Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Curd Filling

Fluffy lemon cupcakes with lemon zest, filled with lemon curd and topped with a zesty lemon buttercream. Lemon cupcake heaven!

Course Dessert

Cuisine British

Keyword Cupcake

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 25

Total Time 55

Servings

Calories 541kcal

Author thebakingexplorer

Pre-heat your oven to 140C Fan/160C/325F/Gas Mark 3, and line a cupcake tin with cupcake cases
For the cupcake sponge, mix together the baking spread and caster sugar, ideally using an electric hand mixer or in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, for 5 minutes until smooth and fluffy
Add the eggs and mix them in well
Then gently whisk, or fold in, the self raising flour and lemon zest
Divide the mixture between the cupcake cases, and bake them for 25-30 minutes or until a thin skewer inserted in the centre of the cupcakes comes out clean. Put them on a rack to cool completely
Use a cupcake corer or a knife to make a hole in the middle of each cupcake
Fill the holes with lemon curd. You can do this using a spoon or put the lemon curd into a small piping bag, snip the end off and pipe it in
For the buttercream, mix the softened butter on it's own for a few minutes. Then add the icing sugar, lemon extract and milk, and mix until smooth. You can do this by hand, but an electric hand whisk or stand mixer with paddle attachment will provide the best results. If the buttercream is too stiff, you can add a little more milk
Put the buttercream into a large piping bag fitted with a Wilton 2D nozzle, or other nozzle of your choice and pipe it onto the cupcakes, or spread it on with a spoon
Decorate with jelly lemon slices and yellow hundred and thousands, or any sprinkles of your choice
Store in an airtight container in a cool place and eat within 3 days

Make sure all your ingredients (particularly the butter and eggs) are at room temperature before you start baking.
For the best flavour, make sure to use a good quality lemon extract and not an essence.
I used a baking spread for the cupcakes and unsalted butter for the buttercream.
If you would like to make your own lemon curd for the cupcakes, check out my Homemade Lemon Curd recipe.
I used lemon jelly sweets and yellow sprinkles to decorate these cupcakes. You could drizzle them with lemon curd, decorate with lemon zest, leave them plain, or get creative and decorate in another way.
Although I provide cup measurements, I highly recommend weighing your ingredients out using digital kitchen scales. It is the most accurate way to measure ingredients and will ensure the best results. Digital scales are very low cost and can be purchased for around £12 ($16.50).
For teaspoon (tsp) and tablespoon (tbsp) measurements, please use measuring spoons and not the type of spoons you eat with. Again this will ensure accuracy and provide the best results.