These lemon poppy seed cupcakes are light and fluffy with loads of tangy lemon flavor and crunchy poppy seeds. Topped with a lemon buttercream frosting.
Lemon desserts are the best. The tang from the lemon offsets the sweetness so perfectly, it’s like a match made in heaven.
These lemon poppy seed cupcakes have all that tangy lemony flavor you’re looking for, in a perfect little package of delicious. They’re light, fluffy, flavorful and the poppy seeds look so pretty too.
They’re also extremely easy to make and use oil instead of butter for a really moist and perfect result.
And if you love lemon desserts as much as we do, then you’ll also love our lemon cookies, lemon meringue pie, eggless lemon cake and lemon pie.
And for more delicious cupcakes try our vanilla cupcakes, cinnamon cupcakes and chocolate orange cupcakes.
Ingredients For The Cupcakes:
Ingredient Notes
- Lemon extract – adds all the lemon flavor you could dream of! If you don’t have it, you can just use lemon juice and the lemon zest will still bring a very nice amount of lemon flavor, but lemon extract is highly recommended.
- Lemon zest – make sure that when you’re zesting your lemons that you only grate the yellow outer part of the lemon. Don’t grate too far into the lemon or you’ll hit the pith, which is white and bitter and doesn’t have that lemon flavor. Your zest should be bright and yellow.
- Canola oil – can be switched with vegetable oil.
- Homemade buttermilk – we used our homemade buttermilk recipe, which is a mix of lemon juice and room temperature milk. If you have real buttermilk on hand, then you can also go ahead and use that.
Ingredients For The Lemon Buttercream Frosting:
Frosting Ingredient Notes
- Butter – can be unsalted or salted, it really will not make any big difference. We used lightly salted butter. If you use unsalted then you may want to add ⅛ teaspoon of salt or to taste.
- Lemon extract – brings all the lemon flavor. If you don’t have it, switch it for extra lemon juice.
- Milk – can be any milk, whole milk or low fat milk or whatever you have on hand or switch it for heavy cream.
- Lemon juice – should ideally be freshly squeezed for the best flavor.
How To Make Lemon Poppy Seed Cupcakes
Full instructions and measurements can always be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
Cupcakes:
- Sift all purpose flour into a mixing bowl and add white granulated sugar, baking soda, salt and poppy seeds. Mix together.
- Prepare your homemade buttermilk by adding 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to a measuring jug and then adding room temperature milk up to the ¾ cup (180ml) line. Let it sit for a couple of minutes to curdle into buttermilk.
- Add the buttermilk, oil, egg, vanilla extract, lemon extract and lemon zest and mix it into a batter. Don’t overmix.
- Divide the batter evenly between 12 cupcake liners.
- Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cupcakes comes out clean.
- Transfer the cupcakes to a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
Frosting:
- Add softened butter to the bowl of your stand mixer. Start at slow speed and gradually increase speed. Let it whip until your butter is smooth and slightly pale in color.
- Add powdered sugar, lemon extract, milk and lemon juice and beat for a few minutes until the frosting is very fluffy and smooth.
- When the cupcakes have cooled completely, pipe on the frosting.
Baker’s Tips
Spoon and level the flour. If you accidentally use too much flour in these cupcakes, they will be dense and dry. If you ever scoop your flour then you are assured of using way too much! So the best way to measure flour by volume is to spoon it into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife. Don’t pack it into the cup, just spoon it and level. If you have a food scale, then an even better way to do it is simply to weigh it out on your food scale.
Don’t overmix the batter. Overmixing can over-activate the gluten in the flour, making the cupcakes dense. For light and fluffy cupcakes, mix until just mixed and then stop mixing. This is also why it’s important to mix your batter by hand and not in the stand mixer.
Softened butter. It’s ideal if your butter is softened before you make your frosting, but one thing I always do is forget to take it out of the fridge. Or I just decide to make cupcakes on the spur of the moment! If this happens and you don’t have time to wait for butter to soften, simply cut it into cubes and let it beat in your stand mixer for an extra couple of minutes to soften, before you add your other ingredients.
