These Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes have it all. They’re zesty, fruity, moist, fluffy, buttery and topped with the creamiest buttercream you’ll ever try.

Love lemon as much as me? Then you’ll also love these fluffy lemon cupcakes with cream cheese buttercream and these lemon blueberry cupcakes.

A batch of cupcakes topped with raspberries on a white plate.

Why you’ll love it

Lemon and raspberries are always a winning combination. These cupcakes are soft and lemony and make it feel like springtime.

Raspberries enter in the form of a super quick raspberry curd surprise centre and fresh raspberries in the buttercream. Oh and that creamy buttercream is the stuff of dreams.

Ingredients in this recipe

  • The Base dry ingredients: Flour, salt, baking powder and cornflour. The combination of flour and cornflour is equivalent to cake flour, keeping the cupcakes soft.
  • Wet ingredients: Milk, butter, vanilla and eggs.
  • Sugar: Just regular white sugar, this gets mixed into the wet ingredients before adding the dry.
  • Raspberries: Fresh raspberries are best here.
  • Lemons: Both the zest and juice is used in this recipe.
Birdseye view of a batch of cupcakes with one cut open.

Handy equipment to have

How to make them

These lemon raspberry cupcakes are one of my fave recipes because of the simplicity in making them. The batter is just simply mixed by hand and while I use a stand mixer for the buttercream, an electric beater will do the job.

  1. Whisk and mix the dry ingredients together. Whisking them helps to create a little air.
  2. Beat together the butter and sugar.
  3. Add the eggs and beat really well after each one.
  4. Use a spatula to gradually stir in the flour and milk separately.
  5. I use a medium ice cream scoop to scoop the batter into the cupcake cases, then bake.
Closeup of a cupcake with a raspberry on top.

The simple raspberry curd

While this isn’t a true fruit curd, it has the same consistency and is bursting with fresh raspberry flavour. You can use frozen raspberries for this though.

Just 4 ingredients, pureed, then heated until thick before letting it cool completely. This is spooned into the centre of the cooled cupcakes.

The fluffy ermine buttercream

The buttercream is the stuff of dreams. Ethereally light and fluffy, this is almost like whipped cream with the stability of buttercream.

Ermine buttercream is absolutely, without a doubt, my favourite type. It starts with a pudding base made by heating milk and flour together. This German Buttercream has a similar texture.

This pudding mixture added to butter and regular white sugar (not powdered), makes for the smoothest, creamiest buttercream you’ll ever taste.

Yes, that regular sugar dissolves completely and there is no grittiness to this buttercream. It’s also not as sickly sweet as a standard powdered sugar based buttercream. You could eat it by the spoonful.

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Birdseye view of a batch of cupcakes with one cut open.

More beautiful cupcake recipes

A batch of cupcakes topped with raspberries on a white plate.

Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes

Yield: 12 cupcakes
Prep Time: 45 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
0 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
4.8 from 6 ratings
Moist, fluffy lemon cupcakes filled with a simple raspberry curd, then topped with an ethereal whipped vanilla frosting with fresh raspberries. These Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes are absolutely delicious.
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Ingredients

CUPCAKES

  • 195 g plain (all purp) Flour (1 ½ cups / 6.8oz)
  • 30 g corn flour (corn starch) (1oz)
  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • Zest of one medium lemon
  • 1 ¼ cup granulated white sugar (250g / 8.8oz)
  • 113 g unsalted butter, melted (½ cup / 1 stick)
  • 2 large eggs, room temp
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • ¾ cup full cream (whole) milk, room temp
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice (note 1)

RASPBERRY CURD

  • ½ cup raspberries
  • 2 tablespoons water (note 1)
  • 1 tablespoon graunulated sugar (note 1)
  • 1 tablespoon corn flour (cornstarch) (notes 1 & 3)

