This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
I have to say that right behind chocolate, my favorite dessert flavor is probably lemon. Which is why I’m so excited to share these Lemon Cupcakes.
Lemon goes well on SO many savory foods, but when coupled with sugar, it’s the perfect marriage. Fresh, tangy, and sweet blend together so nicely.
These Lemon Cupcakes would be perfect for ANY spring or summer festivity. Easter or Mother’s Day would be particularly perfect, even a baby shower or bridal shower for something fresh and easy!
Anytime I’ve brought these cupcakes to a picnic or potluck, they’ve vanished within minutes – so you may want to bake a double batch.
Once again I’m partnering with one of my favorite baking ingredient brands, Bob’s Red Mill, to bring you this spring cupcake recipe. Bob’s Red Mill doesn’t just produce high-quality flours, grains, and tons of other go-to ingredients, but they’re also employee-owned. I find that pretty amazing in this day and age!
I thoroughly enjoy working with brand partners that have a strong company culture of family and community. Their Organic All-Purpose Flour is perfect in this recipe. Learn more about Bob’s Red Mill and stock up on baking ingredients here.
How to Make the BEST Lemon Cupcakes
Ingredients for my Lemon Cupcake Recipe
- All-purpose flour – Measured accurately (more on this below!).
- Lemons – The star ingredient! These cupcakes call for both fresh lemon zest and lemon juice for the perfect punch of lemon flavor.
- Leaveners – Baking powder and baking soda. Find out the differences between these two leaveners in this article.
- Salt – Just a little to balance out the sweetness.
- Butter – Make sure it’s unsalted butter and at room temperature.
- Granulated sugar – Sweetens and moistens the cupcakes.
- An egg – Helps provide structure and stability for the cupcakes.
- Whole milk – Fat not only provides richness, it also enhances flavor and tenderizes the cupcakes. For those reasons, I highly recommend using whole milk – but if you only have 2% that will work in a pinch. I wouldn’t recommend skim milk.
How do I Make Moist & Tender Cupcakes?
Firstly, it’s key that you measure your ingredients properly. Especially your flour. It’s ridiculously easy to accidentally add too much flour when using measuring cups. I like to use the spoon and level method or better yet, a digital kitchen scale. Learn more about the importance of measuring flour correctly here.
Bob’s Red Mill Organic All Purpose Flour has a protein content of 10-12% – perfect to create lemon cupcakes that maintain their shape and hold up to a generous amount of frosting, but soft enough to yield a tender texture.
With this recipe, you really want to make sure not to overmix the batter which can create dense and gluey cupcakes. Use a gentle hand and stir until JUST combined.
Butter vs. Oil in Cupcakes: Which is Better?
I actually recently conducted a baking experiment of Butter vs. Oil in Baking to see how the type of fat used affects tenderness, flavor, and texture in baked goods. The results were SHOCKING. Check out the full article with more side-by-side comparisons like the one below.
How to Stop Cupcake Liners from Sticking
Oftentimes this is due to the brand of liners. This is my favorite brand that I order in bulk from Amazon. I’ve written an entire post on how to prevent cupcake liners from sticking here in case this is a common problem for you.
Cream Cheese Frosting
This recipe includes an amazing fresh lemon cream cheese frosting. Its tangy freshness balances the sweetness so perfectly. Here are some tips for the best frosting to compliment these lemon cupcakes:
- Be sure your cream cheese and butter are at room temperature before beating, for a smooth lump-free frosting.
- Scrape down the sides of your mixing bowl as you beat the butter and cream cheese – even if you have a paddle attachment that scrapes the sides as it goes, those usually don’t get the very bottom of the bowl.
- Don’t skip sifting the powdered sugar.
- The amount of powdered sugar in this recipe does make a softer frosting because I didn’t want it to be too sweet. If you need a stiffer consistency to pipe with a decorative piping tip, feel free to add more powdered sugar.
- You can also omit the lemon juice and replace with about 1/2 tsp. lemon oil (or to taste) to thicken.
- If you don’t like cream cheese frosting (gasp!) you can always add the lemon zest + juice in this frosting recipe to my Best Buttercream recipe to create a delicious lemon buttercream frosting.
Can You Bake These Cupcakes Into a Cake?
Almost any cupcake recipe can be made into a cake, and these lemon cupcakes are no exception! Check out my full guide for how to convert cupcakes to cake (and vice versa).
