High Altitude Lemon Cupcakes

An easy, high altitude recipe for light and fluffy lemon cupcakes made from scratch, frosted with zingy lemon buttercream and topped with candied lemon peel. These cheery cupcakes are full of bright lemon flavor with both lemon juice and lemon zest in the cake batter. And there’s an extra dose of lemony goodness from the sweet and tart candied lemon peel garnish.

Looking for more lemon recipes? You might also love these lemon poppy seed rolls with lemon icing, lemon loaf cake, homemade lemon curd ice cream, and classic lemon bars with crumb topping.

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Why You’ll Love These Cupcakes

Easy to Make. I love an easy cake batter that only needs to be whisked together in a bowl. And if you don’t have two muffin pans, you can let half the cupcake batter rest while you make the first batch of cupcakes.

Bright and Lemony. Whether it’s citrus season or summer, lemon is always a great choice for baked goods. These cupcakes are packed with lemon flavor from lemon juice, lemon zest, lemon extract or paste, and candied lemon peel. I even filled a few with lemon curd for even more lemon!

Versatile. Add a spoonful of poppy seeds to make lemon poppy seed cupcakes, or try another flavor of buttercream like cream cheese, raspberry or blackberry. Whatever you pair these cupcakes with, they’ll be delicious!

See the decorating section below for information on the piping tips I used to decorate my cupcakes.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

Ingredients

Cupcakes

• Lemon Juice. In addition to the lemon zest, the tart lemon juice gives the cupcakes their lemon flavor, as well as acidity to make them tender and soft.
• Lemon Zest. To really infuse lemon flavor into my cupcakes, I grate lemons over the sugar, and then use my fingers to rub the zest into the sugar. The oils in the lemon zest coat the sugar in fresh lemon flavor, and makes these cupcakes even more wonderful.
• Milk. I love baking cakes with buttermilk, so for this recipe I used whole milk so that I could curdle it with the lemon juice. Doing so essentially creates a “lemon buttermilk”, that makes the most incredible cupcakes that are soft, tender and moist.
• Granulated Sugar. Gives the cupcakes sweetness and moisture.
• Cake Flour. Cake flour, rather than all-purpose flour, makes very light and fluffy cupcakes.
• Baking Powder. Leavens the cupcakes so they rise.
• Salt. Everything sweet needs a pinch of salt for flavor and balance.
• Eggs + Egg White. The eggs provide the structure, stability and moisture, and the extra whites make the cake extra light.
• Sour Cream. Adds moisture, flavor and acidity, and contributes to the tenderness of the cake.
• Oil + Butter. A combination of vegetable oil and melted butter adds flavor and keeps the cupcakes moist.
• Vanilla + Lemon Extracts. Flavor.

Buttercream

• Butter. I usually use unsalted butter, but if you use salted, you should omit the extra salt from the recipe.
• Powdered Sugar. Sweetens and thickens the buttercream.
• Meringue Powder. Adds stability.
• Salt. Balances the sweetness.
• Vanilla Extract. Flavor.
• Lemon Extract + Lemon Zest. Instead of lemon juice, which can curdle the butter, I flavor the buttercream with lemon extract and zest.
• Milk or Cream. Thins the buttercream.

Instructions

Cake

• Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Line your muffin pans with paper liners – you’ll need 18-20 liners. If you only have 1 pan, you can bake the first batch of 12 cupcakes and let the remainder of the batter rest at room temperature until the pan is free to bake the second batch.
• In a measuring cup, stir together the lemon juice and milk; set aside for a few minutes to let the milk curdle.
• Measure the sugar into a large bowl, and zest the lemon over the sugar. Use your fingers to rub the lemon zest into the sugar to really infuse the lemon flavor.

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• Set a fine mesh strainer over the sugar, and sift in the flour, baking powder and salt, then whisk together the dry ingredients with the lemon sugar.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the lemon juice/milk mixture, eggs, egg white, sour cream, oil, melted butter, vanilla and lemon extracts until smooth.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry and whisk by hand until smooth, about 30 seconds.

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• Use a 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop the batter into the pan, filling the cups no more than 2/3-3/4 full.
• Bake on the center oven rack for about 15-16 minutes, until the tops spring back when gently touched. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then gently transfer the cupcakes to a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.

