Lauren's Latest » Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Mousse Frosting

Monday, September 12, 2011

Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Mousse Frosting

Today, I wanted to share a fabulous cupcake recipe with you that is tasty, moist, easy to whip up and delicious, of course!

I am a lemon freak. I love all desserts made with lemon. Actually, add lemon to anything and odds are I’ll like it. Chocolate doesn’t stand a chance in my book. My husband completely disagrees, but I’ll forgive him for it!

These cupcakes are made with really simple ingredients that we all have on hand, but what makes them extra special is the frosting! I folded in whipped cream into it to make a light and fluffy ‘mousse’. Oh mama, are they good! I like regular frosting as much as the next person, but add in some cream? Puh-lease.

The only thing that could mess these up and/or make these not nearly as good as they could be would be in the baking process. DO NOT over bake these! If you think they are almost done, wait 20-30 seconds and test them again! And, I will tell you again–all ovens are different! In my oven, these took 21 minutes on the nose. My recipe says 20-25 minutes for a reason! I checked mine at 15 minutes, 18 minutes, 19 minutes 20 1/2 minutes and pulled them at 21 minutes. The toothpick method works for testing the doneness, but if you lightly touch the top of the cupcakes and it springs back, then you should be good to go. I’ll get off my soapbox now….

Perfectly baked cupcakes makes the world of difference in your cupcake-eating experience. Just sayin’!

So, get baking! Hope you love these as much as me!

Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Mousse Frosting
yield: 12
Print This Recipe

Ingredients:
for the cupcakes-
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 whole eggs
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup milk

for the frosting-
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon lemon zest
3 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons milk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners and set aside.

In large bowl, whip butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Stir in eggs, vanilla and lemon zest. Scrape sides and whip again. Slowly stir in dry ingredients and then stream in milk. Scrape sides and mix until batter is just combined. Scoop by the spoonful into prepared muffin tins evenly. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees and bake 20-25 minutes or until just baked. (The last thing you want to do is over-bake these! Watch them like CRAZY!!) Remove from oven and cool completely.

For the frosting, whip cream until stiff peaks form. Remove from bowl and set aside. In the same bowl, whip butter, vanilla, lemon zest and powdered sugar for about a minute. You just want to break the butter up in the powdered sugar. With the mixer on, stream in the milk until the frosting starts coming together. Scrape the sides and whip it on high for about 2 minutes. Fold in the cream carefully. Once it’s all incorporated, you can frost your cupcakes. I used a piping bag with Wilton tip #1M, but doing it old school with a knife is totally fine too. Serve.

If there are leftovers, store in the fridge.

dessert

51 comments »

51 Responses to “Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Mousse Frosting”

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Bev Weidner — September 12, 2011 at 1:59 pm
I. Die.

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- Lauren — September 12th, 2011 @ 7:08 pm
  
  Haha! Hello Rachel Zoe!
  
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Maria — September 12, 2011 at 2:22 pm
I love a good lemon dessert and these look amazing!

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- Lauren — September 12th, 2011 @ 7:08 pm
  
  Thanks, Maria!
  
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DessertForTwo — September 12, 2011 at 2:59 pm
I’m SO with you–I love lemon more than chocolate!!
And I love whipped cream as frosting! Yum!

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- Lauren — September 12th, 2011 @ 7:22 pm
  
  Totally love lemon! Glad I’m not the only one!
  
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Kathryn — September 12, 2011 at 3:18 pm
I love anything lemon too and these cupcakes look amazing. I can’t wait to try that whipped cream frosting!

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- Lauren — September 12th, 2011 @ 7:23 pm
  
  Whipped cream frosting is super yummy! Hope you get to try it!
  
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Rachel @ the Avid Appetite — September 12, 2011 at 4:28 pm
I’m only recently a lemon dessert convert. I would happily go all lemon for one of these cupcakes! They are gorgeous

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- Lauren — September 12th, 2011 @ 7:23 pm
  
  You’re just a recent convert? Where have you been? Lemon is so good!
  
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Jessica@LifeAfterPiggieSmalls — September 12, 2011 at 4:29 pm
WHAT…..

Must make these!!!!!!!!!!!!

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- Lauren — September 12th, 2011 @ 7:24 pm
  
  Let me know it you do!
  
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Katrina — September 12, 2011 at 6:58 pm
These are beautiful!! Awesome recipe.

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- Lauren — September 12th, 2011 @ 7:24 pm
  
  Thanks Katrina!
  
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Christina @ This Woman Cooks! — September 12, 2011 at 8:55 pm

I love anything with lemon too! Thanks for the tip about checking them often. I wouldn’t want to ruin these!

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Jennifer@MotherThyme — September 12, 2011 at 8:56 pm
I’m with you, I take lemon desserts over chocolate any day. So light and refreshing. These look fab!

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- Lauren — September 13th, 2011 @ 8:41 pm
  
  Thanks, Jen!
  
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Laurie @SimplyScratch — September 12, 2011 at 10:19 pm

I <3 lemons!! I must make these asap!

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Jordyn — September 13, 2011 at 12:23 am

I, too, love all things lemon and will choose a lemon dessert over anything else! My mouth was watering as I read the recipe; cannot wait to make these!

