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Fluffy Lemon Cupcakes are topped with BLACKBERRY Buttercream! These Lemon Blackberry Cupcakes are so pretty and always a showstopper. Their refreshing flavor makes them perfect for Spring and Summer celebrations!
Moist Lemon Cupcakes topped with Fluffy Blackberry Buttercream
Fact: I’m a little cupcake obsessed this Summer. Cannot get enough of them! Doesn’t matter if they’re Super Decadent Chocolate Cupcakes or of the Perfect “One Bowl” Vanilla variety – I WANT THEM ALL.
Question Tiiiiime: What’s your favorite cupcake flavor? Are you into crazy flavor combos? Or more of a classic chocolate/strawberry/vanilla kinda guy (or gal)?
Homemade cupcakes can seem like a lot of work to some people, but I’m here to tell you these lemon blackberry beauties are totally doable in just over an hour, and virtually impossible to screw up. They’re also just downright FUN to make! Cupcake baking is one of my favorite ways to spend an afternoon or evening, and the workload is even easier (and a lot more FUN) if you have a friend joining in on the action. I baked 3 different cupcake recipes down the beach with my nieces, and it was a BLAST! I definitely think we have some budding bloggers in the fam 😉
This simple but lovely flavor combo was inspired by the late Summer wave of (very fresh and affordable) berries we have at our fingertips. Cheap and juicy berries… such a luxury! I ate 2 cartons standing over the sink, and decided halfway through the third to regain some self-control and make a vibrantly flavored (and colored) buttercream with what was left. Thank goodness that self-control kicked in! This buttercream is killer 😉
These cupcakes are a little more work than the store-bought kind… but they’re also SO much more rewarding in the end. The base of this recipe features an easy-to-make lemon cupcake. These cupcakes are made with lemon sugar, butter, flour, baking soda, sour cream, milk, vanilla and egg whites. The method is very simple, and you can make them with or without a stand mixer.
Two things to be sure you do do:
1) Separate your eggs and use only the whites! This keeps the cupcakes light in color and nice and fluffy. If you add the whole egg it will mess with the consistency of the cupcake, since the whole egg is much more liquid.
2) Place the sugar and lemon zest in a small bowl and RUB the lemon zest into the sugar with your fingertips. This releases the oils in the lemon zest. Lemon oil = nice and light lemon flavor in our cupcakes! Yum.
The blackberry buttercream is probably the trickiest part of this recipe, but I think once you read how it’s done, you’ll find it’s really not tricky at all 😉 The first time I tested this recipe I tried adding fresh blackberries straight into the buttercream. That did not work. The berries broke up, released liquid, and made the buttercream a very strange texture. Hmm. Onto batch two! For my second go, I tried using a store-bought blackberry jam. This one came out OK… but the jam was sweetened, and I found the blackberry taste was mute. I wanted a bold blackberry taste. So for the third try (the winning round!) I made a blackberry reduction from blackberries, lemon juice, and just a touch of sugar.
Now, if you’re like, EEK. A blackberry reduction sounds like a lot of work. Relax 🙂 It’s really easy. You’re just going to place the blackberries in a small saucepan, add the lemon juice, and cook it on a low simmer for about 20 minutes. During this time the berries will burst, release juice, and cook down to a nice, thick berry puree. Once it’s reduced to about a quarter cup, you’ll set it aside to cool, maybe do some dishes, and then add it to the buttercream. See! Easy, right?
So next time you need/want to get your cupcake on, ditch the store-bought stuff and make your own! Once you see how simple and fun making them from scratch is, you’ll never want to go back to the box. And that’s a promise 😉
Lemon Cupcakes with Blackberry Buttercream
Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
- 1 3/4 cups cake flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup sour cream (I used full fat)
- 1/2 cup milk (I used whole)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 large egg whites, at room temperature
- 1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- *Zest of one lemon (about 2 teaspoons)
For the Blackberry Buttercream:
- 1 cup blackberries
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 2 sticks (8 ounces) unsalted butter, VERY soft
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (do not SKIP!)
- 4 cups confectioners sugar (more if needed), sifted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Line a 12 mold muffin tin with paper liners; set aside.
- In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; mix well to combine. Set aside.
- In a large measuring cup or bowl combine sour cream, milk, vanilla, and egg whites; mix well to combine. Set aside.
