Filled with blueberries and zingy lemon flavour, these lemon blueberry cupcakes are topped with whipped cream cheese frosting. An easy summer dessert idea!
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, see my Full Disclosure.
I’ve shared a few no-bake recipes recently such as my Fresh Fruit Tart and my Strawberry White Chocolate Cheesecake, ready for summer ☀️
However, even in the heat, I know a lot of us still get the urge to actually bake something! That’s why I decided to develop these colourful, summery, delicious lemon blueberry cupcakes!
The best lemon blueberry cupcakes
I know, I know, I’m a little obsessed with lemon recipes. But so are a lot of you, right? Plus, lemon desserts in the summer are ideal!
These lemon cupcakes have plenty of lemon flavour plus just the right amount of blueberries without them being soggy. The cupcake texture wonderfully light and moist! I developed these cupcakes from my Lemon Raspberry Cream Cake as I love the texture of that cake.
(Curious about my other lemon recipes or also a lemon addict? Check out my Lemon Bars, No-Bake Lemon Cheesecake, Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cake, Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins, Lemon Coconut Muffins too!)
Lemon Blueberry Cupcake Ingredients
Simple cake ingredients are used to make this recipe for lemon blueberry cupcakes so easy and approachable. So put down that box of cake mix – homemade cupcakes are so much better!
Full step-by-step instructions and amounts can be found at the bottom of this post, but here is a quick summary. For this lemon blueberry cupcakes recipe you’ll need:
- Plain flour for the cupcake’s structure
- Baking powder to leaven the cupcakes
- Salt to enhance the flavours of the cupcake (you won’t taste salt!)
- Caster sugar for sweetness
- Butter for flavour and to be beaten with the caster sugar to further leaven the cupcakes, making them lighter and fluffier!
- Eggs for structure
- Lemon zest for that lemony zing – I use 2 lemons’ worth of zest as I love the lemon flavour
- Lemon juice from 1 lemon for added lemon flavour
- Milk for moisture and lightness. Buttermilk is great for super moist cupcakes, though any milk will work here
- Blueberries for juicy bursts of blueberry flavour!
How to make lemon blueberry cupcakes
This recipe for lemon and blueberry cupcakes is so simple and straightforward, I promise!
- Preheat oven to 160°C/140°C fan. I like baking at a lower temperature as I find the cupcakes rise more slowly and brown less quickly. This results in flatter cupcake tops!
- Place cupcake cases in a 12 hole muffin tray. If you don’t have or don’t want to use cases, you could spray the tray holes with non-stick cake pan spray instead.
- Whisk the flour and baking powder together, then set aside
- Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy and lighter in colour. I’d recommend using an electric hand mixer or stand mixer for this step. I use my KitchenAid stand mixer on medium speed for 1 minute.
- Add the eggs and beat until combined
- Next add the lemon zest, lemon juice and milk and beat until combined
- Add the dry ingredients in two stages, mixing on low speed in between until just combined
- Carefully fold in the blueberries by hand with a spatula. The colour may bleed a little from the blueberries but that is ok. Coat the blueberries in a teaspoon of flour before adding them – this helps prevent them from sinking in the cake batter!
- Fill your cupcake cases 3/4 full with the mixture
- Bake for 20 mins until springy to touch and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cupcake comes out clean
The cupcakes should have lightly coloured, flat tops. Perfect for topping with some delicious whipped cream cheese frosting!
Easy whipped cream cheese frosting
Making a pipeable cream cheese icing or frosting, especially here in the UK, can be more difficult than a classic buttercream icing. It tends to be a little softer and less stable for piping. But I wanted tall, firm, beautiful swirls of icing on these cupcakes!
Therefore I decided to stabilise the cream cheese by combining it with double cream. Whipped cream is easy to pipe, so a combined cream cheese double cream icing works perfectly!
Plus, it is so easy to make, and it’s quicker to make than buttercream. You simply add cream cheese, double cream, icing sugar and some vanilla extract to a bowl. Beat them all together for around 1 minute and you have a deliciously light whipped cream cheese icing that pipes perfectly onto cupcakes!
I don’t add lemon flavour to the icing as I like the contrast of the creamy taste with the lemon blueberry cake. However if you want extra lemon flavour you can just grate the zest of a lemon into this frosting!
Tips for baking lemon blueberry cupcakes
- Make sure the butter, eggs, milk and lemon juice are room temperature before making the cupcake batter. If they are too cold they won’t incorporate into the mixture properly and you’ll end up with a lumpy, curdled mixture.
- Maintain the correct oven temperature to prevent them from rising too quickly and doming, or not rising enough if your oven isn’t hot enough. I highly recommend using an oven thermometer for all baking recipes. I wouldn’t be without mine as you’d be surprised how different an oven temperature can be compared to what the dial says!
- Do not overmix the cake batter or the cupcakes won’t be light and fluffy. They could end up being dense and chewy! This is quite a small amount of mixture as it’s enough for 12 cupcakes so overmixing shouldn’t be a problem.
- Coat the blueberries in a teaspoon of flour. This is to stop them sinking in the cupcake batter, plus it can help prevent bleeding of the blueberries when folding them into the mixture (especially if using frozen blueberries).
- For the decorative lemon slices, I placed them on kitchen paper/paper towel for a few mins to drain off some lemon juice before placing on top of the cupcakes. This reduces the chance of them making the icing go soggy!
How to store cupcakes with frosting
Once you have piped icing onto the cupcakes, they are best stored in the fridge as the icing contains cream and cheese. When you want to serve them, take them out about 30 minutes before to allow them to come to room temperature, where they will be softer and lighter.