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aarthi — September 13, 2011 at 4:23 am

First time here…I am glad that I reached here…Straight away bookmarking your blog.
I love lemon in anything..this is truly a hit recipe…Thanks for the recipe dear…
If you have time do check out my blog..
http://yummytummy-aarthi.blogspot.com/

Aarthi

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Barbara @ Barbara Bakes — September 13, 2011 at 3:15 pm

I’ve been wanting something lemon. These look great!

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carly {carlyklock} — September 13, 2011 at 3:18 pm
I love lemon, too! I remember when I was a kid I would cut a lemon in half and dip it in sugar and suck on it. Homemade lemon candy! Ha!

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- Lauren — September 13th, 2011 @ 8:43 pm
  
  I’ve never thought to do that, but it kinda sounds yummy!
  
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Deborah — September 13, 2011 at 7:09 pm

I am the same – I like chocolate, but lemon will win out any day!! These sound A-MAZ-ING!!

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Angela — September 13, 2011 at 8:10 pm

These look amazing…I cannot wait to try them, my boys love lemon, and I don’t mind it at all!!!

Thanks!!

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Estela — September 13, 2011 at 10:15 pm

Love your blog!

I love any baked good that has lemon in it! Looks amazing

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Lynne @ 365 Days of Baking — September 13, 2011 at 10:46 pm

Lauren, thanks for commenting on my site!
Your pictures are amazing and I’m a lemon freak, too. I want one of those cupcakes, NOW!

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Pam — September 13, 2011 at 10:56 pm

I love lemon desserts… they look pretty and delicious!

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From Valerie's Kitchen — September 14, 2011 at 12:30 am

I love lemon so much that last year I got a Meyer lemon tree for Mother’s Day…how about that! These look luscious!

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Jolene (www.everydayfoodie.ca) — September 14, 2011 at 4:12 am

These sound so summery! Very refreshing (especially when people are starting to post all their pumpkiny recipes)

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Amy @ A Little Nosh — September 14, 2011 at 1:11 pm

Looks so delicate and delicious! Yum yum yum!

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alex — September 15, 2011 at 4:08 am

these look so yummy and pretty!

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brandi — September 16, 2011 at 12:59 am

OH!!! These look DELICIOUS!!! You always make everything look so good.

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Maggie Rose — January 9, 2012 at 3:14 am
Is it possible to double this to create a two layer cake? Or perhaps increase by 50%? I’d love to make this recipe as a birthday cake for my husband, and would very much appreciate some guidance!

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- Lauren — January 9th, 2012 @ 3:25 am
  
  Yes! It should be fine to make this in two 8 or 9 inch rounds. It may not take as long to bake, so watch it closely! Other then that, you should be good to go!
  
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Lindsey — January 31, 2012 at 11:28 pm
Hi Lauren!
These cupcakes look so delicious, I had to give them a try! But both times I made these, they were a miserable fail. I followed your recipe exactly except for adding some lemon juice. The batter tastes great, but when I bake them, they rise up super high and all over my cupcake pan/into the oven then fall to nothing but about a teaspoon full of uncooked goo. I thought I had filled my cupcake pan too full the first time. The second time, I only put half or less in my pan and still had the same results. Could you please tell me what is going wrong? I come from a family of lemon lovers and would love to make this yummy recipe for them!

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- Mandi — March 6th, 2012 @ 11:21 pm
  
  Hope you don’t mind if I jump in here, Lauren…
  
  Lindsey, it sounds like a chemical reaction. Is it possible that you used baking soda instead of baking powered [I've done this more times than I can count - that's how I thought of it ]? The soda and the acid lemon juice will react [exactly like baking soda and vinegar] and cause a really nice, overflowing mess. Another thought I had is that possibly you used a tablespoon of baking powder instead of teaspoon when measuring? I’ve done that before too.
  
  Lauren, I can’t wait to try these. I haven’t had a really good lemon cupcake for the longest time. There’s never enough lemon.
  
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Jillian — February 17, 2012 at 6:26 pm
Oh Lemon. My favorite of all flavours. I was a liitle surprised by there being only lemon zest in this recipe and no juice? It’s in my recipes to try but I’m wondering how lemony it is considering…

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- Lauren — February 17th, 2012 @ 10:39 pm
  
  I thought it was lemony enough…feel free to add the juice in and report back!
  
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Kathie — February 28, 2012 at 9:38 pm

I can’t wait to try this recipe. It’s been hard finding homemade, from scratch (no box mix) cupcake recipes. Thanks for posting!

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Heather — March 9, 2012 at 3:45 am

I knew these would be decadent! I made these for my hubby on sweetest day-his favorite dessert is LEMON. We ate them all in one sitting!!

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Susan — March 15, 2012 at 2:21 pm

My mother LOVES lemon desserts! As a matter of fact I kinda make fun of her because of her obsession:) As soon as I saw this recipe I emailed it to her. She’s so excited to make them…and I’m even more excited to try one (or two)!

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moira — June 5, 2012 at 3:35 pm

Hi Lauren,
I was cruising the internet looking for a lemon cupcake and will try this recipe for a party this weekend. Have you ever used buttermilk instead of milk or mixed the two? I do not fool with a recipe when I make it the first time….just wondering? And by the way, I am a card carrying chocoholic, but I, too, love lemon especially when the temps heat up. Nothing more refreshing to end a summer meal. But..the combination of citrus and chocolate is also a great one.

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Lauren — January 23, 2013 at 4:35 am

I’m making these for a baby shower. Can I make the cupcake part early and freeze them. Basso, do u know how much time is needed to cook mini size?

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