These soft and moist lemon poppy seed cupcakes are topped with a lemon poppy seed buttercream! You can fill them with lemon curd. These are perfect for Spring, Summer and citrus season!
Preheat the oven to 350°Fahrenheit/175°Celsius and line a cupcake pan with liners. This recipe makes 10-11 cupcakes.
First mix the sugar with the lemon zest, use your hands or a whisk to do this to help get the zest oils out into the sugar. Whisk until the sugar turns a very pale yellow.
¾ cup granulated sugar, zest of 1 lemon
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with hand mixer, beat the butter with the oil and lemon sugar until fluffy. It takes about 2-3 minutes.
2 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter, 2 tablespoons neutral oil
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
2 large eggs
Mix in the vanilla extract, lemon extract (if using) and lemon juice.
In a separate bowl, whisk the flour with the baking powder, salt and poppy seeds.
1 ⅛ cup all purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ¾ teaspoon kosher salt, 1 ½ teaspoons poppy seeds
Alternate adding the flour mixture and the buttermilk, starting and ending with the flour mixture.
½ cup buttermilk
Using a cookie scoop, scoop out the cupcake batter into the prepared cupcake pan, filling them ¾ of the way.
Bake in the preheated oven for 20-24 minutes. Let them cool for 10 minutes in the pan before removing to cool completely on a wire cooling rack.
If you want to fill them with lemon curd, let the cupcakes cool completely. Once cooled, use the wide end of a large piping tip to carve out a hole in each cupcake. Spoon or pipe in lemon curd.
lemon curd
Frosting
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter and confectioners' sugar together on low speed until well combined.
1 cup unsalted butter, 3 cups confectioners' sugar
Increase the speed to medium-high and beat for 2 minutes until it becomes very thick.
Stop the mixer and add the salt, vanilla, and lemon juice into the bowl. Beat on medium-high speed for another 2 minutes. Mix in the poppy seeds
Turn the mixer to your lowest speed and pour in the heavy cream. Beat until it becomes very creamy and spreadable. Note, you might not need all of the heavy cream! Frost your cooled cupcakes!
¼ cup heavy cream
Video
Notes
My recipes have been developed and tested in metric grams. I highly recommend using a weighing scale and measuring out your ingredients the metric way. Just click on ‘metric’ above ingredients. Room Temperature: I make sure that all of my ingredients are at room temperature before I start the recipe, so pull out all of the ingredients before you start baking.Mini Cupcakes: Use the same recipe and bake in a mini cupcake pan. This will make around 30 cupcakes. Bake for just 9-12 minutes. Oil: use a neutral oil like sunflower, canola or vegetable oil. You don't want anything with a strong taste! Butter: I use European-style butter in my recipes. This will make your frosting much creamier and richer.Salt: If you don’t have kosher salt, halve the amount of salt called for in the recipe. 1 teaspoon kosher salt = ½ teaspoon fine salt. I am using Diamond Crystal kosher salt and not Morton Salt which is much too salty! Storage: keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Let come to room temperature before enjoying.