These Strawberry Lemon Cupcakes are easy to make from scratch using fresh lemon and strawberries! These light, fluffy strawberry lemon cupcakes are topped with a delicious strawberry buttercream for a treat everyone will love!
I love a good berry and lemon combo and I know that I am not the only one! My Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting have been a top performer on this site and it makes be so happy to know that others are enjoying these tasty little delights!
I absolutely adore lemony treats! I mean, I am definitely more than a little lemon obsessed (as all the lemon recipes both sweet and savory on here shows)! And while lemon doesn’t need much help to shine in a dessert, when berries are added to the mix, they add a lovely freshness that makes them so darn good.
Today, I am sharing with you my favorite Strawberry Lemon Cupcakes. The are light, fluffy and delicate in flavor. Even if you are not a huge fan of lemon desserts, don’t run away just yet. The lemon flavor isn’t over-powering at all in these as I didn’t want it to completely mask the freshness from the strawberries. Instead, the strawberries and lemons both get to shine in here and work together to make a tasty treat I am sure you will love as much as I do!
Ingredients in Strawberry Lemon Cupcakes and Frosting
- Butter: softened. Unsalted butter is preferable but if you use a salted butter, make sure it isn’t too salty and omit the salt in the recipe.
- Sugar: white granulated sugar.
- Eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Salt: Salt in baked goods enhances their flavor.
- Flour: Regular all purpose flour.
- Baking powder
- Milk: Any type will do. 1%, 2% whole milk, or even a non-dairy milk.
- Lemon: the zest and juice give these cupcakes their lemony flavor.
- Strawberries: diced and sprinkled into the batter.
- Powdered sugar: Used for the frosting
**Note: Ingredient quantities and full instructions are in the recipe card at the end of this post.**
How to make Strawberry Lemon Cupcakes
- Cream the butter and sugar together. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Note: If you do not have a stand mixer, you can do this using a large mixing bowl and an electric mixer/ hand mixer.
- Mix the wet ingredients. Add the eggs, vanilla extract, milk and lemon juice and mix thoroughly.
- Add the dry ingredients. Mix the baking powder, flour, lemon zest, and salt in a large mixing bowl and then slowly mix it into the wet ingredients to form a smooth batter.
- Add the strawberries. Toss the strawberries in a tablespoon of flour and stir in the strawberries with a spatula.
- Scoop and bake. Spoon batter into the cupcake liners, filling each until they are 3/4 full. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 3 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Making the strawberry frosting
- Puree the strawberries. Place the strawberries in a food processor and puree until smooth. Run the puree through a sieve to remove the seeds and then place the puree in a saucepan.
- Simmer the strawberries with lemon juice. Add the lemon juice and simmer on the stove on medium heat until the mixture thickens and reduces a bit, for about 5-10 minutes. You should end up with around 1/4 cup of thickened puree. Let it cool completely and place it in the fridge.
- Make the frosting. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until fluffy. Add half of the powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Add 1/4 cup of the strawberry puree and the remaining powdered sugar and beat until the frosting is smooth and creamy.
- Frost. Transfer to a piping bag and frost cupcakes.
How to store cupcakes
To prevent them drying out and ensure they are fluffy and moist, I try to make my cupcakes no more than a day ahead of when I plan to serve them. I store them in a covered in an airtight container at room temperature.
Can you freeze strawberry cupcakes?
Yes, you can freeze these cupcakes. If you want to make these well in advance, freezing is a great option.
I recommend freezing them without the frosting as the frosting can get a bit squished in the freezer. Then when you want to make them, you can simply thaw the cupcakes at room temperature and then frost them. To freeze the cupcakes, first allow them to cool completely. Then place them in an airtight freezer safe container or freezer bag.
If you are able to carefully cover the cupcakes without ruining the frosting, you can also freeze them frosted.
I hope you enjoy these cupcakes as much as I do!
-Cathy
You may also like:
Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
Triple Berry Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
Funfetti Cupcakes
Chocolate Greek Yogurt Cupcakes
Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
Strawberry Lemon Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
- 1/4 cup butter softened
- 3/4 cups sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/3 cups flour + 1 tablespoon to coat the strawberries
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 3/4 cup strawberries diced
For the strawberry frosting:
- 1 1/2 cups strawberries
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 3/4 cups butter softened
- 3 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F and line a 12 cup muffin pan with cupcake liners.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, vanilla extract, milk and lemon juice and mix thoroughly. Note: If you do not have a stand mixer, you can do this using a large mixing bowl and an electric mixer/ hand mixer.
- Mix the baking powder, flour, lemon zest, and salt in a large mixing bowl and then slowly mix it into the wet ingredients to form a smooth batter. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer.
- Toss the strawberries in a tablespoon of flour and stir in the strawberries with a spatula.
- Spoon batter into the cupcake liners, filling each until they are 3/4 full. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 3 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
For the frosting:
- Place the strawberries in a food processor and puree until smooth. Run the puree through a sieve to remove the seeds and then place the puree in a saucepan.
- Add the lemon juice and simmer on the stove on medium heat until the mixture thickens and reduces a bit, for about 5-10 minutes. You should end up with around 1/4 cup of thickened puree. Let it cool completely and place it in the fridge.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until fluffy. Add half of the powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Add 1/4 cup of the strawberry puree and the remaining powdered sugar and beat until the frosting is smooth and creamy.
- Transfer to a piping bag and frost cupcakes. [if the frosting is too thick, you can add more milk until it reaches the desired consistency. If its too thin, you can add more icing sugar]
Note: Metric ingredient measurements are provided as a courtesy using a third-party calculator and are rounded to the nearest unit. The recipes provided on this site have not been tested with metric measurements and their accuracy cannot be verified.
Nutrition
The nutritional information provided is based on third-party calculations and is an estimate only. Accurate nutritional facts will vary based on the particular brands used, portion sizes, measurement accuracy and more.
Made this for my husband minus the frostings and he enjoyed it! 😀 The lemon really added a refreshing taste. I added some dark chocolate chips to some of the cupcakes and that was tasty too!
This recipe is amazing! The cupcakes turned out perfectly, and the frosting was delicious and had such a good lemon strawberry flavor. These are such great cupcakes for spring!
Thank you so much, Elise!