How to Make Cupcakes Ahead of Time
Lemon cupcakes can be baked and stored in an airtight container a day ahead of frosting. The frosting itself can be made ahead of time and stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. Just bring to room temperature and beat until light and fluffy again.
How to Store Lemon Cupcakes
The frosted cupcakes can be left at room temperature for up to 8 hours since the sugar in the cream cheese frosting acts as a preservative. After that, you’re best off refrigerating the lemon cupcakes in an airtight container for up to 2 days. Let come to room temperature before serving.
If you’re serving these outside on a warm day, just keep them in the fridge until you set up for your party, picnic, potluck, or whatever. They’ll lose their chill just in time to be eaten. This will prevent melting.
More Lemon Recipes
For the cupcakes:
-
1 3/4
cups
(222 grams) Bob’s Red Mill Organic All Purpose Flour
-
1
tablespoon
fresh lemon zest
-
1
teaspoon
baking powder
-
1/2
teaspoon
baking soda
-
1/2
teaspoon
salt
-
1
stick (113 grams) unsalted butter,
at room temperature
-
1
cup
(200 grams) granulated sugar
-
1
large egg,
at room temperature
-
1
cup
(240 ml) whole milk,
at room temperature
-
2
tablespoons
fresh lemon juice
For the lemon cream cheese frosting:
-
8
ounces
(227 grams) cream cheese,
at room temperature
-
1
stick (113 grams) unsalted butter,
at room temperature
-
1
tablespoon
lemon zest
-
1/8
teaspoon
fine salt
-
2 1/2
cups
(313 grams) powdered sugar,
sifted*
-
2
tablespoons
freshly squeezed lemon juice
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, lemon zest, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
-
In a large bowl, use an electric mixer on medium-high speed to beat the butter and sugar until fluffy and very well combined, about 3 minutes. On medium-low speed add the egg and beat until combined. Combine the milk and and lemon juice. Add in the flour mixture and milk mixture in alternating batches, starting and ending with the flour, mixing until just combined.
-
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 frosting:
-
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese, butter, lemon zest, and salt on medium-high speed until very light, creamy, and smooth. On low speed, gradually add in the sugar, then the lemon juice and beat until creamy and smooth. If you need a stiffer consistency for decorative piping, add more powdered sugar.
*Increase powdered sugar to 3 1/2 cups for a stiffer consistency for decorative piping if you'd prefer.
Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
This recipe was the April 2019 selection for our monthly baking challenge! Every month you can join the challenge by baking the recipe and snapping a photo for a chance to win prizes! Learn more about my monthly baking challenges here. Check out everyone’s cupcakes:
can I substitute the dairy items for non-dairy options? My soon to be daughter-in-law is allergic to all things dairy and I am making cupcakes for the wedding
Hi Amanda! I’m sorry, but we don’t bake with dairy-free substitutions, so we cannot say for sure! You would need to do some experimenting to see how this goes. Let us know if you have any luck 🙂
Wonderful
Can I do a double batch or is it better to do each batch separately?
Hi Tamara! It all depends on your bowl size! If your mixer bowl is large enough to comfortably fit all doubled ingredients, then go for it – just be sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of your bowl extra, to ensure everything is mixing as it should. If your bowl isn’t large enough for everything, then you can just make the recipe as-written twice 🙂 Happy baking!
I made a double batch and it was perfect.
Love, love, love cupcakes. Excellent cupcakes and the cream cheese frosting is amazing! Next up, lemon pound cake!!
Súper delicioso! Made for a baby shower hoping they enjoy it as much as I did when I tried them! Hard to share them
can I use this to make cakes instead of cupcakes?
Hi Angel Marie! Check out the info in Tessa’s Cakes to Cupcakes Conversion (and vice versa) post here!
Can you freeze them before frosting then?
Hi Margo! Yes, you can freeze these cupcakes in an airtight container for up to a month. Thaw in the fridge or on the countertop overnight before frosting and serving 🙂
Made this recipe and used cake flour instead of all purpose. I loved the tenderness of the cupcake but the lemon flavor was lacking. Any suggestions on how to fix this? Would a little lemon extract solve the problem. Tasted more like a cornbread.
Thanks
Andrea
Feel free to include lemon extract in place or as part of the fresh lemon juice, but cupcakes can taste like cornbread due to overmixing, so when adding in the flour and milk mixtures, make sure to mix until just combined. Also start checking your cupcakes at the 15-minute mark to ensure that the cupcakes aren’t overbaked. I’m excited for you try this again, and try making the cupcakes with the called-for all-purpose flour as well for best results 🙂 Please let us know how it goes!
i love this recipe! these cupcakes turned out amazing! the cupcake was super moist and lemony, and the lemon cream cheese frosting was super creamy and has the perfect tang from the lemon! i highly recommend this recipe, thank you so much tessa!
