cupcakes & desserts & frosting & lemon 17 Apr 2008 10:23 pm
Pink Lemon Cupcakes
I am not a fan of great gobs of frosting. So I cut the tops off overly puffed cupcakes – cut a little decor out of the middle, frosted the base and popped the top back on. Still tasty – and it impresses people like you’ve done a lot of work. When really, you haven’t.
cupcake ingredients
2 sticks butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2-1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 Tablespoons lemon zest
2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- You will need confectioner’s sugar for dusting, later in the assembly
Pink Lemon frosting
4 cupc confectioners sugar
1/2 cup butter – softened
2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice.
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2 Tablespoons milk
pink gel tint
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees, and prep a cupcake pan with liners. I prefer using fresh lemon juice in all my baking. The best way to get juice from a lemon is to press and roll it on a counter. Then the pulp is all mushy and you have plenty of juice. Two lemons oughta do you.
In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar til light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one by one, beating after each one.
In a separate bowl combine the flour, baking soda and salt.
Add these dry ingredients to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk. Here’s a tip, always end with the milk. It makes for a smoother batter.Now mix in the lemon juice and lemon zest.
Fill the cupcake liners TO THE TOP. This will insure that your cup runneth over, with is what you want so that you can cut off the tops!!! (You should have filled about 20 cups.) Bake for 20 minutes, test with a toothpick, and cool on a wire rack.
While the cupcakes are cooling – make the frosting:
With an electric mixer, beat sugar and butter. Add the lemon juice, and the zest until combined. THen add the milk – speed it way up until it becomes light and fluffy, then add two squeezes of the tint and mix til the color settles in.
Now with the cupcakes cooled, take a serrated knife and gently cut off the fluffy tops, right at the paper. Using a small heart, or any tiny shaped cookie cutter, cut out the center of the tops. Put them aside or put them in your mouth. Dust the tops with confectioner’s sugar.
Take your pink frosting and frost the top of the now flat cupcake that you just cut. Then place the nicely dusted open top, right on the top of the frosting. There you go. A simple yet pretty cupcake. And oh so lemon-y too.
Print This Post
on 18 Apr 2008 at 1:16 am 1.paçoca said …
Nice! I´ll try this weekend. From paçoca Rio de janeiro
on 18 Apr 2008 at 8:29 am 2.cheryl said …
InGENIUS!
on 18 Apr 2008 at 8:30 am 3.cheryl said …
Shoot, I meant to write more but in my excitement I hit the return button. They sure didn’t teach us this in cake class.
Very very nice – and pink, my favorite. 
on 18 Apr 2008 at 9:29 am 4.Cheryl said …
oh, these are SO pretty. I want to try to make them this weekend! Wish me luck… I’ve never made frosting…
on 18 Apr 2008 at 10:15 am 5.Missy said …
These look wonderful! Thank you for sharing!
on 21 Apr 2008 at 4:46 am 6.kristina said …
What a lovely approach to decorating cupcakes – not the same old frosting topper. Very pretty and creative!
on 21 Apr 2008 at 6:19 am 7.diva said …
oh, how pretty! they look so lovely and yummy. quite good for valentine’s day too lol, although it’s ages away. i’ll keep your technique in mind.
on 21 Apr 2008 at 1:46 pm 8.Indigo said …
I love this idea for presentation! Definitely doing this with my next batch ^__^
on 21 Apr 2008 at 3:25 pm 9.Annie said …
Those look so good! Tomorrow is my birthday and I was wondering what kind of cake I would bake. You just answered my question. I am going to bake me a batch of those beautiful cupcakes. Thank you so much for sharing.
on 21 Apr 2008 at 3:34 pm 10.Annie said …
Oh, I have a question. You use baking soda, not baking powder?
Thanks!
Annie
on 22 Apr 2008 at 2:41 pm 11.dawn said …
You did a wonderful job on these. So pretty and oh so yummy!
on 10 May 2008 at 5:26 pm 12.Hazel said …
Hello! I like your site and your recipes as well. I will have fun make cupcakes using your recipe. Can I post your recipe on my site?
