Easy Lemon Cupcakes Recipe

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These Easy Lemon Cupcakes may start with a box, but they get zing and zip from yogurt and lemon added to the mix. They are simple and delicious!

I confess. I’m not the best plain from-scratch cake baker. I can do carrot cake and zucchini cake and banana cake like nobody’s business. Even pumpkin cake. But cakes that don’t have added fruit or veg in them. Somehow that’s hard for me.

I’m hoping to reform my ways soon, now that I have this book, but in the meantime, my family prefers it when I buy a box. True story.

I call it cake cheating.

But, over the years, I’ve realized that doctoring up a cake mix makes me feel a little better. I can add butter, yogurt, sour cream, and extra flavorings to elevate a regular old cake mix and feel like I’m putting a little more effort into the experience.

These Easy Lemon Cupcakes may start with a box, but they get all dressed up with yogurt and lemon zest. Take them over the top with some of this Lemon Buttercream Frosting. Yum!

Lemon Buttercream Frosting

We are almost on the eve of the FishMama Trifecta. Mother’s Day, our anniversary and my birthday, fall in a 19-day period this year, with a kid birthday in the middle of it. June brings two more kid birthdays and Father’s Day, so you can imagine that we’ll be eating a fair amount of cake!

Our May Birthday Boy has already requested these easy lemon cupcakes — baked into cake form. If you want to do the same, just adjust the baking time, according to the directions on your cake mix.

These tools make this recipe EASY:

USA muffin tins – these pans are AMAZING!
unbleached parchment muffin papers – LOVE these.
microplane zester – a wonder. I’ve had mine for 15 years!

Easy Lemon Cupcakes

These Easy Lemon Cupcakes may start with a box, but they get zing and zip from yogurt and lemon added to the mix. They are simple and delicious!

Preparation Time:10 minutes
Cook time:25 minutes
Total time:35 minutes
24 cupcakes
Ingredients:

1 package yellow cake mix
1 cup plain, non-fat yogurt
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup oil
3 eggs
zest of one lemon
1-2 batches Lemon Buttercream Frosting, optional

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 °. Line 2 muffin pans with cupcake papers.
Combine the cake mix, yogurt, water, oil, eggs, and lemon zest in a large mixing bowl. Blend 2 minutes with an electric mixer until smooth.
Spoon the batter into the prepared cupcake papers. Bake according to package directions. Cool completely on a rack.
Frost cooled cupcakes with lemon buttercream, if desired.

Make these cupcakes extra fun with these Mother’s Day Cake Toppers!

About Jessica Fisher

I believe great meals don't have to be complicated or expensive. There's a better way, and it won't take all afternoon.

Comments

Jennifer says
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I doctor cake mixes too. Have just never put the effort into making good “from scratch” cakes. It is an entirely different skill than muffin/quick breads, yeast breads, etc. My compromise is making the icing. That fluffy old fashioned flour frosting that acts like whipped cream, or the cooked fudge icing. Come to think of it, neither of those use powdered sugar. Small children and a house outside of town may have influenced my tastes : ) One of my favorites is the deep dark fudgy cooked icing that starts like pudding. Yum… I may need to bake something.
- Diana says
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  Are you talking about that frosting where you cook milk and flour and beat butter (and some other things) into it? That stuff is amazing on a chocolate cake! We call it “whipped cream icing” and it’s the regular pick for birthday cakes in my mom’s house 🙂 I’ve never met anyone else who has had that recipe! And your cooked icing that starts like pudding sounds incredible too.
  - Jennifer says
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    That is the one! My grandma shared the recipe a long time ago. Her mom used it to top carrot cake. It is the official birthday cake topping. The chocolate pudding-y icing is its polar opposite in a lot of ways, but it is another one that isn’t TOO terribly sweet and doesn’t need powdered sugar. http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/glossyfrosting.htm
    - Diana says
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      OH. MY. I have to make that, and soon 🙂 Thanks for sharing! Sounds so easy and I love that it goes on a warm cake too. Yum.
      Funny–my grandma shared it with my mom (it must be a previous generation thing?), and her recipe included the instructions to “cream good.” Now we always joke, “Did you cream it good enough?!”
- Jessica Fisher says
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  I recently read an article about the different kinds of buttercream. I’m thinking yours falls under “ermine frosting” http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/12/buttercreams-frosting-how-to-make-the-best-buttercream-icing-cupcakes-swiss-buttercream-italian-german-styles.html
Diana says
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The only cake I can do from scratch is the Wacky Cake (it goes by a million names) that is basically a glorified muffin. It uses baking soda and vinegar as the leavener and oil for the fat, so there’s no creaming or folding in egg whites.
It turns out the best if I used bleached flour (I KNOW! but the protein content is actually less (or something) so it doesn’t bake up as tough. look it up. cake flour would be even better.) and put the flour and cocoa through a fine mesh strainer (in lieu of a sifter). Then you just stir in the sugar, poke holes for the liquids, and stir it up. It’s perfect for people with dairy and egg sensitivities too 🙂
Your lemon cake sounds just perfect for spring! I bet the yogurt makes it especially refreshing 🙂
- Jessica Fisher says
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  Did not know that the flour mattered in a wacky cake. Interesting.
Amber says
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Would full fat yogurt work in this recipe?
- Jessica Fisher says
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  Definitely.