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We are going a little cupcake crazy at our house.
After the fun cupcake capers Logan and I had together on his last visit home I decided to try out some new cupcake recipes.
I am helping a friend with her son’s wedding reception next week and they wanted to have a cupcake bar. She has put me in charge of selecting and planning the cupcake menu. I have also been helping with the decorations too and can’t wait to show you what we have planned!
Back to the cupcakes – my first step was to go to some of my favorite food blogs and gather together some recipes. Over at Real Mom Kitchen I found a recipe for Perfect Lemon Cupcakes. She had gotten the recipe from my friend Melanie over at My Kitchen Cafe!
These cupcakes were indeed perfect – lemon through and through. Lemon cake, lemon frosting – it doesn’t get any better! The cupcake starts with a boxed lemon cake mix but then is enhanced with some sour cream and pudding which makes for a very moist cupcake. The frosting, and it is all about the frosting, was super lemony too with fresh lemon juice and lemon zest.
Topped off with half a strawberry these lemon cupcakes were indeed perfect. They are a definite go for the wedding reception and they are so pretty!
We had a surprise Sweet Sixteen birthday party at our house this week so I decided a cupcake bar would be part of the party food and an excuse to experiment with more recipes for the wedding reception. We went with strawberry cupcakes and chocolate malted milk cupcakes for the party (we had a pink and black theme).
I’ll share pictures from the party and two more cupcake recipes on Monday!
I’m still in need of a few more cupcake recipes/flavors to add to the menu so if you have a favorite cupcake recipe please leave it in the comments or send it to me via the contact form – thanks!!
When you make these cupcakes you are going to want two of my favorite tools for working lemons:
Microplaner and a Lemon Juicer
Perfect Lemon Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cake:
- 1 box lemon cake mix
- 1 C sour cream
- 3/4 C water
- 3/4 C oil
- 4 eggs
- 1 box lemon instant pudding small box
Lemon Buttercream Frosting:
- 1 cup butter very soft
- 8 C powdered sugar
- 1/2 C fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
Instructions
Cake:
- Mix dry ingredients
- Add wet ingredients
- Mix with electric mixer on medium speed for about two minutes
- Use a strong mixer, this batter is thick
- For cupcakes, bake them at 350 degrees for 20 minutes (I was able to get 24 very full cupcakes from the recipe).
- For regular cake, pour into a greased 9x11 pan or two round pans
- Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes
- Don't over bake or the cake will be too dry!
- The toothpick test works to check to see if they're done
- The original recipe said that the cupcakes will fall after they come out of the oven, but this is normal and to just fill up the indentation with more frosting
Lemon Buttercream Frosting:
- Place the butter in a large mixing bowl
- Add 4 cups of sugar, then the juice and the zest
- Beat until smooth and creamy
- Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, until icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency (I added 6 cups total).
- Use and store at room temperature. (Don't refrigerate and it will last in a covered container for about three days.)
- Garnish with berries, if desired right before serving
Nutrition Facts:
KAYLA DOTSON says
This is hands down the best lemon cupcake recipe I’ve seen! Love the texture and the taste! 🙂
Leigh Anne says
Kayla, It is a good one! So glad you love it too
Olivia says
What can you use instead of the zest?
Leigh Anne says
You can replace it with some additional lemon juice. 1 tsp of zest to 2 tsp of juice.
Stephanie says
I tried this recipe tonight and really was NOT a fan…..the cake was extremely dense and the “frosting” was sooooooo sweet and sugary and not fluffy at all. Very sad! 🙁
Sinea Pies says
Mmmm. These look SO good and SO pretty, Leigh Anne.
They will be featured in this Friday’s Cupcakes on Parade on Ducks ‘n a Row!
My readers will LOVE them.
(oh, just pinned ’em too!)
Blessings,
Sinea
Ducks ‘n a Row
Sara Vongthongthip says
These lemon cupcakes are sooooo good! Perfect indeed.
Stacey says
I made these as a birthday cake tonight and everybody LOVED it! I will definitely make again and I might just have to eat the rest of the frosting by itself! Thanks for a great recipe!
Leigh Anne says
I am so glad they were a hit – they are definitely the perfect lemon cupcake!
GiGiMarie says
Try cutting back on the water and add in fresh lemon juice and zest instead. So super yummy! This is a similar recipe to my lemon cupcakes. My boys enjoy them very much!
Annice Hill says
Leigh Ann, thanks for sharing this recipe. I am making them next week for a lunch for college students at one of our local campuses here in San Antonio, TX. We are serving them after a pasta lunch and I thought these would be a nice refreshing end ot the meal. I am making candied lemon slices to decorate them with since strawberries don’t seem very appropriate in October. Also thanks for the decorating video. I am heading to our local cake suppy store right now to get the disposable bags, the large star tip, some beautiful liners, and cupcake transporting boxes. Thanks again.
Leigh Anne says
Sounds like you have a delicious lunch planned I think the lemon cupcakes will be the perfect dessert. Have fun decorating them.
carolyn says
I made these for a baby shower and the client wanted cream cheese frosting. They were wonderful!!! Like crazy wonderful! If you have problems with them falling in the middle, I found that they may need an extra minute of baking time. I didn’t want to overbake so I tested at 18 minutes and took them out. They fell a little. The next batch I baked for the full 20 minutes and they were perfect….no falling. So just and FYI
Leigh Anne says
Carolyn, So glad they were a hit! I bet they were amazing with cream cheese frosting. Thanks for the tip on baking them a little longer to prevent falling. Will definitely do that next time.