Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes taste just like spring, don’t you think? This easy cupcake recipe calls for fresh blueberries, lemons, and is topped with a delightful lemon cream cheese frosting!
If it still cold where you live — or if you’re reading this in the middle of summer and are wistful for those cooler spring days — this Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes recipe should whisk you right back to those breezy days. I know it does for me! I love the tart combination of lemons and blueberries – it’s why I also made this Lemon Blueberry Bread that’s great for breakfast or brunch. I mean I guess you could have these Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes for brunch too… but I think they’re more of a dessert thing.
One thing I love about this Lemon Blueberry Cupcake recipe is that you can make it at any time of the year, unlike, say, this Strawberry Rhubarb Galette. Of course, the cupcakes will be best in July when blueberries are at their peak, but they’re tasty even now. When half of the U.S. is a frozen tundra. If you don’t have access to fresh blueberries, you can find frozen blueberries at Ralphs (or your local Kroger subsidiary) in the freezer section. They graciously sponsored this post and it’s where I also picked up Simple Truth organic eggs and organic butter I needed to make these Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes!
Making Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes
I like lemon. Like, a lot. Like, I can literally eat a lemon like you would an orange. Maybe it’s because I ate too many Sour Patch Kids when I was growing up, but I have to really amp up the tartness in a recipe before it actually tastes like lemon to me. My taste testers don’t seem to mind the lemon-forward flavor, but you might want to start with a little less lemon juice if you often find lemon or lime recipes too tart.
To make sure the lemon flavor really came through, I used lemon juice and lemon zest. You’ll find that there are some recipes out there that call for lemon essence or lemon extract. I bought some to use in the recipe — I was going to swap out one teaspoon of the vanilla extract for 1/4 teaspoon of lemon — but I tasted the lemon blueberry cupcake batter before adding it and decided it was lemony enough on its own. I always taste the batter before I put it in the oven. Yes, I know it’s not the healthiest thing I could do, but it’s the only way to get a sense of what the final recipe will taste like before baking it and lets me know if I should make any tweaks.
A few things about the blueberries for these lemon blueberry cupcakes. First, if you don’t have access to fresh blueberries, use frozen ones! To prevent frozen blueberries from leaking juice into your cupcakes and turning them an unsightly shade of green, rinse the blueberries until the water runs clear, then dry them. Once they’re dry, you can add them to your batter like you would with the fresh berries. You’ll still likely get a little discoloration in your final lemon blueberry cupcakes, but not nearly as much as you would have otherwise.
Second, don’t bother tossing the blueberries in flour to prevent them from sinking. It doesn’t work. If you don’t want your blueberries to sink all the way to bottom, simply add a layer of blueberry-free batter to the bottom of each cupcake liner. Then, stir the blueberries to your batter and portion out your batter into the cupcake tins like you usually would.
When you are ready to fill the cupcake tins with your Lemon Blueberry Cupcake batter, make sure to fill them almost all the way to the top! Unlike my Red Velvet Cupcakes, these easy cupcakes are a little on the denser side which means they don’t rise as much. I would hate for you to have squat little cupcakes, so aim for filling them 3/4 of the way (or a smidgen higher).
Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes
Print Recipe
Ingredients
Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes
- 7 ounces cake flour ((approx. 2 cups))
- 1½ tsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. coarse kosher salt
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup unsalted organic butter (room temperature)
- 1 tsp. lemon zest (from one lemon)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- ¼ cup sour cream
- ¾ cup whole milk
- 3 Tbsp. lemon juice (fresh squeezed from 1 lemon)
- 1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- 10 Tbsp. unsalted organic butter (room temperature)
- 16 oz. cream cheese (cold)
- 2 Tbsp. sour cream
- ¼ cup lemon juice
- 2½ cups powdered sugar
Instructions
Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Line cupcake tins with 18 cupcake liners. Set aside.
- Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in small bowl. Set aside.
- Place butter, sugar, and lemon zest in bowl of stand mixer and beat on medium speed for 3 minutes or until light and fluffy.
- Add egg, let blend for 30 seconds. Add second egg.
- Add sour cream, milk, vanilla extract, and lemon juice. Let blend until fully combined.
- Turn speed to low and add flour mixture. Blend until just combined.