So happy you enjoyed this recipe, Ila! I’ll be sure to relay your rave review to Tessa 🙂
Incredibly delicious. Everyone in my family LOVES this one!!! Thanks Tessa
It worked out perfectly! the cupcakes are crispy on the outside and extremely fluffy on the inside. Definitely will be baking it again. I am in no way a person who bakes regularly and I’ve had plenty of failed attempts in the past, however this recipe is really fool-proof and easy to follow. Thank you for this recipe!
So awesome to hear that! Thank you for taking the time to comment! 🙂
Lots of lemon flavor and not too sweet! I made them into mini cupcakes and they were perfectly moist one-biters.
YUM!! Mini cupcakes can be dangerous haha! I’m so happy you loved this recipe! 🙂
Delicious in every way! I was surprised at the thick yet fluffy consistency of the batter, but the cupcakes turned out great. The tops came out a little flat but the second batch rose better when filled closer to 2/3 full instead of 3/4. For those who have issues with the runny frosting, I added almost a tablespoon of meringue powder with the powdered sugar (3 cups) and cranked up the speed to high, then refrigerated it for a bit. It gave the frosting really nice volume and held together better for piping, and you don’t mess with the sweetness by adding too much sugar.
Happy to hear you loved these cupcakes!
Soooo…my cupcakes exploded in the oven? An actual eruption. Any idea what I did wrong? They are still delicious though!!
Oh no! Exploding cupcakes are usually because of one of two things: either your oven temp was too high or something was wrong with your leavener. If you don’t have an oven thermometer, I’d highly recommend getting one. I’d also be careful with any substitutions or interchanging your leavener as it’s sometimes easy to mix them up. I hope you give this recipe another try, they definitely should not explode. I’m glad they still tasted delicious 🙂
I just made them this recipe get five stars! They are so delicious the cheesecake frosting five stars also! Next time I have to put more batter in the cups.
BEST CUPCAKE EVER!!! SO delicious i loved them!!!!!!!!!!!! :))))
So glad you enjoyed!
I love this recipe. I switched the buttercream frosting over to blueberry buttercream frosting and it came out perfect
That sounds delicious! So glad you tried these cupcakes out.
Can this be put into 2 9” cake pan instead
so delicious! had to bake them for 20min and it was perfect, super fluffy and soft with a slightly crisper golden top.
i used a bit less than recommended zest but i still had a subtle and nice lemon taste, will definitely make again!
Can I use 2% milk for this recipe?
Can you replace the lemon zest with lemon extract? Lemon zest is not to my liking
Is it better to use all purpose flour or bobs red mill gluten free all purpose flour. These are the only ones I could find
I loved these as cupcakes, and I was wondering what I would have to do to this recipe to make it fill two nine cake pans?
This recipe is insanely good! The frosting is perfectly smooth and not too sweet, which is nice. The cupcakes have a great lemony taste and I would make them again in the future! Five out of five stars.
Holy wow!! These were amazing! So light, fluffy, and delicious! I am embarrassed to say that I usually make boxed cakes because all the cake recipes that I have done from scratch are too dense. I ended up just making a powdered sugar and lemon juice glaze because I was being lazy. I will definitely make it with the frosting next time. Thank you!
I made the lemon cupcakes twice, once with spelt flour (very common here in Germany) and once with wheat flour. Both turned out firm and flavourful.
I did have a big problem with the lemon frosting. I followed the recipe exactly, but it was very runny. I had to add one kilo of powdered sugar to get it thick enough to pipe. Next time I would be very cautious about adding the lemon juice…
Omg these lemon cupcakes are so delicious!!! Not too sweet! Easy to make too!! Just perfect! Thank you for this recipe
I absolutely love the taste of these cupcakes, although, the bottoms of my cupcakes were oily. Any recommendations as to what may have gone wrong?Thanks in advance! Diana
Amazing, only cupcake recipe you will ever need!
Love the taste of both cupcake and frosting but my frosting ended up runny. I followed the recipe to a T so I don’t know why it became runny. I read in another site that the frosting would be stiff enough for piping if it came directly from the fridge…
Do you have any idea where I made a mistake? I added powdered sugar but it’s still runny and I didn’t want it to be too sweet so I didn’t dare add more
Delicious cupcake! The batter is thick which was unexpected but they turn out amazing! Moist, light and not overly sweet and lemony
These came out great. Nice lemon flavor and not too sweet. Thank you for another great recipe.
