Lemon Sour Cream Cupcakes
These moist lemon sour cream cupcakes are the perfect dessert for lemon lovers! They are soft and delicious with a light lemon whipped cream cheese frosting. Keep them in mind for birthdays, showers, potlucks and more!
There are so many reasons to love these moist and lemony cupcakes. Just as with our orange cupcakes and pink champagne cupcakes, the sour cream in the cake batter adds richness and makes for a really nice texture. We're happy to add these to our collection of cupcake recipes!
Table of Contents
How to Make Lemon Sour Cream Cupcakes
You can find the full, printable recipe card further down in this post. Here is a quick look at our steps!
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, add paper cupcake liners to cupcake pan(s)
- Dry Ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt for 30 seconds. Set aside
- In another bowl, add these Wet Ingredients: lemon juice, lemon zest, vegetable oil, sour cream, vanilla extract and lemon extract Set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the softened butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each until the yellow of the yolk has blended.
- With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and wet/sour cream mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid). **If adding a touch of yellow coloring gel, you can do this at any time.
- Mix just until incorporated. Be careful not to over-mix.
- Next, scoop about ¼ cup cake batter into each cupcake liner (in the cupcake pans)
- Bake at 350 degrees for 14-16 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just few crumbs attached. We like to remove cupcakes immediately from the pans to prevent over-baking. Baking times can vary depending on pan & oven- check at 14 minutes to be on the safe side, but it may take a few minutes more.
- Makes about 24-28 cupcakes (approximately ¼ cup of batter per cupcake)
Lemon Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting
There are several different frostings that would be great with these lemon sour cream cupcakes (including our lemon cream cheese frosting and lemon buttercream).
Today, we are going with a light and delicious Lemon Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting!
This recipe combines homemade whipped cream with a mixture of softened cream cheese, fresh lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla, and lemon extract. You can also add a bit of yellow coloring gel if you'd like!
This frosting pipes great and behaves much like whipped cream but is slightly thicker because of the cream cheese.
Decorating and Storage
Decorate the cupcakes however you like! We kept things very simple with piped swirls and shells using a 2D piping tip. (You can visit our free tutorials on the basics of star tip piping as well as cupcake decorating for more ideas!)
Because of the cream cheese & whipped cream in the frosting, these lemon sour cream cupcakes need to be refrigerated (in an airtight container, under a cake dome, or in a sealed bakery box). **However, for the best flavor and texture, remove the cupcakes about an hour or so before serving. This will give them a chance to warm and soften.
More Lemon Cakes
We love lemon desserts and have made many lemon cakes and cupcakes over the years! Some of our favorites are our Lemon Coconut Cupcakes, Lemon Velvet Cake, Limoncello Cake, and Lemon Pound Cake.
We also have another recipe for Lemon Cupcakes that uses buttermilk rather than sour cream. So many choices! Make sure to check out our full collection of cupcake recipes as well!
Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
Lemon Sour Cream Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 ½ sticks (170g) unsalted butter softened (holds it shape but dents when pressed)
- 2 cups (400g) sugar
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract (4g)
- 4 eggs, room temperature (If in a hurry, place eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.)
- 3 cups cake flour (342g) (We use Swan's Down)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder (8g)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda (3g)
- ½ teaspoon salt (3g)
- 1 tablespoon lemon extract (8g)
- zest of two lemons
- 1 cup Sour Cream ( 242g) (Full fat is best)
- ⅓ cup juice from 1-2 lemons
- ¼ cup vegetable oil (54g) We use Canola Oil
- Yellow Coloring Gel (optional)
Lemon Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 oz cream cheese softened (full fat)
- 1¼ cup powdered sugar measure then sift
- 1½ cups heavy whipping cream (348g)
- 1½ Tablespoons lemon juice (18g)
- zest of one lemon (adjust amount to your liking)
- ½ teaspoon lemon extract, optional (2g)
- Yellow Coloring Gel optional
Instructions
For the Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, add paper cupcake liners to cupcake pan(s)
- In a medium bowl, whisk the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt for 30 seconds. Set aside
- In another bowl, add these wet ingredients: ⅓ cup lemon juice, lemon zest, vegetable oil, sour cream, vanilla extract and lemon extract Set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the softened butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each until the yellow of the yolk has blended.
- With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and wet/sour cream mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid). **If adding a touch of yellow coloring gel, you can do this at any time.
- Mix just until incorporated. Be careful not to over-mix.
- Scoop about ¼ cup cake batter into each cupcake liner (in the cupcake pans)
- Bake at 350 degrees for 14-16 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just few crumbs attached. We like to remove cupcakes immediately from the pans to prevent over-baking. Baking times can vary depending on pan & oven- check at 14 minutes to be on the safe side, but it may take a few minutes more.
- Makes about 24-28 cupcakes (approximately ¼ cup of batter per cupcake)
Lemon Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting
- Freeze your mixing bowl and beaters 15 minutes before whipping the cream. Use the whisk attachment if using a stand mixer, or beaters on your hand mixer.
- Beat the cream on medium high to high speed until stiff peaks form. You are at the stiff peak stage when you lift the beater and the cream stands straight up forming a peak. Keep in the refrigerator while completing the next step.
- In another bowl combine the softened cream cheese, powdered sugar, lemon juice, lemon extract, and lemon zest. Mix until very smooth. (If using coloring gel, you can add at any time.)
- Gently fold/mix the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture (or vice versa)- you can do this step with a spatula as we did today, or you can use a mixer on the lowest speed. Mix just until combined. Cover and refrigerate.
Assembly
- Once the cupcakes have cooled, decorate however you like! You can use an offset spatula to apply the frosting or you can pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes using your piping tips of choice. We used a 2D large star piping tip.
Refrigeration
- Because of the cream cheese frosting, these lemon sour cream cupcakes need to be refrigerated in an airtight container or under a cake dome. However, for the very best flavor and texture, it is important to remove the cupcakes from the refrigerator a couple of hours before serving. This will allow plenty of time for the cupcakes to warm and soften.
Can this be made into a layer cake? If so what size?
Hi Marsha- Yes, I don't see why not! It makes about 7 cups which would be enough for three 8 inch cake layers (or two thicker 8 or 9 inch layers).
This is very similar to our Lemon Sour Cream Layer Cake recipe if you'd like to check that out also. I'll link it below.
If you'd like to still use the lemon whipped cream cheese frosting, I would double the recipe for a layer cake (if using it as both a filling & frosting).
https://www.mycakeschool.com/lemon-sour-cream-cake/
Delicious! :-) Very pretty too! :-)
Devious love lemon anything