Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes

Why You´ll Love These Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes?

• they are full of fresh lemon and raspberry flavor
• they look beautiful
• the light cream cheese frosting makes them a perfect summer dessert
• you can substitute raspberries for any other fruit
• you can make them a day ahead
• they can be enjoyed the whole year around, as they don´t call for fresh raspberries

Looking for some more Cupcake ideas? Check out my:

• Ganache-filled Brownie Cupcakes
• Lemon Berry Cupcakes

What You´ll Need to Make These Cupcakes?

For the lemon cupcakes:

• All-purpose Flour
• Sugar
• Eggs
• Starch
• Oil
• Milk
• Lemon Juice
• Baking Powder

To make these lemon-flavored cupcakes, you will start by beating the eggs with sugar until the mixture becomes pale and fluffy. After that, combine the wet (except for the hot water with lemon juice) and the dry ingredients separately and add them alternately to the egg and sugar mixture. Lastly, add the hot water with lemon juice. Pour the batter into the cupcake pan (don´t forget the paper cups!). Try not to overfill the cups, because the cupcakes will rise in the oven. Bake them at 180 C until the toothpick comes out clean. Leave them to cool down.

For the raspberry filling:

• Raspberries (I used frozen raspberries)
• Sugar

Cook the raspberries with sugar until they fall apart. Strain the mixture to get rid of the seeds. Cook some more until it thickens (it shouldn´t be as thick as a normal jam but it also shouldn´t be liquid). The amount of the filling you get will be enough to fill the cupcakes, make the frosting and use as a decoration on top.

I like making my own filling as it makes it easier to adjust the texture and the sugar amount. That being said, if you want to speed up the process and don´t feel like standing in the kitchen for too long, you can just use a store-bought raspberry jam. Just keep in mind that you should opt for a runnier version. If you already have a raspberry jam that has that jello-like consistency, try adding some hot water to it and mix until it gets softer.

For the frosting:

• Cream Cheese
• Heavy Cream
• Raspberry Filling
• vanilla sugar
• powdered gelatine

For the frosting beat cream cheese with vanilla sugar and jam until it becomes creamy. In the other bowl beat heavy cream until soft peaks form. In the meantime prepare the gelatine as the package says. I had powdered gelatine that must be mixed with water and set aside for a couple of minutes (you can use any other type of gelatine you´d like). After that, you will melt the gelatine in the microwave and add a Tbsp of your whipped heavy cream to it. Mix until incorporated. Add the gelatine mixture to the cream cheese and mix fast so the clumps don´t start to form. Once it´s nice and incorporated, add the whipped cream and mix until it thickens a bit.
Important: Frosting that uses gelatine always has to be piped immediately after it´s made, because once the gelatine sets, you won´t be able to pipe it nicely. So, pipe the frosting immediately and then put your raspberry lemon cupcakes in the fridge to set. Once they are set you can use the remaining filling for decoration, as I did.

How to Store Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes?

Lemon Raspberry cupcakes should be stored in the fridge. The usual recommendation for this type of dessert is to keep it no longer than 3 days, but let´s face it, if you still have some left after 3 days: Congratulations on your self-control! :) You can serve these cupcakes directly from the fridge, as they contain no butter that has to soften before serving.