- Drop spoonfuls of batter into each cupcake liner. Add enough batter to coat bottom.
- Gently stir the blueberries into the batter mixture.
- Fill each of the cupcake liners 3/4 of the way with batter.
- Bake for 20-24 minutes or until cupcake tops bounce back.
- Remove from oven and let cool on cooling rack.
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- Beat butter for 30 seconds on medium high.
- Add cream cheese and beat for 90 seconds.
- Add lemon juice and sour cream. Beat for 30 seconds.
- Add powdered sugar and beat for 10 seconds on low. Turn speed to medium-high and beat for 80-90 seconds.
Notes
My background is in publishing (I've worked at Parade, Men's Journal, Us Weekly, Stuff, Blender, Beachbody, and more), mostly with a focus in health, fitness, and entertainment. I've also run my own baking company and competed on Cupcake Wars, so hit me up with your baking questions!
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These cupcakes look so good. I can just imagine serving these to friends over tea in a beautiful garden 🙂
Oh, these look perfect and kind of remind me of summer. The muffins look so delicate n would be great to serve for a weekend family brunch as treats 🙂
I’ve always been a fan of Blueberry and Lemon but I never thought of combining them! This is something new that I know I would love! I’m making this for my birthday!
Omgosh, these look divvvvine! I love lemon and blueberries together sooo much. And I love cupcakes too, so this combo is WINNING! Pinning right now…thanks!
These look amazing! I want one right now! Yummy!
This recipe is awesome! I just want to know if, instead of blueberry , can I put some Maraschino cherry?
Thank you! You might find the maraschino cherries make it a bit too sweet. If you decide to go for it, definitely make sure to rinse and dry them off as much as possible as they would otherwise add too much moisture to the batter. If you do make the lemon blueberry cupcakes with cherries, tag me on IG at (@letseatcakeblog) so I can see how they turn out!
I noticed you said approximately 2cups but 7 ounces of cake flour … but 7 ounces is almost a cup not 2 cups … so I’m confused as to how much cake flour I really need. 7 ounces (almost a cup) or almost 2 cups which is 15 ounces. Are you sifting flour as well?
Hi Alice! Sorry for the confusion! 7 ounces (in weight not volume) of cake flour is just shy of 2 cups. Sifting is preferred but not required. I use this tool for measurement conversions: https://www.traditionaloven.com/culinary-arts/flours/cake-flour/convert-ounce-to-measuring-cup-us.html
will these last till Sunday
if I make them on a Friday?
I would probably make them Saturday – they’ll last, but they might get a little tacky and won’t be nearly as good.
I’m looking forward to trying these lemon blueberry cupcakes!! Just curious though, why do you use cold cream cheese as opposed to room temperature?
I’m so happy to hear that! You want cold cream cheese (and, ideally, a cold metal mixing bowl) because it helps the cream cheese frosting hold its shape. When it becomes too warm in the mixing process, it gets soft and then doesn’t pipe nicely… and then sort of melts all over the cupcake. It’ll still taste good, though!
have you tried doubling this recipe? I will need to make close to 40 cupcakes for my daugther’s birthday.
Have you doubled this recipe? I will need to make ~ 40 cupcakes for my daugther’s birthday.
Have you doubled this recipe?
This looks delicious! Thank you for sharing!
Excellent moist cake and I love the sour cream added to it, however I wasn’t a fan of the frosting plus it made triple the amount I needed for 19 cupcakes. I ended up adding 1 tsp vanilla + 1 tbsp lemon zest, to tone down the taste of cream cheese, after doing that it was perfect to me, other people might love the cream cheese taste but I wasn’t a fan. overall I would make these again!
Glad you like the cake! The cream cheese frosting flavor is definitely amplified by the sour cream, and I’m sorry you weren’t a fan! In the future, they could go really well with a buttercream frosting.
I made these last night and they are very good but 16 oz of cream cheese created A LOT of frosting like way too much for the cupcakes I had so much leftover idk what to do with it. But they were overall very good I usually make chocolate recipes so this was a change
I’m so glad you like them! I put in that much frosting so people have enough to match the pictures 🙂 I’ll add a note to the recipe, though!
Looks delicious! Going to try them this weekend. Quick question… Do they freeze well? Thinking of making them today for Sunday. Thank you in advance.