It’s Spring!! Longer days and warmer temps are a welcome sight. Time to shake off any winter blues and start the season off right with some fresh Honey Lemon Cupcakes.
I don’t know about you guys but I’m excited and ready to get back outside and enjoy that extra hour of sunshine. With spring in sight I was inspired to make these cupcakes with flavors that seemed fitting for the new season. I decided to start with a bright citrus for two reasons. #1. To me any citrus really feels appropriate for warmer months. #2. I really just wanted a reason to use these home grown Meyer lemons I recently came across! So I began browsing my many cookbooks and found this recipe from Joy the Baker’s cookbook. It seemed to have a nice contrast between the tart lemon and the sweet honey. A wonderful meld of two springtime favorites, exactly what I was looking for.
The cupcake itself had a firm and slightly crumbly texture and a subtle blend of both the lemon and honey flavors. For me the honey was a reminder of a sweetened cornbread type taste but with that extra hint of lemon. While the cupcake is tasty on it’s own the real treasure is topping it with a honey and lemon cream cheese frosting! Oh yeah!
A few things I noticed while making these. The cream cheese and honey keep this frosting quite soft. So I recommend letting the frosting firm up in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to an hour if you can, especially if you’re planning to pipe it on. Trust me, I had a little meltdown situation happening…not cool. Also, I filled my cupcake tin about 2/3 full and found that they rose a lot while baking. I would lessen the amount of batter in each cupcake to between 1/2 and 2/3 full, or else you’ll end up with little muffin tops like I did!
Honey Lemon Cupcakes
- Yield: 24 1x
Description
A bright and sweet cupcake topped with the creamiest honey lemon cream cheese frosting.
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup plus 2 TBS unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 TBS grated lemon zest
- 1/4 cup honey
- 4 large eggs
- 2/3 cup buttermilk
- 2 TBS fresh lemon juice
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Frosting
- 2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
- 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened
- 1/3 cup honey
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
- 3 TBS fresh lemon juice
- 6–7 cups sifted powdered sugar
- 3–4 TBS whole milk
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line 2 cupcake pans with liners.
- In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a small pan melt butter and cook until it begins to crackle and pop, about 3 minutes. On medium low heat continue to cook the butter until it forms brown solids on bottom of pan and becomes fragrant. Immediately transfer the butter and brown solids to a small bowl and let cool.
- In an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the brown butter, sugar, lemon zest, and honey. Add the eggs, one at a time. Add half of the flour mixture and beat on low speed until just incorporated. Add buttermilk, lemon juice, and vanilla and beat together. Add remaining flour mixture and beat until combined.
- Fill cupcake pans between 1/2-2/3 full. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
- Let cool in pans for 20 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
- Frost with honey lemon cream cheese frosting.
Frosting
- In an electric mixer, with the paddle attachment, beat cream cheese and butter together until well incorporated. Add the honey, vanilla, and salt and mix well. Add lemon zest and juice, mix. Turn off mixer and add 2 cups powdered sugar, then slowly mix. With mixer on low speed gradually add more sugar, alternately with the milk, until you reach the desired consistency. Beat on medium speed a few minutes more until frosting is smooth and fluffy.
Notes
- Store in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
- If piping on frosting, let sit in the fridge for 30-60 minutes to firm up. This will make for easier piping as the frosting is very soft.
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