Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Absolutely bursting with fresh, fruity, and tangy flavors!
Texture: The cupcakes are perfectly tender and moist, with juicy blueberries studded throughout. Then the buttercream is ultra rich, smooth, and creamy. Heaven!
Ease: Just follow the recipe as I’ve written it and you’ll have beautiful cupcakes perfect for summer in no time!
Pros: So pretty, flavorful, and doable.
Cons: None!
Would I make this again? Absolutely.
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These Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes are the perfect bright, fresh treat for spring or summertime celebrations.
I was recently reminded just how delightful the lemon & blueberry flavor combination is, so I was inspired to create a recipe for Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes. I’m SO excited with what I was able to come up with.
This recipe uses a small amount of brown sugar in addition to the standard granulated sugar and an extra egg yolk. These tweaks ensure the cupcakes are as moist and flavorful as possible, while being tender yet sturdy enough to handle a generous amount of buttercream frosting.
Finish it all off with a stunning swirl of buttercream frosting, and you have yourself a treat that’s perfect for Easter, Mother’s Day, or any springtime or summertime party!
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes
How to Make MOIST Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes
- Measure your flour correctly. I highly recommend using a digital kitchen scale for the most accurate way to measure your ingredients. If you don’t have one, use the ‘scoop and level’ method to prevent adding too much flour to your cupcake batter, as this will make your Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes dry and tough. Learn more about how to measure correctly here.
- Don’t reduce the sugar in this recipe. Sugar actually helps contribute to moistness, structure, and more! Learn more about the role sugar plays in baking here.
- Use real buttermilk. More on this just below.
Do I Have to Use Real Buttermilk?
I’ve tried this recipe with both regular milk and buttercream, and the buttercream really does make a difference. It’s worth making the trip to the store! You can learn more about the magic of buttermilk here.
What is the Best Cupcake Pan for Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes?
I love my Wilton cupcake pan here for all cupcakes. I have not tried these Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes as mini cupcakes.
How to Prevent Cupcakes from Sticking to the Liner
Use high-quality liners. These cupcake liners are my favorite, as cupcakes don’t stick to them. Check out my article on how to prevent cupcake liners from sticking here if this is a common problem for you.
How to Frost Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes
- For the gourmet swirled frosting, we’re going to make one batch of buttercream and add fresh blueberry puree to one half. So easy, but so impressive!
- I used the Ateco #846 piping tip, which is a large closed star piping tip, but you can use any piping tip you prefer.
- If you wish to enhance the color of your frosting, I highly recommend using a purple gel food coloring like this one. Liquid food coloring adds too much liquid to the frosting, making it thinner and more difficult to pipe.
- Check out my full tutorial on how to achieve beautiful swirled cupcake frosting here.
How to Store Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes
Serve or store at room temperature for up to 1 day, or in the fridge for up to 3 days. Let come to room temperature before serving.
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Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the cupcakes::
- 1 3/4 cups (222 grams) all-purpose flour, measured correctly
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 stick (113 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) lightly packed brown sugar
- 1 large egg plus one egg yolk, at room temperature
- 1 cup (240 ml) buttermilk, at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon zest
- 3/4 cup (115 grams) fresh or frozen blueberries
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
For the buttercream::
- 3/4 cup (115 grams) fresh or frozen blueberries (thawed if frozen)
- 3 cups (306 grams) powdered sugar, sifted
- 2 sticks (227 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 to 2 tablespoons heavy or whipping cream
- Lemon zest, to garnish
Instructions
Make the cupcakes:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two standard muffin tins with 15 paper liners.
- In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer on medium-high speed to beat the butter and sugars until fluffy and very well combined, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl. On medium-low speed, add the egg and yolk and beat until combined, scraping down the bowl as needed. Combine the buttermilk, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Add in the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture in alternating batches, starting and ending with the flour, mixing until just combined.
- In a small bowl, toss the blueberries with the remaining 2 tablespoons of flour. Add into the batter and fold with a spatula until combined. Be very careful not to overmix, as that will create dense and gummy cupcakes.
- Divide the batter among the prepared muffin tins, filling each 3/4 full. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the buttercream:
- Using a blender, immersion blender, or food processor, puree the blueberries. Pass the pureed blueberries through a fine mesh strainer and into a medium bowl to remove the skins. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase the speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes. Add the salt and vanilla and beat on medium for 1 minute.