RASPBERRY BUTTERCREAM

  • 1 cup milk (250ml)
  • ¼ cup plain (all-purp) flour (33g / 1.2oz)
  • 226 g unsalted butter, room temp (2 sticks / 1 cup / 8oz)
  • 1 cup caster (superfine) sugar (200g / 7oz) (note 4)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • Pinch of salt
  • ¼ cup raspberries, torn into small pieces
  • 1 teaspoon lemon zest
  • 12 raspberries, to decorate

For best results, always weigh ingredients where a weight is provided

Equipment

Instructions
 

FOR THE CUPCAKES

  • Preheat your oven to 180C / 350F (160C fan) and line your muffin tins with paper cupcake cases
  • In a bowl, sift together the flour, corn flour, baking powder and salt. Add the lemon zest and mix well to combine.
  • In a separate bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the melted butter and sugar until smooth.
  • Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl each time and beating well after each. The mixture should look smooth and silky. Add the vanilla and mix well to combine.
  • Add ⅓ of the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture. Stir through gently until only just combined. Now add half of the milk and the lemon juice. Mix gently again. Continue like this until all the flour and milk is combined… just. It is important not to overmix or be too heavy handed otherwise your cupcakes will turn out dense and tough.
  • Fill the cupcake cases to about 3/4 full. Bake in the oven for around 20-22 minutes, turning the pan around in the oven half way through to make sure they bake evenly. When a skewer inserted comes out with just a crumb or two, they are done.
  • Cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack. Let the cupcakes cool completely before proceeding.

MAKE THE RASPBERRY CURD

  • Use a blender to purée the raspberries, water, sugar and cornflour.
  • Transfer to a saucepan and cook over low heat. Stirring constantly until so thick the spoon leaves a trail that takes a few seconds to fill in again.
  • Strain out the seeds if you prefer then store in the fridge until ready.

FOR THE ERMINE BUTTERCREAM

  • Whisk the milk and flour together in a small saucepan over a low heat. Keep whisking until it thickens. It needs to be very thick, like pudding, and should leave a trail that doesn’t quickly cover over when you stir.
  • Pour the mix into a bowl, cover it with plastic wrap making sure to press it to the surface of the mixture so it doesn’t form a skin. Cool to room temperature – you can speed this up in the freezer, just make sure it isn’t cold when you use it, but roughly room temperature.
  • Once cooled, beat the butter and sugar on high for 4-5 minutes until very pale and creamy. Scrape down the sides from time to time.
  • With the mixer on low, add the milk & flour paste 1 tablespoon at a time. Beat for another 4-5 minutes until it looks thick and whipped. It may, at a point look split or curdled, just continue to beat. It will come together again.
  • Beat in the vanilla and salt, then carefully stir in the torn raspberries and lemon zest until just combined.

ASSEMBLING THE CUPCAKES

  • Cut a hole with a cupcake corer or sharp knife in the top of each cupcake. Add about 1 teaspoon of curd to each.
  • Pipe buttercream on top of each cupcake, then top with decorations.

Notes

  1. I use an Australian standard 20ml tablespoon (= 4 teaspoons worldwide)
  2. For best results you should always weigh ingredients like flour and sugar. Kitchen scales are relatively cheap but if you can’t weigh the ingredients, use the spoon and level method (don’t scoop).
  3. I use corn starch a lot in my baking. Cake flour is a combination of all-purpose and corn starch but in Australia is not so readily available. I use this combo in my recipes a lot instead of using cake flour.
  4. While I suggest using caster sugar in the frosting as it dissolves quicker, regular white sugar will work. Don’t use powdered / icing sugar.
  5. You’ll need 2 lemons for this recipe.
More cupcakes and cakes.
Calories: 381kcal
Author: Marie Roffey
Course: Dessert, Sweets
Cuisine: cupcakes, Various
Have you tried this recipe?Don’t forget to leave a rating and comment below and let me know how it was! I love hearing from you. Nutrition information is approximate and derived from an online calculator. The brands you use may cause variations.