Blueberry Cupcakes with Lemon Frosting
Lemon and blueberries is my chocolate and peanut butter. It’s my french fries and ketchup. It’s my bacon and eggs. It’s my cookies and milk. It’s my chocolate and cherries, ala Black Forest cupcakes.
What does all of this mean? It’s my favorite of all possible flavor combinations.
I believe it started when I heard somewhere that adding a little bit of lemon zest to the batter makes for a top-notch blueberry muffin. The rumors were true, the buttermilk blueberry muffins I made after hearing that were the best muffins I’d ever made, and I’ve made them this way ever since.
In fact, whenever I make anything with blueberries, lemon always gets involved.
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These cupcakes are made with lowfat Greek yogurt as a substitute for a portion of the butter. They’re lower in fat and sugar than an average cupcake, but they’re loaded with antioxidant-filled blueberries and are moist and delicious!
They’re topped with a simple cream cheese frosting flavored with vanilla and lemon zest. They scream “spring” to me, and if I had a bridal or baby shower to go to this year, I’d make them for that in a heartbeat.
Instead, a bunch of burly nerdy engineering men chowed them down, as I sent them to work with the hubs. The verdict? Guys love healthy cupcakes!
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Blueberry Cupcakes with Lemon Frosting
Ingredients
For the Blueberry Cupcakes:
- 3 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- ¾ cup 2% Greek yogurt
- ½ cup unsalted butter melted and cooled
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup fresh blueberries plus extra for garnish
For the Lemon Frosting:
- 1 cup cold unsalted butter cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 2 ¾ cups powdered sugar
- 8 ounces cold cream cheese cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 1 ½ teaspoons lemon zest
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Small waffle cookies for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, yogurt, butter, lemon juice and zest, and vanilla.
- Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients; whisk just until combined. Fold in blueberries.
- Line 30 muffin cups with paper liners. Fill each cup 3/4 full. Bake until toothpick inserted in center of cupcakes comes out clean, rotating pans between upper and lower racks halfway through baking, about 18-20 minutes. Cool cupcakes in pan on wire rack 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes from pan and transfer to wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
For the frosting:
- In a large bowl, with mixer at low speed and gradually increasing to medium, beat butter and powdered sugar until butter is broken into pea-size pieces and incorporated with the sugar, scraping bowl occasionally, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low. Add cream cheese, several pieces at a time, until all cream cheese is incorporated, scraping bowl occasionally. Add lemon zest and vanilla; increase speed to medium-high and beat until frosting is smooth, about 30 seconds.
- Using a piping bag fitted with a star tip, top cupcakes with frosting. If frosting is too thick to pipe, let stand at room temperature 10 minutes before piping. Garnish with Lemon Meringue Waffles and blueberries.
I just made this recipe, in fact I stayed up until 2:30AM making these after I started at 12:00AM, and they’re awful. They are like small chunks of cement with a few blueberries. Not only do they look disgusting, they taste equally as terrible. Unfortunately these are for a work-related event and I can’t show up empty-handed, so they’ll just have to do.
I am certainly sorry to hear these didn’t work out for you, Jordan. As with all baking recipes I post, I tested them twice and my husband’s co-workers enjoyed them both times. Sorry you didn’t have a better experience.
Yours look terrific, Bloga Momma! Thanks so much for stopping by 🙂
Wow!! These look amazing. I love the combo of blueberry and lemon
together. I made some similar cupcakes this week – but they didn’t turn
out nearly as perfect as these look. http://blogamomma.com/blueberry-lemon-cupcakes/
Thanks so much Nazneen! I think I got those wrappers on Etsy somewhere. The key is to look for “grease-proof” liners, because then the colors stay bright even after they’re baked.
Thanks so much, Suzanne. This photo was “challenging” to put it nicely. It was a weird 85 degree day in May, and the cream cheese frosting was threatening to melt! haha.
These are gorgeous! I love blueberries and lemon too. I love your purple polka dot wrappers 🙂 so lovely!
These are gorgeous! I love blueberries and lemon too. I love your purple polka dot wrappers 🙂 so lovely!
Thanks so much Nazneen! I think I got those wrappers on Etsy somewhere. The key is to look for “grease-proof” liners, because then the colors stay bright even after they’re baked.
Your cupcakes are perfectly beautiful!! What a gorgeous combination of flavors and the photo is amazing.
Your cupcakes are perfectly beautiful!! What a gorgeous combination of flavors and the photo is amazing.
Thanks so much, Suzanne. This photo was “challenging” to put it nicely. It was a weird 85 degree day in May, and the cream cheese frosting was threatening to melt! haha.
Thanks so much, Laura!
Thanks Susan! I hope you love them as much as I do!
I love blueberries and lemon together too! These cupcakes are so pretty!
I love blueberries and lemon together too! These cupcakes are so pretty!
Thanks so much, Laura!
OMG, I’ve got to make these. They look fantastic!!
OMG, I’ve got to make these. They look fantastic!!
Thanks Susan! I hope you love them as much as I do!