Lemon Strawberry Cupcakes

If you haven’t noticed, I’m currently loving all things with this roasted strawberry jam. (Check out my Roasted Strawberry Cheesecake Brownies here.) These lemon cupcakes with roasted strawberry cream cheese frosting were the perfect way to use up all of that jam and they are deeeeelicious. I mean strawberries and lemon are like the ultimate summer flavor combo.

How to Make Lemon Cupcakes with Roasted Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Make the Cupcake Batter

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two cupcake with liners. This recipe will make 18 cupcakes. Put the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt) in a medium bowl and whisk to combine.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed for 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time until combined.

Combine the milk, greek yogurt, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla in a large liquid measuring cup and mix to combine. I use this 2 cupper! A bowl works fine too, it’s just super easy to pour it into the batter using the pour spout on a measuring cup. **The acid from the lemon juice will start to curdle the milk a little, don’t worry it’s okay!!**

Now you should have three mixtures – the butter/sugar/eggs in the mixer, the dry ingredients, and the milk mixture. Next, you are going to combine them. I do this by adding 1/3 of the dry ingredients, then 1/2 of the milk mixture, and repeat. You want to start and end with the dry ingredients. Be careful not to over mix the batter. You’re good when it’s mostly combined and there’s a few streaks of flour remaining.

Bake the Cupcakes

Fill the cupcake liners by scooping the batter using a standard 4 oz ice cream scoop, like this one. This should fill the liners almost to the top, leaving about a half inch of space for the cupcakes to rise. Bake at 350 for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs attached.

PRO TIP: Waiting to take the cupcakes out until a toothpick comes out clean, like lots of recipes suggest, will result in dried out cupcakes. This is because when you take them out, they will continue to cook a little in the hot pan. So if they’re completely baked and the toothpick comes out clean, they will over bake while cooling in the hot pan. If you take them out when they are slightly under baked, they will be perfection!

Make the Roasted Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese until it is fluffy and completely smooth. At least 3 minutes. Add the butter and beat until combined and it lightens in color – an additional 2-3 minutes.

Add a pinch of salt, and vanilla extract. Mix to combine. Begin adding powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time. Continue adding powdered sugar until the frosting is thicker than you eventually want it to be. The strawberry jam will thin it out. Add strawberry jam, mix to combine. If the frosting gets too thin, add powdered sugar 2 TBSP at a time until desired consistency.

Decorating Cupcakes

I decorated these cupcakes two different ways, just to give you guys some ideas of how you can serve them. But be creative! Do you! There are no rules here.

• 

• 

Don’t have piping bags or tips? The jam topped option is perfect for that. Use a spoon to dollop 2-3 TBSP of frosting onto the center of the cupcake. Then use an offset spatula or butter knife to spread the frosting. Spread it out past the edge of the cupcake slightly, trying to keep the top flat. Then, take the spatula (or the flat side of the butter knife) and hold it vertically against the cupcake. Spin the cupcake so that the spatula is scraping off the excess frosting and making those clean and straight sides. Finally, use the spatula or a spoon to make a swirl on the top and drizzle with extra jam.

Alternatively, fill a piping bag with frosting and a star or flower tip. I used Wilton 2D. Pipe a swirl onto each cupcake and top with a fresh strawberry. I like to pipe a LOT of frosting – like a 1:1 ratio of cupcake to frosting, but that’s just me!

Print