Lemon Orange Cupcakes
Soft and fluffy lemon cupcakes topped with creamy orange buttercream - summer in a cupcake!
Servings: 8 cupcakes
Calories: 466kcal
Equipment
- Piping bag* optional
Ingredients
Lemon cupcakes
- 115 g unsalted butter
- 115 g caster sugar
- 1 lemon’s zest
- 2 eggs
- 115 g plain flour see notes for self-raising flour swap**
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 tablespoon milk
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
Orange buttercream
- 115 g unsalted butter
- 270 g icing sugar
- ½ teaspoon orange extract
- 1-2 tablespoon orange juice or milk ***
- ⅛ teaspoon salt optional
Instructions
Lemon cupcakes
- First preheat the oven to 180°C / 160°C (fan) / Gas Mark 4 / 350°F.
- In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, sugar and lemon zest, either using a spatula, electric hand mixer or stand mixer, until light and pale.
- Beat in the eggs one at a time until fully combined.
- Sieve the flour and baking powder into the mixture, gently folding in until just combined.
- Stir in the milk and lemon juice until smooth.
- Line your cupcake pan with cases and divide the batter evenly between them (no more than ⅔ full).
- Bake for 15-20mins until golden and springy, then transfer to a rack for cooling. Make the buttercream while the cupcakes cool.
Orange buttercream
- Beat the butter (either by hand, using an electric mixer or stand mixer) until pale, light and fluffy. This could take several minutes.
- Sieve half of the icing sugar into the butter and beat until combined, then repeat this with the remaining half of icing sugar.
- Add in the orange extract, juice and salt (if using), mixing until only just smooth. You can also beat in a few drops of orange food coloring at this point is using.
Assembly
- Once your cupcakes have fully cooled, add your buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a nozzle of your choice (e.g. large open star) and pipe large swirls onto each cupcake.
- Decorate with a half slice of lemon and enjoy!
Video
Notes
* If you don't have a piping bag and tips, you can instead use a plastic freezer bag with the corner cut off to pipe a ring of frosting onto your cupcakes.
** You can swap the plain flour for self-raising flour of the same amount and reduce the baking powder by 1 tsp.
*** You can use either orange juice (fresh or bottled) or milk to thin your frosting. Orange is more fruity flavour or milk will make it creamier!
Nutrition
Calories: 466kcal | Carbohydrates: 60g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 25g | Saturated Fat: 15g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 6g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 103mg | Sodium: 137mg | Potassium: 54mg | Fiber: 0.5g | Sugar: 48g | Vitamin A: 789IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 66mg | Iron: 1mg