- In a small bowl combine sugar and lemon zest. Using your fingertips, rub the zest IN to the sugar, until fragrant and well combined.
- In a large bowl or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment beat melted butter and sugar on medium speed until well combined; about 2 minutes.
- Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar combination, beating until just combined. Add in sour cream/milk/egg combo and beat on low until *just combined. Over-mixing will result in a dryer/denser cake.
- Divide the cupcake batter evenly into the 12 molds, then place the pan in the oven. Bake for about 16 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool completely before topping with frosting.
For the blackberry buttercream:
- Combine the blackberries and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, and stir constantly until blackberries have become soft enough to mash effortlessly.; about 6-7 minutes It will look like blackberry jam. Once the mixture can coat a spoon (you will have about 1/4 cup of blackberry puree) remove from heat. Place a fine-mesh strainer over a small bowl and push the puree though, leaving any seeds/large chunks behind. Allow mixture to cool completely before using.
When ready to make buttercream:
- Place soft butter in the body of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; beat butter on medium-speed until completely smooth, scraping down the sides when needed; about 2 minutes. Add in the blackberry puree and beat until completely combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl if needed. Add in the confectioners sugar, one cup at a time, on low speed. Once all of the sugar has been added, add in salt then increase speed to medium-high and beat for 2 full minutes. Ice cupcakes as desired.
- *Cupcakes can be made up to 6 hours ahead of time, but be sure to store in the fridge and bring to room temperature 30 minutes before serving.
Made them yesterday turned out great! very fresh gentele tase.
Thank you!
Hi Effi. So happy to hear it! You’re very welcome 🙂
Made it yesterday
Turned out great with a gentle lovely fresh tase.
Thank you!
I made these last night and they came out great! I did add extra lemon juice to the batter at the end, about a teaspoon. I found the cake to be a little dense, and lightly lemony. The cake was very moist. I read in a comment the sugar didn’t blend smoothly into the butter – mine didn’t either but I made do. The blackberry buttercream was delicious. It did taste very sweet, but once on the cupcake it was a killer combo. Thank you for this gorgeous recipe! I plan to make minis for an upcoming bridal shower 🙂
Hi Allison. I’m so happy this recipe was a hit for you! I think they’ll be just perfect as minis – just be sure to adjust the baking time as they’ll bake a lot faster 😉
Made these tonight. My cake turned out great, followed recipe exactly and they are NOT dense at all. Very good cake. I did add a little lemon juice at end of mixing and it is perfect. I did not fill up cupcake liners as much as I should have and ended up with more, but short cupcakes…which was fine with me. I did struggle with my buttercream mostly my fault. I don’t have a fine mesh strainer (How is that possible?) So I improvised with my sifter. I think I lost some of the reduction by doing this as i didn’t end up with enough and the blackberry taste isn’t strong enough, but that is my fault. The ONLY thing I would change in recipe is the amount of salt in buttercream. 1/2tsp is too much. I taste it in the frosting. Next time I will use just a dash of salt, but I am very glad I made them. Thank you for the recipe!!!
I just received an e mail from Pinterest telling me they removed a Pin that I repinned from you. With all my respect, people like me who love Pinterest are not taking credit for the Pins we repinned. That’s Pinterest, a place to share our interests and what we like, so it’s very easy, if you don’t want to share your recipes on Pinterest don’t use Pinterest and don’t give the option to repinned your recipes. I liked your board and you’re good at it, but I won’t follow you anymore.
Hi Mercedes. The pin that was removed was not pinned by me; it was taken down by me because it was a bad link that lead to someones page who was stealing my content. I’m sorry you’re upset the pin was taken down, but I work very hard on my content and do not wish to have others stealing my photographs and recipes. If you’d like to talk about this more, please feel free to direct message me.
Hiya,
I was wondering if you could help me! I’ve tried the buttercream recipe twice, and both times it has been fine until I’ve added the second cup of icing sugar – then it starts splitting. I carry on, adding more icing sugar to thicken it up, but it still splits and goes really runny ): any idea why this could be? I follow the recipe exactly
Hi Melody. How strange. It’s such a small amount of liquid that it really shouldn’t be runny. Are you starting with softened butter? If should be soft but not liquid.