Buttercream

• In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the butter for one minute until smooth.  Scrape the bowl down.  With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar, meringue powder and salt, mixing to combine.  Add the lemon extract, vanilla extract and lemon zest.
• Beat on medium high for about 5 minutes, scraping the bowl down occasionally, until very light and fluffy.  Add the milk as needed for desired consistency.
• Spread or pipe the buttercream onto the cooled cupcakes.

Recipe Variations

• Lemon Poppy Seed. For lemon poppy seed cupcakes, add 1 tablespoon poppy seeds to the dry ingredients before whisking the cake batter. Add 1-2 teaspoons poppy seeds to the buttercream.
• Lemon Curd Filling. Use a cupcake corer to remove the centers of the cupcakes. Fill the centers with lemon curd before adding the frosting.
• Candied Lemon Peel. I love to candy citrus peel, and it makes a delicious and pretty garnish for cakes, cupcakes and pastries. To make the candied lemon peel, read my post on how to make candied orange peel, and use fresh lemon peel instead of orange.
• Other Buttercream Flavors. Lemon cake is so good with cream cheese frosting, strawberry buttercream or raspberry buttercream.

Decorating Instructions

To decorate my cupcakes, I used three different piping tips to make six different designs. If you want to try more than one design, be sure to use a large coupler on your piping bag, so that you can change out the piping tips without using a separate piping bag for each one. The small, standard-sized couplers that come with piping tips sets won’t work with these large, specialty piping tips. To make all the designs shown today, you’ll need tips 1M (open star tip), 2D (drop flower tip) and 6B (open star tip).

TIP: Remember to practice first if you’re new to any of these techniques. Just practice piping onto a piece of wax paper, then scrape the frosting back into the bowl to use it again.

Basic Swirl with Tip 1M

For a basic cupcake swirl, start piping at the edge of the cupcake and work towards the middle. You may want to do this in two layers, with a smaller swirl on top to make the swirl really tall. Sprinkle with sparkling sugar.

Rosette or Rose with Tip 1M

This one is so easy and incredibly pretty. Start piping at the center of the cupcake, and taper off at the outer edge. I like to add sprinkles or sugar pearls to cover up the end where I pulled the piping bag away.

Drop Flowers with Tip 2D

Piping drop flowers uses exactly the same technique as piping stars. Simply hold the piping bag perpendicular to the cupcake while you squeeze the buttercream, and pull straight up. By covering the top of a cupcake in drop flowers, you’ve made a hydrangea.

Rosettes and Drop Flowers with Tips 1M and 2D

Combine the techniques from above to make a really elegant looking design. Start by piping two rosettes with tip 1M, slightly off-centered, with the second one overlapping the first. Now use tip 2D to pipe a few drop flowers to fill in the gaps.

Swirl with Tip 6B

Piping this swirl works exactly the same as piping a rosette with tip 1M. Start piping at the center of the cupcake, and taper off at the outer edge.

Ring with Tip 6B

Simply pipe a ring around the edge of the cupcake, then fill the center with lemon curd.

Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common questions with cake making, so that you can be successful in your own baking! I also suggest reading these comprehensive posts on making Perfect American Buttercream, How to Stack, Fill, Crumb Coat and Frost Layer Cakes and How to Use Piping Bags.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is your recipe for candied lemon peel?

Here is my recipe for candied orange peel, which works with oranges, lemons, limes and grapefruit.

What piping tips did you use for piping the buttercream?

See the above section for information on how I decorated today’s cupcakes.

Can I use all-purpose flour instead of cake flour?

I’ve only made this recipe using cake flour, and it produces a very light, fluffy cake.  All-purpose flour will not give you quite the same result, but should still be fine.  Be sure to sift the flour to get out any lumps.

Will this recipe work if I don’t live at high altitude?

I test and develop all of my recipes for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you live at sea level or low altitude, your cupcakes may not rise very much if you don’t make a few adjustments. You’ll likely need to increase the leavening and decrease the flour. This is a good article on how to adjust recipes for various altitudes.

Other Resources

How to Stack, Fill, Crumb Coat and Frost Layer Cakes

How to Make Perfect American Buttercream

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