Storing and Freezing
Keep your cupcakes in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days or in the fridge for up to a week. Let them come to room temperature before enjoying.
They are freezer friendly, either frosted or unfrosted for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge and then bring to room temperature before enjoying.
More Delicious Cupcake Recipes
- Espresso Cupcakes
- Carrot Cake Cupcakes
- Red Velvet Cupcakes
- Chocolate Cupcakes
- Pumpkin Cupcakes
- Biscoff Cupcakes
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below.
Lemon Poppy Seed Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups All Purpose Flour (218g)
- 1 cup White Granulated Sugar (200g)
- 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- 2 Tablespoons Poppy Seeds
- ¾ cup Homemade Buttermilk (180ml) or Real Buttermilk*
- ⅓ cup Canola Oil (80ml) or Vegetable Oil
- 1 Large Egg
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 2 teaspoons Lemon Extract
- 1 Tablespoon Lemon Zest
Lemon Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup Butter (230g) Lightly Salted, Softened*
- 4 cups Powdered Sugar (480g)
- 2 teaspoons Lemon Extract
- 2 Tablespoons Milk or Heavy Cream
- 2 Tablespoons Lemon Juice Freshly Squeezed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and line a cupcake tray with 12 cupcake liners.
- Sift all purpose flour into a mixing bowl and add white granulated sugar, baking soda, salt and poppy seeds. Mix together.
- Prepare your homemade buttermilk by adding 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to a measuring jug and then adding room temperature milk up to the ¾ cup (180ml) line. Let it sit for a couple of minutes to curdle into buttermilk.
- Add the buttermilk, oil, egg, vanilla extract, lemon extract and lemon zest and mix it into a batter. Don't overmix.
- Divide the batter evenly between the 12 cupcake liners.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cupcakes comes out clean.
- Transfer the cupcakes to a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
Lemon Buttercream Frosting:
- Add softened butter to the bowl of your stand mixer. Start at slow speed and gradually increase speed. Let it whip until your butter is smooth and slightly pale in color.
- Add powdered sugar, lemon extract, milk and lemon juice and beat for a few minutes until the frosting is very fluffy and smooth.
- When the cupcakes have cooled completely, pipe on the frosting.
Notes
- Spoon and level the flour. If you accidentally use too much flour in these cupcakes, they will be dense and dry. The best way to measure it by volume is to spoon it into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife. Don’t scoop it and don’t pack it into the cup, just spoon it and level it with a knife. If you have a food scale, then an even better way to do it is simply to weigh it out on your food scale.
- Homemade buttermilk – we used our homemade buttermilk recipe, which is a mix of lemon juice and room temperature milk. If you have real buttermilk on hand, then you can also go ahead and use that.
- Lemon extract – adds all the lemon flavor you could dream of! If you don’t have it, you can just use lemon juice and the lemon zest will still bring a very nice amount of lemon flavor to the cupcakes, but lemon extract is highly recommended.
- Lemon zest – make sure that when you’re zesting your lemons that you only grate the yellow outer part of the lemon. Don’t grate too far into the lemon or you’ll hit the pith, which is white and bitter and doesn’t have that lemon flavor. Your zest should be bright and yellow.
- Butter – can be unsalted or salted, it really will not make any big difference. We used lightly salted butter. If you use unsalted then you may want to add ⅛ teaspoon of salt or to taste. It’s ideal if your butter is softened before you make your frosting but if you forget to take it out the fridge in time then simply cut it into cubes and beat it in your stand mixer for an extra couple of minutes to soften, before you add your other ingredients.
- Storing: Keep your cupcakes in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days or in the fridge for up to a week. Let them come to room temperature before enjoying.
- Freezing: They are freezer friendly, either frosted or unfrosted for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge and then bring to room temperature before enjoying.
- Nutritional information includes both cupcakes and frosting.
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