Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes are delicious and whimsical and are a perfect treat for any occasion. Delicate lemon cupcakes made from scratch with fresh raspberry buttercream frosting, these Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes are the ultimate sweet treat.
There are some days when you just need to add a little zing in your day. Something light and playful and whimsical and delightful. To me, that’s what these Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes are. They are just fun! Soft, moist scratch made lemon cupcakes smothered in bright raspberry buttercream frosting. Now don’t get me wrong, I love a dark, chocolatey, espresso cupcake just as much as the next girl. But sometimes you’re looking for something a little off the beaten path and these Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes cupcakes couldn’t be more off the path if you tried. Tart, sweet and full of attitude these cupcakes jump up and scream SHAZAM!!
Surprisingly, not every food does that.
HOW DO YOU ZEST A LEMON?
When a recipe calls for zest, it means finely minced or grated lemon peel. The lemon peel is the yellow ‘skin’ on a lemon and it sits on top of the white pith layer.
You can zest a lemon with a knife, a microplane or even the small openings on a standard standing cheese grater. To zest with the microplane (shown below), just rub the lemon in one direction against the little blades. Turn the lemon as you go so you remove only the yellow part. The white layer is bitter so stroke only 2 or 3 times in one spot of the yellow before rotating the lemon to a new unzested spot.
HOW DO YOU FROST CUPCAKES LIKE A PRO?
Frosting cupcakes takes a bit of practice but is really easy once you get the hang of it. Start by moving your frosting to a decorating piping bag or if you are like me.. a big ziplock bag. You want to purchase a piping tip and after snipping the corner off of the bag, push your tip so that it is hanging out of the edge of the bag. Load your bag up with frosting and using even pressure, squeeze the frosting from the bag and onto your cupcake. There are a TON of tutorials online to show you different, fancy techniques so you can frost cupcakes like a pro with just a few clicks.
HOW DO YOU MAKE RASPBERRY LEMON CUPCAKES?
Easy! To make Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes, preheat oven to 375 degrees F and line 24 cupcake pan cups with paper liners. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. In another bowl, beat the softened butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating each egg until incorporated before adding the next. Mix in the vanilla extract, lemon juice and lemon zest. Gently mix the flour mixture into the butter mixture, one third at a time, alternating and add the milk. Beat until just combined; do not over mix.
Fill the cupcake liners with batter 3/4 full and bake Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Let the Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes cool in the pans for about 10 minutes before removing them to finish cooling on a rack.
To make the Raspberry Buttercream Frosting, puree the raspberries and then push the pureed raspberries through a sieve to remove the seeds.
In a medium sized mixing bowl, sift the powdered sugar. Add the softened butter and cream together on low speed until the powdered sugar and butter are completely combined.
Add in a pinch of salt and then the pureed raspberry sauce. Continue to beat on medium speed until the frosting is light and creamy.
If frosting is too thin, add a bit more powdered sugar. If it is too thick, add a tablespoon of water or milk to thin it out.
That’s how easy it is to make Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes from scratch without using a boxed cake mix. Trust me, these are 100% better!
DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE? PLEASE GIVE IT A STAR RATING BELOW!
Raspberry Lemon Cupcakes
Ingredients
- Lemon Cupcakes
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup softened butter
- 2 cup sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice about 1 1/2 lemons
- 2 tablespoon lemon zest about 2 lemons
- 1 cup milk
- Raspberry Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup butter softened
- 5 cups confectioners' sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 6 ounce raspberries, pureed about 1/2 cup
Instructions
Lemon Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and line 24 cupcake pan cups with paper liners.
- Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. In another bowl, beat the softened butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating each egg until incorporated before adding the next. Mix in the vanilla extract, lemon juice and lemon zest.
- Gently mix the flour mixture into the butter mixture, one third at a time, alternating and add the milk. Beat until just combined; do not over mix.
- Fill the prepared cupcake liners with batter 3/4 full, and bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool in the pans for about 10 minutes before removing them to finish cooling on a rack.
Raspberry Buttercream Frosting
- Puree the raspberries and then push the pureed raspberries through a sieve to remove the seeds
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, sift the powdered sugar. Add the softened butter and cream together on low speed until the powdered sugar and butter are completely combined. Add in a pinch of salt and then the pureed raspberry sauce.
Continue to beat on medium speed until the frosting is light and creamy. If frosting is too thin, add a bit more powdered sugar. If it is too thick, add a tablespoon of water or milk to thin it out.
Nutrition
Lemon and raspberry are always wonderful combination you made great cupcake that raspberry buttercream is die for. My kids will love it.
I do love cupcakes, though my waistline is screaming for help.
Not only do these sound delicious, but they are so cute! Perfect for Summer parties!
These cupcakes look so delicious! I never used to cook much with lemon because I always thought it was way too tart. But now I love it, and always have lemons on hand. I love how lemon zest brightens up everything it touches
I can take zing in my day each and every day. I do like chocolate but lemon just makes me feel so good. I simply love the smell. Your cupcakes turned out so cute and I really like how you finished them off with the icing and the raspberry. Yep! One of these cupcakes would give me a lift.
Lemon and raspberry is such a great flavor combo, and the pink icing looks so pretty on top of the yellow cupcake! I love the simple garnish of raspberry and lemon slice,
Lemon and Raspberry is one of my my favourite flavour combos!! These cupcakes look perfect!
I love a great cupcake like these they are so much fun to eat and its a bonus when they look this perfect and pretty too!
raspberry + lemon equals the perfect summer bake for me. These look so good and your photos are fabulous
This is perfect for spring! I feel that the heavier desserts are better during the winter months. I love the flavor combination of lemon and raspberry and can’t wait to make these. Cupcakes are just so fun to eat!!
I agree completely!! I absolutely love cupcakes and would probably bake them every week if my waistline would permit it.haha.. Give these a try and let me know how you like them 🙂