- Remove half of the buttercream to a bowl and add the blueberry puree gradually until the buttercream is well-colored and flavored but not too thin. If the buttercream does get too thin, add more powdered sugar to thicken.*
- To the plain buttercream, add the cream and beat until well combined.
Swirled Piping:
- In a large piping bag fitted with a decorative tip (such as the Ateco #846), use a spoon to scoop the plain frosting into one section of the bag, using your finger on the outside of the bag to help scrape it off. Repeat with the blueberry frosting. Ensure you’re aligning the frosting so it starts at the same place in the bag. Don’t worry if the colors touch each other.
- Squeeze the bag to slightly blur the colors together for a watercolor type effect. Twist the bag and squeeze out a test pipe to ensure the colors are coming out evenly before piping onto your cupcakes. Garnish frosted cupcakes with lemon zest.
- Serve or store at room temperature for up to 1 day, or in the fridge for up to 3 days. Let come to room temperature before serving.
Recipe Notes
This post was originally published in 2016 and has been updated with additional baking tips.
I’m trying to figure out what the problem is
The lemon juice? The Blueberries?
Too little of something?
Cupcakes look wrinkled ontop, and proofed up on one side, didn’t rise too much either
🙁 🙁
Made these today, and they were delicious The buttermilk really does it’s magic for making the texture of the cake so moist! And I switched the buttercream frosting for a whipped cream, cuz my parents don’t eat too much fat tho
Is there any way you can post a tutorial video?
Hi Tessa. I’m so excited to try this out! If I want to cut the recipe in half, how much egg should I add?
I love this recipe Tessa! The only thing I’d change is adding more lemon zest to the batter, only because I LOVE to taste lemon.
Question: some of my cupcakes fell after being removed from the oven. Some kept their shape. I’d love to send you a picture.
I made these for a church event and they received great raves! They were very good and easy to make plus they look beautiful. Thank you!!
Hi there I love the recipe but is it okay if I don’t have cupcake liners or a hand mixer
Hey there, just an FYI. Your printed recipe does not include the crucial part of folding in the fruit. You might want to update. Thanks
I made a batch of these cupcakes(regular sized and mini cupcakes) for a birthday party. This recipe is definitely a keeper! Simple ingredients, a perfectly moist crumb and just the right amount of lemony flavor. Will definitely be making on repeat this summer!! The lemon-blueberry combination is so refreshing! I followed the recipe exactly as written and they came out great!
Hi Tessa ~ I live in Colorado ~ so I would like to ask you to please include High Altitude modifications to your baking recipes..they are DELICIOUS but sometimes literally, fall flat. ugh! Thank you so much, you are a great inspiration!
Hi Lisa, I’ve never lived or baked at high altitude so unfortunately I can’t offer any help there. I’m sure there are tons of other resources online for high altitude baking adjustments!
My 10 year old granddaughter loves to cook and saw these on Pinterest. She wanted to make them and I though they sounded good also. We had the same issue as 2 previous commenters had. When the liquid ingredients were mixed, the whole thing curdled. I also tried mixing it with the beater to blend it, but it remained separated. Hoping that it would still be okay when the dry ingredients were added, we finished making them. They were heavy with a very wierd texture and did not have a lot of flavor. Coating the blueberries with flour was a great idea–they stayed whole and were really juicy in the cupcakes. We followed the recipe exactly–don’t know what the issue was. Checked my soda and baking powder and they are both active.
Hi Sheila, I’ve taken these comments into consideration and made some improvements to the recipe. Obviously the recipe turned out well for me when I tested it, but I’m hoping these edits will make it a successful recipe for everyone. I scaled back the lemon juice slightly and replaced the measurements with more accurate tablespoons since I know some people were using very large lemons. I also added the extra step of adding the flour mixture and buttermilk-lemon mixture in alternating batches to avoid curdling. Thanks so much for your feedback!
Hi! I tried the receipe but when I added the lemon juice the batter separated and curdled. I tried putting the batter in a blender before adding the dry ingredients but the final cupcakes texture was not so good. What do you think I did wrong? All my ingredients were new. I would love to get this right. Thanks
Sadly I had the same experience as Kumi. When adding the milk with lemon, the texture of the batter went like baby sick. A mix of liquid and lumps. Very disappointing. I’m not a seasoned baker by any means, but I followed the recipe exactly. A waste of ingredients sadly.