It’s SPRING and I’ve got the FEVER! Fresh fruit is everywhere and I am buying a lot of it! I had about a flat of strawberries and these beautiful lemons in my kitchen and an itch to come up with a new recipe. So, I created a lemon infused cupcake baked with strawberries and topped with lemon buttercream and fresh strawberry. A JavaCupcake Original Recipe! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do and the people who have tried this little yummy!
Makes approx 3 dozen (36) cupcakes.
Cupcakes:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
Zest of one lemon
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp salt
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla
¾ cup milk
The juice of ½ a lemon
4 cups strawberries, roughly chopped + 1 cup sugar + 2 tbsp butter
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line cupcake pans with 30 liners.
In a medium sauce pan, melt the butter. Add the strawberries and coat with melted butter. Stir in sugar and cook on medium heat for 3-5 minutes until strawberries begin to reduce and a thick strawberry sauce is made. Divide in half and then set aside to cool.
Prepare the sugar by working the lemon zest into sugar by pressing the back of a spatula down into sugar, thus releasing the oils from the zest into the sugar. This process should take about five minutes, and the sugar will become very fragrant.
Cream the butter for 2-3 minutes using electric mixer and the paddle attachment. Add the sugar to the butter mixture and continue creaming until fluffy.
While butter/sugar are creaming, in another bowl sift together flour, salt and baking powder and set aside. Sift at least twice to ensure all ingredients are combined.
Add eggs one at a time to butter and sugar, mixing thoroughly after each egg.
In a measuring cup that pours, mix together the milk, lemon juice and vanilla.
SLOWLY alternate adding the flour and milk mixture to the butter/sugar. Begin and end with the flour and make sure to mix very well after each addition.
Scrape sides of the bowl and fold in ½ the strawberries. Do not over mix.
Fill liners 1/2 full with batter.
Bake for 13 minutes and rotate pan 180 degrees in oven. Bake another 3-6 minutes.
Cool in pans for 10 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to completely cool.
Buttercream:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 lbs (approx 8 cups) powdered sugar
1/4 -1/2 cup milk
Zest of ½ a lemon
Juice of ½ a lemon
1 tbsp light corn syrup
Directions:
In an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the butter.
One cup at a time, add the powdered sugar. Between each cup, add a splash of milk. Mix until smooth & scrape down the sides after each addition
Before the last cup of sugar, add the zest and juice of the lemon. Mix until smooth.
Add the corn syrup.
Add any remaining milk until you get the texture and consistency you want.
Mix on high for 4-5 minutes.
Remove ½ the buttercream and set aside. Add 5-7 drops of yellow food coloring to the remaining frosting and mix until it’s the color you want.
To Assemble:
Strain the second half of the strawberries, reserving the juice for later.
Spoon a small dollop of strawberry on top of each cupcake. (NOTE: My cupcakes sunk in the middle because I DIDN’T use ROOM TEMPERATURE butter!!! Eeeek)
Put half yellow/half white frosting into a pastry bag with a star tip and frost the cupcakes.
Drizzle cupcakes with reserved strawberry juice.
Top with a fresh, clean strawberry.
Take pretty pictures of your cupcakes!
Betsy Eves
Hi I'm Betsy- the owner of JavaCupcake.com! I'm also an Army wife, mother, blogger, writer, baker and traveler. I'm currently living in Germany... spending my days taking care of family, baking for friends and blogging! I also write for the world famous blog, Cupcakes Take the Cake and contribute to the coffee blog, Coffee Cup News.
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These look absolutely beautiful!
I think I may have to add them to my Mother’s Day lunch menu (with Gluten free modification for my ‘delicate’ tummy).
Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Thanks! I hope they turned out great for you!!!
how do you make your frosting look like the finishing touch!
Mmmmm! They look wonderful. I will definitely be adding this recipe to my list of blog recipes to try! :]
I have a question for you – you specified all-purpose flour. What about using cake flour?
I’m making cupcakes to bring to Tae Kwon Do since I have class the same night as my birthday and thought about making these.
Thanks! Can’t wait to try them.
All purpose flour and cake flour are two different things. Cake flour has corn starch in it and it really does things in conjunction with the baking powder to add texture and helps the cake rise. So I’d stick with the AP flour for this recipe.
But… if you really want to use cake flour, the general rule of substitution is 1 cup of all purpose flour minus 2 tablespoons (1c – 2tbsp) is equivalent to 1 cup of cake flour.
GOOD LUCK!
I didn’t know about the corn starch, I assumed it was a texture thing and never read the ingredient list, oops.
I will stick with the AP flour then, thanks for your help. Can’t wait to try this recipe, I love lemon cake.
This is not true about cake flour. Cake flour does not have corn starch in it. Cake flour is a lower protein count and has been bleached to add acidity. Cake flour can hold more liquid and the acidity makes for a tenderer cake. You can use AP flour, but the best recipe for cake flour is one that has been formulated to have a ratio of sugar higher than the flour by weight. If you try to use cake flour for a AP recipe, it came out drier due to the fact that chlorinated cake flour absorbs more liquid. If you use AP on a recipe formulated with cake flour, you can get a sunken cake because AP flour does not absorb as much liquid. And I suspect that the reason why your cupcakes sunk in this entry was something other than cold butter being used.
Thanks for the feedback. But the recipe I use to make cake flour has corn starch added to it.
what about self rising flour i always use it in cupcakes because it helps it rise?
Having said all that about the sunken cupcakes, your recipe is a classic 1 2 3 4 recipe and it should have worked find. Possibly adding the strawberries with the liquid was the culprit. Also I find that 3 cups presifted flour before you measure works better. By weight it comes out to less than the weight of sugar, but not enough to cause problems. It gives just enough to give a moist cake.
Thanks!