Before icing them, the cupcakes are best stored in an airtight container at room temperature. This is because the fridge will dry the cupcakes out quicker. You could make the icing shortly before needing to serve the cupcakes, so they can be stored at room temperature and then iced just before serving!
Can cupcakes be frozen?
Unfrosted cupcakes can be frozen by storing them in an airtight container. They will freeze well for around 6 months. I wouldn’t recommend freezing frosted cupcakes as the icing will not be at its best once defrosted.
What frosting tip should I use for cupcakes?
I usually use some type of star nozzle for my cupcakes, though you can use whatever nozzle you like. If you’re not confident at piping icing, you can practice piping swirls onto a piece of baking paper first before icing your cupcakes!
In summary, these lemon blueberry cupcakes are:
- easy to make with simple ingredients and method
- filled with juicy blueberries and plenty of lemon flavour
- have a light and moist texture
- topped with a delicious whipped cream cheese frosting
- decorated with fresh blueberries and lemon wedges
- the perfect summer dessert idea!
If you try this recipe I’d love to see! You can show me by tagging me @bakerjoblog or using #bakerjoblog!
Other cake recipes to try:
- Lemon Coconut Layer Cake
- Vanilla Layer Cake with Vanilla Buttercream
- Chocolate Chip Muffins
- Nutella Brownies
- Carrot Loaf Cake
- Hummingbird Muffins
- Peanut Butter Brownies
- Raspberry White Chocolate Muffins
- Gingerbread Latte Cake
- Chewy Homemade Brownies
- Blueberry Nut Muffins
- Carrot Cake Swiss Roll
- Banoffee Brownies
- Chocolate Coconut Cake
Other lemon recipes to try:
- Lemon Bars
- Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cake
- No-Bake Lemon Cheesecake
- Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
- Lemon Coconut Muffins
- Lemon Raspberry Cream Cake with Meringue Kisses
Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes
Equipment
- 12 hole muffin tin
- Cupcake cases/liners
- Electric hand mixer or stand mixer
- Whisk
- Spatula
Ingredients
- 150 g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder level
- 1/4 tsp salt level
- 100 g butter softened/room temperature
- 150 g caster sugar
- 2 medium eggs room temperature
- 30 ml milk room temperature. Buttermilk is great for really moist cupcakes, but any milk is fine
- Juice of 1 medium lemon about 30ml of juice
- Zest of 2 medium lemons
- 100 g blueberries fresh or frozen
- 1 tsp flour to coat the blueberries (to stop them sinking in the cake batter!)
Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting/Icing
- 300 ml double cream cold
- 240 g full fat cream cheese softened/room temperature
- 50 g icing sugar sifted
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- (optional – zest of 1 lemon for extra lemon flavour!)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 160°C/140° Fan. Place cupcake cases/liners in your 12 hole muffin tray. If you don't have cases, you can spray the holes with non-stick cake pan spray.
- In a medium bowl whisk the flour, baking powder and salt until well combined. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachement, or a large bowl if using an electric hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed for 1 whole minute until lighter in colour and fluffy.
- To this bowl add the eggs, beating on medium speed for around 20 seconds until combined.
- Next add the milk, lemon juice and lemon zest and again beat on medium speed for around 20 seconds until well combined.
- Add half the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined, then add the remaining half and repeat on low speed. Be careful not to overmix here or your cupcakes may be dense and chewy.
- Now by hand, carefully fold the flour coated blueberries into the batter with a spatula. They may bleed a little but that's ok.
- Using a spoon, fill each cupcake case with the cake batter. The cases should be about 3/4 full. My cupcake cases are taller than the cupcake holes so they look less full.
- Place your cupcake tray in your preheated oven and bake for around 18-20 mins. Check they are done by inseting a skewer into the centre of the cupcake – it should come out clean. They will be quite pale with flat tops.
- Leave the tray on a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes, and then remove the cupcakes and place them on the wire rack to cool completely.
Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting/Icing
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or a large bowl if using an electric hand mixer, beat the double cream, cream cheese, icing sugar and vanilla extract on medium speed until combined and thickened. This should only take around 1 minute.
Icing the Cupcakes
- Add your chosen piping nozzle to your piping bag and fill it with all of the whipped cream cheese icing.
- Pipe your chosen pattern on top of each cooled cupcake. For my piped swirls I start in the middle of the cupcake, work my way to the outside of the cupcake in a circle, then back to the middle to get a nice peak on top.
- Add some fresh blueberries and lemon wedges for decoration, or keep plain if you prefer. I place the lemon wedges on kitchen paper/paper towel for a few minutes to absorb some of the lemon juice before placing on the cupcakes. This prevents them from making the icing soggy!
- Unfrosted cupcakes are best stored at room temperature in an airtight container. Once iced, the cupcakes are best stored in the fridge due the dairy content in the frosting.
- Best eaten within 3 days.
Hello Jo,
I would love to make these but as muffins..would it much the same recipe but filling the muffin liners higher and doing the 5 min hot oven trick to get good muffin top rise? How long would you say a muffin version would take?
I did your chocolate chip muffin recipe the other day and they had rave reviews 🙂
Thank you very much
Author
Hi Abigail, muffins have slightly different ingredient ratios to cupcakes as muffins are denser in texture. I’d suggest using my Blueberry Nut Muffins recipe as a base – simply try replacing the nuts and cinnamon for the zest of two large lemons! Let me know how it goes if you try it 😊
Hi Jo, thank you for replying! I did use the blueberry and pecan recipe instead, I added zest of 2 lemons and a tablespoon of lemon juice. Reviewers tell me I could add more lemon (so might try 2 tablespoons next time). I also added a light brown sugar crust of top. Had lovely reviews once again so thank you 😊
Author
I’m so happy you liked them Abigail and thanks for letting me know how they turned out! 😊