Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Raspberry Buttercream
Easy Lemon Cupcakes with a decadent Lemon Raspberry Buttercream: Cake mix cupcakes elevated to bakery style with a few baking hacks, and topped with the perfect buttercream.
Light and fluffy lemon cupcakes topped with a richly decadent, but light enough to enjoy raspberry lemon buttercream that uses fresh lemons, lemon zest, and fresh raspberries. The combination plus baking hacks takes box mix cupcakes and elevates them to be better than the box, and your new family favorite.
Lemon Cupcakes with Raspberry Lemon Buttercream
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While I love to bake amazing treats like Turtle Brownies, Zucchini Chocolate Chip Muffins, and Super Simple Banana Bread, when it comes to cakes and cupcakes, I am a big fan of using a boxed mix, and making it better with a few hacks. It gives me consistent results every time. When you want better than the box, start with a cake mix and make some strategic swaps to take the cake mix from ordinary to extraordinary. These beautiful lemon cupcakes with lemon raspberry buttercream, ended up light, fluffy, and super flavorful.
I topped these upgraded lemon cupcakes with the MOST MAGICAL lemon raspberry (cream cheese) buttercream on the planet. You will feel like you are biting into sunshine when those sweet and sour notes hit your tongue, and that freshness envelopes your tastebuds.
One will not be enough.
If you love cupcakes, you will love these ones. They are flavorful, easy to make, and produce awesome results. We also love these:
- Margarita Cupcakes
- Red Velvet Cupcakes
- Spring Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Icing
- Gluten-Free Chocolate Cupcakes
- Greek Yogurt Lemon Cupcakes with fresh strawberry glaze
Cake Mix Hacks:
You can get bakery style cupcake results starting with a cake mix if you employ a few of these simple hacks. I have included my favorite here, and shared which ones I used for these cupcakes in the recipe card below:
- Swap water for milk. 1:1 ratio.
- Swap melted butter for oil. Use 2x the butter then the called for oil. So if it asks for 1/3 cup of oil, use 2/3 cup melted butter.
- Add an extra egg.
- Separate egg whites and yolks, and beat the whites until stiff peaks form, then fold them in at the end.
This recipe was still as simple as using a box mix, because you are adding the same amount of ingredients, but swapping them out made these even better than boxed.
The next thing I did was use tall cupcake liners, and fill them a little over 3/4 full. The taller liners help them bake up instead of out, which is going to mean less mess, and an airy cupcake!
Try to fill each cup evenly, as this will make the end results more visually appealing, and help with baking time. It will help insure that all of the cupcakes are properly baked, and none are under or over baked as a result.
Remember that oven temperatures vary, as well as altitude, and ingredients. So while the suggested time is what worked great for me all of the times I tested this recipe, the best way to make sure the cupcakes are done is to look at the tops of the cupcakes, and insert a toothpick in the center. The tops should not be wet looking, and should have a light golden color. And a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.
Then give those beauties time to cool while you whip up the world’s tastiest frosting/icing. It is raspberry and lemon buttercream, which tasted amazing on its own, but because I was feeling a little sassy, I decided to throw in some cream cheese just for kicks. And it took it up another level. It became even creamier, and oh so delightful.
My icing was a little loose because it had been sitting in the sunshine was I was setting up my photos, so I popped it into the fridge for about 15-20 minutes to let it chill a little, and I found that worked great. So if yours feels a little like it needs something to be more stable, try chilling it.
Then I piped it on, and decorated the cupcakes with fresh berries. You could leave them as is, or add fresh fruits. I love the produce selection at Save-A-Lot, and always buy berries when they are available because they are so juicy.
Then enjoy! These are some of the best cupcakes ever. So easy, so flavorful, and so much fun year round.
Other great better than the box dessert options:
- Peanut Butter Cupcakes: Chocolate cake mix, topped with the ultimate peanut butter frosting. Use the hacks for bakery style cupcakes.
- Lemon Cheesecake Bars: The crust is a lemon cake mix, and it is topped with a delicious cheesecake layer. Yum!
- Brownie Lover’s Cheesecake: this cheesecake is a America’s Choice cheesecake, topped with the ultimate hot fudge sauce, bits of brownies, cookies, and more, and is a super easy Save-A-Lot dessert option.
- If you just want more cup cakes try Halloween Cupcake Ideas.
Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Raspberry Buttercream
Ingredients
- 1 box White Cake Mix 16.25 ounces
- 1/2 cup butter melted
- 3 eggs
- 1 1/4 cup milk
- 1 Tbs lemon juice
Lemon Raspberry Buttercream
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 2 Tbs lemon juice
- 1 cup butter
- 2 Tbs milk
- 2 Tbs Lemon Zest approx 1 lemon
- 1/3 cup fresh raspberries
- 4 ounces cream cheese optional
Garnish
- Fresh berries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large bowl mix together the cake mix, eggs, milk, butter, and lemon juice, using a hand mixer.
- Fill 18 cupcake tins, with liners in place, filling 3/4 of the way full.
- Bake in preheated oven 14-18 minutes, until slightly golden brown on top, and until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and remove from tin, let cool on cooling rack.
- While cupcakes cool, mix together buttercream frosting by putting all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl, and using a hand mixer to mix until smooth. Cream cheese is optional, makes it thicker, and is my personal preference, but this buttercream works wonderfully without it as well.
- Chill icing in fridge until ready to serve, take it out 5 minutes before ready to ice, so it can come up to temp. Put in piping bag, and pipe on cupcakes
- When ready to serve, pipe on buttercream, and garnish with fresh berries and lemon zest.
Notes
Nutrition
Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.
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Myra says
Now this is the way for us. Such amazing cupcakes. And the best buttercream.