Lemon Cupcakes
One of hubby’s coworkers, George, has been asking for Lemon cupcakes ever since I made these lemon cookies. Hubby and I both weren’t huge fans of the cookies, but George LOVED them.
After the January DB challenge, I had about a cup or so of leftover lemon curd. I could have eaten it all with a spoon, but I figured I could mix them into a cupcake instead.
I used the vanilla cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World and added about 3/4 cup of lemon curd to the batter at the end. Then I put a teaspon of lemon curd directly on top of the cooled cupcakes. Last, I topped them with cool-whip frosting with the rest of the lemon curd mixed into it. I also threw some lemon zest into the frosting for texture.
These cupcakes were great. The lemon flavor was subtle and the cool-whip frosting balanced the flavors well. The recipe made 14 cupcakes, 12 of which went to work with hubby. He reported back that George ate 4 and said that he loves me 🙂
Lemon Cupcakes – adapted from Vanilla cupcakes from Vegan Cupcakes Take over The World – makes 14
1 cup soy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp cornstarch
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup non-hydrogenated margarine, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extrat, caramel extract, or more vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 and line muffin pan with cupcake liners.
Whisk the soy milk and vinegar in a measuring cup and set aside a few minutes to get good and curdled.
Sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl and mix.
In a separate large bowl, use a handheld mixer at medium speed to cream the margarine and sugar for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy, but don’t beat past 2 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and other extract, if using, then alternate beating in the soy milk mixture and dry ingredients, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl a few times.
I then folded in 3/4 cup of lemon curd.
Fill cupcake liners two-thirds of the way and bake for 20-22 minutes until done. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely before frosting.
Cool-Whip frosting – not sure of the original recipe, but here’s what I did:
1 tub Cool Whip
1 pkg vanilla pudding
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup lemon curd
2 tsp lemon zest
Combine pudding mix and milk and stir until mostly dissolved. Add remaining ingredients and stir until combined.
To Assemble cupcakes:
After cupcakes have cooled, scoop 1 tsp of lemon curd onto the top of each cupcake. Spread lemon curd with a knife to cover top of cupcake.
Pipe frosting on top of lemon curd.
Sprinkle with yellow sugar.






I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 






These are so adorable! A friend once made me margarita cupcakes for a birthday, but I love the sound of all the coconut.
I love this cupcakes week!!!!! And even Pina-colada cupcakes…..ciao, Flavia
these look incredible! I am LOVING cupcake week!
These make me crave a warm summer day.
This sounds like a fun, summery cupcake recipe! Love it!
Mmm these look awesome! But where’s the rum?
Tell me about it! I’m not excited about the rain/snow we’re supposed to get tonight and tomorrow.
Good point! They have the flavors of a pina colada without the alcohol. If you wanted to add some rum, I’d throw it into the filling.
I’d like one of these cupcakes along with a pina colada on the beach!
I’ve really been into “booze” cupcake lately and yours looks fantastic! Perfect for a luau or a summer pool party!
Those are truly beautiful cupcakes! I love Pina Coladas and I love cupcakes so…
These are so beautiful! Eating one of these would bring me back to Hawaii 🙂
Ooohhh Hawaii sounds awesome right about now. I’ve never been.
oh my gosh, those look adorable, and i love the flavor combo, too!!
Very nice! May I ask how you set the background for your cupcake pics? The solid colors really bring attention to the cupcakes themselves.
For the majority of my cupcakes, I use a piece 12×12 scrap-booking paper for my backgrounds. I have a big stack of a variety of colors and patterns.
Thank you 🙂 .
I love the garnishes on the top, they looke exactly like little poolside drinks. I have been wanting to try a cocktail-like cake since I went to “cupcake happy hour” at Kickass Cupcakes in Davis Square. Have you ever been there? Because if you haven’t you must go and try their mojito!
I have been to Kickass before during the Cupcake Crawl I hosted a couple years ago. In fact, we even tasted the mojito cupcake while we were there.
Such creative finishing touches to a perfectly delightful cupcake.