 inch cake?

Hi! I’ve made this recipe before and they were delicious. I was wondering if I could make them with grapefruit instead of lemon. Or would it be better to make your grapefruit greek yogurt cake into muffins and top with frosting? Thanks!

Hi Sally, I was wondering if I could replace the lemon with lime or orange! I use this recipe a bunch and I haven’t been able to find a perfect orange or lime recipe! Thanks in advance! 

For example 1/3 lime juice instead of lemon &amp; 2 TBSP of lime zest 

Or 

1/3 cup orange juice instead of lemon &amp; 2 tbsp of orange zest

I'm 12 years old and love baking! I make these for my family and they're always a big hit! Even for those who normally don't like lemon! I love your website and am going to try and make your maple bacon doughnuts soon!

I have made this recipe twice now and it has failed both times- I’m an experienced baker and I’m not sure what is going wrong. In adding the wet to the dry, the batter immediately bubbles and by the time they start to bake, they overspread, and have big holes in the center and the texture is way off.

I made this yesterday and loved it! It came out moist, not dry, but really dense. Was that how it was suppose to be? 

The batter was also on the thicker side. As a result when it baked it didn't have a nice dome but was lumpy. Any ideas on what may have caused that? 

But the flavor was there! Thank you!

The cupcakes came out really good, and they were really moist! 

There were a few things I wanted to ask about...
1) my cupcakes came out flat at the top, is that normal?
2) what's the difference between adding all the eggs in and mixing  vs one at a time and mix in between each?
3) what's the difference between adding all the dry ingredients in followed by milk vs alternating between dry and milk?

Thanks so much!

Made these for my husband's birthday and used the lemon buttercream frosting.  Fabulous.  And, the cupcakes really didn't need frosting they are good all by themselves.  I will definitely be making these again.

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The most viewed homemade lemon cupcakes recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engineic_arrow_forward_48px

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Homemade Lemon Cupcakes

The most viewed homemade lemon cupcakes recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 20,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine