Lemon Buttermilk Cupcakes. Now includes regular and high-altitude recipes!
It’s getting warm here in Colorado. I’ll spend the early morning out in the garden, pulling the %#@& grass that loves to infiltrate my flower beds. While I was working this morning, I was thinking about what I wanted to make for an upcoming barbecue party. I settled on Lemon Buttermilk Cupcakes. A nice lemon buttermilk cake seems cool and refreshing, and I had a feeling the party could wind up feeling a little toasty.
After searching, I settled on Lemon Buttermilk Cupcakes.
I’ve came across the use of lemon with buttermilk a number of times, which seemed a bit strange at first. Both are fairly acidic, but the added fat of buttermilk balances with the sugar very well, creating a cake with a creamy texture, but leaving a genuine citrus tang on the tongue. To balance this even further, I coupled my cupcakes with a lemon cream-cheese frosting, but you could easily pair them with a lemon buttercream, too.
I found some decent recipes online (as you are doing right now.) But very rarely do I find one that doesn’t need to be adjusted for fat/sugar balance, moisture and leavening. A huge number of cake recipes out there are overleavened, and here in Colorado, that’s a huge problem. I run all my recipes through my balancing spreadsheet and make the adjustments to correct for improper ratios.
What are the correct ratios for a cake recipe? Here’s what I use (from Bakewise, by Shirley O. Corriher):
- Weight of Sugar = or > Weight of Flour (Ideal is 25% for white, 80% for chocolate)
- Weight of Eggs > Weight of Fat (Ideal is 10%)
- Weight of Liquid = or > Weight of Sugar
The very best baking book, Bakewise, by Shirley O. Corriher. Click on the photo to buy it now, new or used, from Alibris:
To get all the proportions right, I use an Excel spreadsheet to feed in the recipe info as it stands, and then I adjust based on my own experience and taste preferences. For example, in this recipe the liquid weight was too low for my high-altitude version, so I adjusted it using leftover lemon juice.
Lemon Buttermilk Cake and Cupcakes
Ingredients
Lemon Buttermilk Cupcakes
- 2 1/4 cups Cake Flour
- 2 1/4 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 1/2 cups Buttermilk
- 5 lg Egg Whites
- 1 2/3 cups Sugar
- Zest from 2 lemons See notes on how to zest a lemon
- 8 tbsp Butter cut into chunks
- 1 tsp Natural Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 tsp Natural Lemon Extract
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- 4 oz Butter Room temperature
- 8 oz Cream Cheese Room temperature
- 4 cups Powdered Sugar
- 1 tsp Natural Vanilla Extract
- Lemon juice From the zested lemons above
Instructions
- Set up 24 cupcake liners in cupcake tins, or grease and flour 2, 9″ cake rounds.
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- In a large bowl (not the mixing bowl), whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg whites and buttermilk.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the sugar and lemon zest and whisk together until combined.
- Add the butter and beat until light – about 4 or even 5 minutes (this takes a while)
- Add the extracts and combine
- Starting with the flour mixture, add about 1/3 and mix until blended. Add about 1/2 the buttermilk/egg mixture and blend smooth. Add dry and wet ingredients in this way, alternating and ending with flour mixture.
- For Cupcakes: When the batter is well-blended, fill your cupcake liners about 2/3 with batter. (I use an ice-cream scoop).
- For Cake: When the batter is well-blended, fill your pans with cake batter. I use a scale to get the batter evenly divided.
- For Cupcakes: Bake in your preheated oven on the center rack for 18 to 22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a center cupcake comes out clean. The cupcakes will not brown much, so don’t overbake!
- For Cake: Bake in your preheated oven on the center rack for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The cake will not brown much, so don’t overbake!
- Remove from oven and cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cream together the butter and cream cheese.
- Add the vanilla and beat until blended.
- Add about 1/2 the sugar and drape a light tea towel or cheesecloth over your mixer. Blend in the sugar on the lowest setting for a few seconds, remove the towel and blend until incorporated. Repeat.
- The frosting will be pretty stiff at this point. Add 1 tsp of lemon juice at a time and blend until you get the spreading consistency you prefer. I used 3 tsp of lemon juice.
Video
Notes
Here is the high-altitude (above 3,000 ft) version of my Lemon Buttermilk Cake and Cupcakes Recipe.
Lemon Buttermilk Cake and Cupcakes (High Altitude Version)
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups plus 2 tbsp Cake Flour (300 g)
- 1 1/4 tsp Baking Powder for 5280 ft. (1600 meters)
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 1/2 cups Buttermilk
- 5 lg Egg Whites
- 1 2/3 cups less 1 1/2 tbsp Sugar (360 g)
- Zest from 2 lemons
- 2 tbsp Lemon Juice from zested lemons
- 8 tbsp Butter cut into chunks
- 1 tsp Natural Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 tsp Natural Lemon Extract
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- 4 oz Unsalted Butter (1 stick, softened)
- 8 oz Cream Cheese (room temperature)
- 4 cups Powdered Sugar
- 1 tsp Natural Vanilla Extract
- Lemon Juice
Instructions
Lemon Buttermilk Cupcakes
- Measure out ingredients, remembering to ADD the additional cake flour and SUBTRACT the sugar. This and adjusting the baking powder are critical in making this recipe work at high-altitude.
- For Cupcakes: Set up 24 cupcakes liners in cupcake tins.For Cake: Grease and flour 2 9″ cake rounds.
- Preheat oven to 370F (190C).
- In a large bowl (or the mixing bowl), whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg whites and buttermilk until frothy.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the sugar and lemon zest and whisk together until combined.
- Add the butter and beat into the sugar until light and fluffy – and 4 or 5 minutes (this takes a while, take the time you need.)
- Add the extracts and lemon juice and combine.
- Starting with the flour mixture, add about 1/3 and mix until blended. Add about 1/2 the buttermilk/egg mixture and blend again. Add dry and wet ingredients in this way, alternating and ending with the flour.
- For Cupcakes: When the batter is well-blended, fill your cupcake liners about 2/3 with batter. (I use an ice-cream scoop).
- For Cake: When the batter is well-blended, divide the batter and fill the pans. I use a scale to get the amounts evenly divided.
- For Cupcakes: Bake in your preheated oven on the center rack for 16-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a center-oven cupcake comes out clean. The cupcakes will not brown much, so don’t overbake!
- For Cake: Bake in your preheated oven on the center rack for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The cake will not brown much, so don’t overbake!
- Remove from oven and cool in the pan for about five minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cream together the butter and cream cheese.
- Add the vanilla and beat until blended.
- Add about 1/2 the sugar and drape a light tea towel or cheesecloth over your mixer. Blend in the sugar on the lowest setting for a few seconds, remove the towel and blend until incorporated. Repeat.
- The frosting will be pretty stiff at this point. Add 1 tsp of lemon juice at a time and blend until you get the spreading consistency you prefer. 1 used 3 tsp of lemon juice.
Notes
For the very best lemon flavor, you need a quality lemon extract. I like this version from Watkins:
Trust the flavor of Watkins Extracts
Watkins Extracts deliver pure flavor made from natural flavors in trend-forward flavors. They are perfect for desserts, drinks and more!
- No Artificial Colors
- Non-GMO Certified*
- No Corn Syrup
- Gluten Free
- Made in the U.S.A.
*Watkins products are certified as Non-GMO as of 08/13/17 with certification ID: C0250498-NGMOHNG-2
Leave me a note if you give it a try.
And if you liked these, take a look at another show-stopping cupcake: Coconut Cream Cupcakes. All-natural and packed with coconut flavor.
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These are very pretty and look yummy. Did you sprinkle some type of sugar on the top? I didn’t see any mention of it in the recipe.
Good point – I didn’t mention that. I simply mixed some granulated sugar with about a teaspoon of grated lemon rind and squished it together with my fingers. I then sprinkled a little fingerful over the cupcakes.