I start with softened butter it’s nowhere near a liquid at all, I follow the recipe exactly using the correct quantities and methods, but the blackberries when added just make the icing weird and runny?
Hi Melody. Did you let the blackberry puree cool completely?
I made these for Mother’s Day. I definitely over beat them…they were too dense. No one else seemed to notice though…
The buttercream was delicious but a bit hard to work with at first so I cooled it a bit and it was fine.
I will definitely be adding more lemon, but that’s just me. 🙂
I am making them tomorrow for my mom’s wedding and will substitute raspberries for the blackberries this time.
Thanks for the recipe!
Hello! I’m planning on making these tonight, and after reading the comments about the buttercream frosting, I’m very confused and nervous! Should I be using half cream cheese and half butter for the frosting, or all butter? What would be the difference between the 2 options? Would one make it sweeter over the other? If cream cheese is the way to go, I’m guessing it should be softened, yes?
Also, for the cake- would there be a difference in consistency / the directions if I used 2% milk and low-fat sour cream? I know nothing about a cupcake is “healthy”, but I like to try and cut down on fat when I can! 😉
Thank you! I’m excited to try these, they look positively lovely! Here’s hoping I can get it right 😉
ALSO! Sorry, one last question. Could blackberry jam or preserves be used in place of the blackberry reduction, in case I have a minor panic when I try a reduction? 😉 I’ve seen another recipe that used raspberry preserves that sound delectable and similar to yours! Just less fancy 🙂
Hi Karen. I completely understand your concerns! You will use all butter, that has been softened. If you did decide to use cream cheese it should be VERY soft.
Using a low-fat dairy will most likely make a slightly more dense cake, but it can work.
You could definitely try using blackberry jam/preserves. That’s basically what the reduction ends up becoming.
Good luck! And please let me know if you have any more questions 🙂
Holy cow, that was a speedy response! 🙂
Thanks so so so much for your help! Hopefully I can get these right. I have a sweet-tooth, so I’m not too worried about the frosting being too sweet. I figure if you think it’s too sweet, just use a bit less on your cupcake 😉 Me, I LOVE a mountain of frosting like in your photos 😉
Thanks again for your help! They turned out pretty well I think! I doubled the recipe actually and didn’t fill my liners enough, so I ended up with 24 regular cupcakes and 18 mini cupcakes! Which is okay with me, since the cake recipe is DEVINE. Definitely used the extra lemon juice, and they’re lovely!
I ended up using jam for the frosting but still added the lemon juice (I’m a slow baker and it was already about 11:00 when I started making frosting… oops!), and it came out pretty tasty, though is only light purple compared to what you got. It was super sweet, but the salt did help! I also added a little milk to it to get a better consistency / balance the powdered sugar. The frosting alone is INTENSE, but when topped on the cupcakes, it really has a nice balance.
These cupcakes were AWFUL. What a waste of my time. The cake turned out just fine (but hardly could taste lemon), but the frosting was terrible. I ended up using 5 cups of confectioners sugar and all I could taste was salted butter. Also in no way could I taste blackberries either. Waste of money.
Hi Lindsay. I’m truly sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy this recipe. Feeling like you wasted time and money is never a good feeling.
To address your issues:
1) There is a note at the bottom of the recipe box that says to add a little lemon juice to the cupcake batter for a stronger lemon taste. Not everyone enjoys a lip puckering lemon recipe, which is why I simply give it as an option to those who do.
2) If you needed 5 cups of confectioners’ sugar, you may not have reduced the berry mixture enough. It’s a small amount and shouldn’t mess with the consistency of the frosting. Almost all frosting recipes call for 4 cups of confectioners’ sugar, so the amount I use in this recipe isn’t anything new.
3) The salt is such a small amount you shouldn’t be able to taste it at all. Did you by chance use already salted butter? That’s the only reason I can think of it tasting overly salty. The reason I add the salt is simply to counterbalance the sweetness.
If you have any additional questions or would like to retry this recipe in the future, I am here to help.
I’m about to make these but after reading all of the comments I see some say to put cream cheese and cream in the frosting. The recipe I’m looking at above doesn’t say to put either one of those in the frosting. Just don’t want to miss something.
Hi Monique. You didn’t miss anything! The recipe is as written; I simply suggest adding a dash of cream if your frosting is too thick (but most likely you won’t need it!). Please let us know how they turn out 🙂