Hi! I do not have baking soda, but I do have baking powder. Do I need to use both?
They turned out great. Thanks for the recipe. I added a little more lemon to the cake. My lemon tree is loaded with lemons right now and lemon cup cakes were the perfect thing to make.
Pls can i substitute the butter in vegetable oil or mix half butter and half oil???
Can I ua
These turned out great! Everyone loved them!
Omg really good
I haven tried it yet
Lemon is my favorite
This was my 2nd try for my mum’s cell group yesterday and all the people enjoyed with thumb up! I
Texture of the cupcake was moist, tender, fluffy and super delicious. Also the frosting goes so well with it. I will be baking again for my mum’s upcoming cell group meeting.
I only made the icing for a different cupcake recipe and doubled the ingredients to make 24 cupcakes. I always pipe my icing and found that I needed to add over 700g more icing sugar for the mixture to stiffen slightly – even then it wasn’t enough and my icing ended up being quite floppy (but I’d run out of sugar at this point). I would recommend tripling the icing sugar if you’re intending to pipe and then gradually add more as needed. Only downside to this is the icing ends up being quite sweet, still very lemony though.
Delicious! I’m making another batch today! Thank you for the recipe.
I loved this recipe, as did everyone else.
If I wanted to make it as a cake, what size pans would be best and how long would you bake it?
And, of course I would double the icing recipe because it was just that good!
I made this and as an added bonus put homemade lemon curd in the center. So delious.
This is my new favorite lemon cupcake recipe. I had one before I thought I liked, but this one is ten times better. My dad loves lemon everything. Now I have the perfect recipe to make for his birthday every year. Fluffy cupcake with a smooth cream cheese frosting. How did you come up with such a tasty recipe?
Desperately need assistance: I’ve tried to make these twice now, but both times, my frosting separates or curdles, and I think it has something to do with the acid of the lemon juice and the dairy component of the cream cheese. Any thoughts about what is happening in my process? Many thanks!
Hi Janet – I’ve never had that happen to me before! You could perhaps try using lemon extract in place of the lemon juice 🙂
These cupcakes are amazing! Not too tart or sweet but so delicious! And that frosting, just perfect. Everyone raved about them! I’ll make these again for sure!
Have you ever made these as mini cupcakes using the mini muffin pans? If so, do you have any idea the difference in baking time?
Sorry, I said cake flour twice. The question should be …Can I substitute cake flour or AP flour for Bob’s Organic flour
The flour called for is all-purpose flour 🙂
Can I substitute cake flour or regular cake flour for Bob’s organic flour?
hi! is the amount of flour specific to bob’s red mill organic? still 2 1/2 cups if using king arthur’s all purpose?
thanks…..
Yes, same measurement 🙂
Please ignore entries for Mohammed Williams. For some reason when I tried entering the first time even though I put my information in, the system pulled up my son’s email and Facebook instead. Thanks!
I’ve removed the double entry so now it’s just yours!
Hello tessa dear
Can we also have a video of the lovely lemon cakes for the challenge?
It is such a help.
Thanx
No video this time, I’m afraid!
Where is the print icon to print just the recipe?
There’s two print icons at the top of the page and one in the recipe box under the title on the right side.
Please use decimal or scaled amounts throughout the recipe. Why is flour measured in cups but sugar in grams? No reason why baking soda or salt can’t be in gram either.
Hi Linda – the flour is in grams as well. I don’t include gram measurements of teaspoon measurements because most home use kitchen scales aren’t accurate enough at such a small level. Teaspoons are easier to use in my opinion 🙂
How can i make this to a cake and which pan size?
Can I double the frosting ingredients to have enough frostine for the cake?
Also, can i add whipped cream to the frosting? Thanks!
I am interested in joining the challenge, however I am allergic to lemons. Crazy, I know, but I am. Can another flavor be substituted? I can do any of the other citruses just not lemon. Makes no sense to me.
Thank you, Connie
Oh how strange!! Yes, feel free to do orange or lime – whatever citrus you like 🙂
Hi, I would like to join the baking challenge, but I have an allergy to citrus. Can this recipe be made with pineapple or another fruit? Thanks!
I’ve tried this recipe with 3/4 cup blueberries with success! You can add blueberry jam to the frosting 🙂