Strawberry lemon cupcakes recipe

The combination of fresh strawberries and citrus lemon pair perfectly together in this strawberry lemon cupcakes recipe.

These cupcakes are full of flavour thanks to the vanilla pod, lemon zest, and strawberries in the sponge mixture. Make the pastel blue buttercream using just four ingredients; butter, icing sugar, lemon juice, and blue food colouring. In this cupcake recipe, we delicately top our cupcakes with fondant flowers, but you could simply serve them as they are.

Ingredients

• 125g unsalted butter, softened
• 175g caster sugar
• 3 med eggs
• 1 vanilla pod, cut in half and seeds scraped out
• 1tbsp vanilla extract
• 125g self-raising flour
• 50g '00' grade plain flour, sieved
• Zest of 1 large lemon
• 75ml buttermilk
• 100g fresh strawberries

For the lemon buttercream:

• 125g unsalted butter, softened
• 250g icing sugar, sieved
• Juice of 1 large lemon
• Blue food colouring

To decorate:

• 125 g (41/2 oz) ready-to-roll white fondant icing
• Edible silver balls
• Flower cutters
• Disposable piping bag
• Writing nozzle
• Icing sugar, for dusting

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190oC/375oF/Gas Mark 5. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper muffin cases.
2. Whisk the butter, sugar and vanilla seeds together using an electric hand whisk or beat with a wooden spoon until pale and creamy. Add the eggs, flours and buttermilk and whisk until combined and fluffy.
3. Meanwhile, mash 100g of fresh strawberries in a bowl until you have a rough puree. Fold through the puree into the fluffy mixture until it's just mixed and slightly marbled.
4. Divide the mixture equally between the paper cases, filling them about two-thirds full, and bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes until golden and risen. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to go cold.
5. For the buttercream: Whisk the butter in a bowl until fluffy. Gradually add the icing sugar and whisk until it comes together. Add the lemon juice and whisk until light and fluffy. Use as required
6. To decorate: Reserve 2 tablespoons of the buttercream. Colour the remaining buttercream with a few drops of blue food colouring, beating with a spatula until light blue. Spread the blue buttercream over the tops of the cupcakes using a small palette knife.
7. Lightly dust a clean work surface with icing sugar and roll the fondant icing out until about 3−4 mm (1/8−1/4 inch) thick. Using a selection of large, medium and small flower cutters, stamp out lots of flowers until the icing has been used up.
8. Arrange a few different-sized flowers on top of each cupcake, spacing them so they look like spring blossom. Put the reserved buttercream into a piping bag with a plain writing nozzle and pipe flower stems joining some of the flowers together and coming from the side of each cake.
9. Prick a hole in the centre of any large flowers using a skewer. Arrange a silver ball in the centre of each flower.

Top tips for making strawberry lemon cupcakes

This recipe would work just as well with raspberries.

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