Go Back

Sweet and Sour Lemonade Cupcakes

The perfect summer cupcakes recipe! These homemade lemonade cupcakes are made with my grandmother's lemon cake recipe and topped with the most delicious lemon buttercream. Take a bite and discover some lemon curd inside!
Course: dessert
Cuisine: american
Keyword: Cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcake batter:

  • 6 tbsp sugar
  • juice from 2 lemons
  • ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 ½ cups flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ cup milk
  • zest of 2 lemons

Buttercream:

  • 2 cups unsalted butter room temperature
  • 5 cups confectioner’s sugar
  • zest from 3 lemons
  • 2-3 tsp pure lemon extract
  • juice from ½ lemon
  • yellow food coloring
  • Assortment of yellow and white sprinkles about 1/2 cup total
  • 12 yellow gum balls
  • 12 yellow starburst candies
  • 12 yellow jujubes
  • 12 small paper straws
  • ½ cup lemon curd

Instructions

Bake the cupcakes:

  • Mix together the 2 tbsp sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl and set aside.
  • Place the butter in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and mix well. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
  • Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. Add this to the butter mixture in 2 additions, alternating with milk. Add the lemon zest and fully combine.
  • Pour the batter into a lined cupcake pan. Bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes. Once the cakes are fully cooked, remove from the oven. While still hot and in the cupcake pan, drizzle the sugar and lemon juice from Step 1 on top. Allow the cakes to fully cool. The cupcake liners may get wet, so you may want to place the cupcakes into an additional liner right before serving.

Make the buttercream:

  • Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the lemon zest, lemon extract and lemon juice and mix well.
  • Add some yellow food coloring to dye the buttercream yellow.
  • Place the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a large, round piping tip.

To decorate:

  • Pipe a ring of buttercream onto the top of each cupcake.
  • Combine your mix of sprinkles in a bowl. Dunk the cupcakes into the sprinkles so that the entire ring of buttercream is covered in sprinkles.
  • Spoon some lemon curd into the middle of each buttercream ring.
  • Pipe a swirly dollop of buttercream on top of the buttercream ring. Decorate with a paper straw, a jujube, gum ball and starburst. Enjoy!

Video