Lemon Cupcakes with Blueberry & Lemon Buttercream

Ingredients:

Lemon Cupcakes

  • 240g softened unsalted butter
  • 200g cane sugar
  • 2 lemon zest
  • 50ml lemon juice
  • 2tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 eggs
  • 200g cake flour
  • 40g ground almonds
  • 4g baking powder

Lemon Buttercream

  • 200g softened unsalted butter
  • 150g sugar
  • 2.5tsp lemon juice
  • 1tsp lemon zest
  • 1tsp single cream 

Blueberry Buttercream

  • 100g softened unsalted butter
  • 40g sugar
  • 3 tbsp blueberry purée (made with 100g blueberries + 15g sugar + 2tsp lemon juice)
  • 1 tsp single cream

Equipment:

  • 12 cup cupcake tin
  • Piping bags + piping nozzle
  • Electric mixer
  • Sieve
  • Piping nozzles
  • Piping bag
  • Mixing bowls
  • Whisk
  • Spatula

Prep time:

45mins for the cupcakes + 30mins for the buttercream

Cooking time:

20-22mins


Steps:

Lemon Cupcakes

  1. Preheat the oven to 170°C.
  2. Whisk 240g of softened unsalted butter with 200g of cane sugar with an electric mixer.
  3. Add lemon zests from 2 lemons, 50ml lemon juice and 2tsp of vanilla extract to the batter, mix well.
  4. Gradually add 3 beaten eggs to the mixture, mix well.
  5. Sieve in 200g of cake flour, 40g of ground almonds and 4g of baking powder, mix well.
  6. Transfer the batter to a piping bag to pipe into a muffin tray.
  7. Bake at 170°C for 20-22 minutes.

Lemon Buttercream

  1. Whisk 200g of softened unsalted butter with 150g of sugar with an electric mixer until pale in colour.
  2. Add 2.5tsp of lemon juice, 1tsp of lemon zest and 1tsp of single cream to the mixture, mix well.

Blueberry Buttercream

  1. To make blueberry purée, add 100g of blueberries, 15g of sugar and 2tsp of lemon juice into a small pan. Turn on low heat for the purée to simmer.
  2. Whisk 100g of softened unsalted butter with 40g of sugar with an electric mixer until pale in colour.
  3. Add 3tbsp of cooled blueberry purée and 1tsp of single cream to the mixture, mix well.
Tips
  • I used 3 lemons in total for this recipe, you should use this as a guideline for how many lemons are needed.
  • It is not necessary to use an electric mixer to make lemon cupcakes but I find it much easier to use one, especially if your butter is not softened enough.
  • To quickly soften butter, fill a glass with boiling water to heat the glass. Then remove the water and invert the glass to cover the butter, wait for roughly 8 minutes for the butter to soften.
  • To decorate the cupcakes more simply, put both the lemon buttercream and the blueberry buttercream into a piping bag to pipe a swirl on each of the cupcakes. You could also choose one of the two buttercream to make.