Thanks!
on 11 May 2008 at 9:27 am 13.Cheryl said …
I love the way you decorated these cupcakes. That is very original.
on 11 May 2008 at 9:28 am 14.Cheryl said …
I love the decorating….these are beautiful cupcakes!
on 11 May 2008 at 8:32 pm 15.justJENN said …
Annie, the recipe is correct, baking soda. It will puff fine, but really use ANY cupcake recipe – I just used this one to show off the decorating. Chocolate would look just as nice!
on 13 May 2008 at 8:42 am 16.Kelli said …
Hi, I want to make these for my mother in laws ladies club, I have a question, how did you get your cupcakes to not bake like a cone shapped on top? nice and flat? if you could let me know before tomorrow (SOrry short notice) that would be great. Beautiful cupcakes BTW,
Kelli allknames@gmail.com
on 13 May 2008 at 9:58 pm 17.Diana P said …
I read your blog for your wit and wisdom. My husband? He LOVES the recipes. He just made us your lemon cupcakes…fantastic! Click on my page to view his picture! Thanks for posting your recipes, you’re the greatest!!
on 14 May 2008 at 3:20 pm 18.Kelli said …
I just made these, your turned out better, I did learn a few things. check out my blog to see my post on them. Thanks for your recipe, they really are good.
on 14 May 2008 at 11:27 pm 19.justJENN said …
Sorry Kelli, I got this late – having computer issues – I don’t know what you mean by cone shaped top, I’ve never had that problem. Maybe your heat is too high, is all I can think of. Hope they turned out ok!
on 20 May 2008 at 12:09 am 20.SUMAYA said …
hi, they look divine. i wana eat them rite of the screen
GONA TRY MAKING THEM 4 MY 3 LITTLE GIRLS THS WEEK-END.
on 06 Jun 2008 at 10:04 am 21.Delicious, yes? « this is my rev·o·lu·tion said …
[...] justJENN’s Pink Lemon Cupcakes « Thursday Thirteen [...]
on 20 Jun 2008 at 11:57 am 22.Wendy said …
What a cool idea! Love it!
on 18 Jul 2008 at 9:12 am 23.evelyn said …
i made these cupcakes the other day and found the cake part to be very heavy and not lemony even though i used the zest of about 4 lemons. i ended up brushing lemon marmalade on the cut portion to add more lemon flavor. and i was careful with the mixing so that the cake part wouldn’t get ‘tough’. wondering then if you think the extra stick of butter makes for a denser cake? but just to let you know, they turned out really tasty and pretty – just definitely not a ‘light and fluffly’ cupcake.
on 19 Jul 2008 at 5:52 am 24.justJENN said …
No, it is not a light and fluffy cupcake. If it was you’d never be able to cut out the heart without it falling apart.
on 21 Nov 2008 at 8:05 pm 25.ruby said …
obviously it’s too late, but regarding the “cone” topped cupcakes Kelli asked about…
generally a peaked cupcake is the result of a hotter oven (moderate to moderately hot). i’m australian, so that means above 180 degrees celsius (i think about 350F). i have found that reducing the temperature to around 170C and adjusting cooking times accordingly means that i get a flatter cupcake.
hope that helps!
r
on 18 Dec 2008 at 5:31 pm 26.Amy said …
Hi,
I absolutely loved this recipe! I want to do the same kinda design, but I wanted to tweak it to make it Peppermint cupcakes. So, I ask the master…do you think I could substitute the lemon and add in peppermint and vanilla instead? Like, the lemon’s not the thing “holding” the cupcake together right?
Amy
on 18 Dec 2008 at 6:35 pm 27.justJENN said …
Amy- No the lemon is just a flavoring, sure you could substitute peppermint extract instead. Although it would be better with chocolate if you ask me. Just make these-
http://justjennrecipes.com/domo-kun-peppermint-chocolate-chip-cupcakes/2008/09/01/
but follow the same topper steps with a different cutter!
on 19 Dec 2008 at 3:16 pm 28.Amy said …
Thanks Jenn! Once again, you’re great!
on 19 Mar 2009 at 8:29 pm 29.Roberisco said …
Haha ^^ nice, is there a section to follow the RSS feed
on 06 May 2009 at 7:25 am 30.Toni said …
This is a brilliant idea. Like you, I’m not a fan of huge gobs of piped frosting, and it seemed like that was the only way to make visually appealing cupcakes. (That, or fondant, which is also not an option for me.) This technique would work for any cupcake/frosting combination, and I can’t wait to try it out!
on 20 May 2009 at 4:46 am 31.directory said …
thank you for your wonderful web site. I liked it very, very much.
on 04 Oct 2009 at 3:58 am 32.x3flo said …
i made these for my boyfriend for our 8 months.
haha.
i used letters instead of hearts, but they turned out wonderful
on 18 Nov 2009 at 9:53 am 33.atve said …
Have been waiting for this kinda stuff for years
on 07 Feb 2010 at 10:04 pm 34.glo said …
These are so cute I am going to make them !!!!
on 14 Feb 2010 at 7:38 am 35.Christala said …
Can anyone tell me what two sticks of butter would be to us in the uk??
on 14 Feb 2010 at 8:37 am 36.justJENN said …
@Christala
1 cup or 8 ounces.