Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

These Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes are light, fluffy, and flavorful! Moist strawberry cupcakes are filled and frosted with lemon whipped cream cheese frosting. Keep this delicious cupcake recipe in mind for spring and summer!

Ingredients

Here's a quick look at some of the key ingredients for our strawberry cupcakes and lemon whipped cream cheese frosting. You can find the full, printable recipe at the bottom of this post!

• Strawberry Puree- Fresh or frozen(thawed) strawberries work well in this recipe! No need to heat in a saucepan, just run them through a food processor or blender.
• Strawberry Extract (or powdered Strawberry Jello) For an added boost of strawberry flavor! Use 2 teaspoons of strawberry extract OR 2 tablespoons of powdered strawberry jello.
• Cake Flour has less protein than all purpose flour, which results in less gluten formation. This makes for a softer, more tender cake.
• Unsalted Butter We use softened, unsalted butter in this recipe. Using unsalted butter gives us more control over the amount of salt in the recipe. The butter should be softened just to the point that it easily dents when pressed.
• Sour Cream Adds richness and moisture to the cupcakes without thinning the cake batter.

For the Frosting

• Whipping cream or heavy cream
• Powdered sugar
• Lemon zest and lemon extract
• Softened cream cheese (full fat) adds richness and also helps to thicken the consistency of the frosting.

How to Make Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

For this recipe, we are pairing lemon whipped cream cheese frosting with our homemade strawberry cupcakes recipe. (If you prefer to work with doctored cake mix recipes, you can substitute our strawberry cupcakes from a box!)

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, line cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
• In a medium sized bowl, add these dry ingredients: cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Whisk to blend for 30 seconds.  Set aside.
• In another bowl combine these wet ingredients: sour cream, strawberry puree, strawberry extract and vegetable oil, blend and set aside.
• In the bowl of your mixer blend the butter until smooth. Gradually add the white sugar and mix on medium speed 3 to 5 minutes until fluffy and lightened in color. If using pink coloring gel, you can add it now or at any time during the mixing process.
• Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each until the yolk is blended
• With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and the sour cream mixture alternately, beginning and ending with the flour mixture (3 additions of dry ingredients, 2  additions of wet ingredients.)

• Mix just until combined. Scoop batter into cupcake pans that have been prepared with cupcake liners. We usually add about ¼ cup batter per cupcake.

• Bake at 350 degrees for 16-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. 
• These cupcakes will have very little to no dome, just as with the majority of our scratch cake and cupcake recipes.

For the Lemon Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

Today's recipe is the lemon version of our whipped cream cheese frosting. The cream cheese in the recipe adds flavor and richness, but also acts as a stabilizer for the whipped cream.

Whipping cream is whipped into stiff peaks with an electric mixer (chill the bowl and beaters first!) and then combined with a mixture of softened cream cheese, powdered sugar, lemon extract, and lemon zest.

This light and creamy frosting is lemony and delicious, and is great for piping. You can add a touch of yellow coloring gel if you'd like to give it a more lemony appearance.

Decorating the Cupcakes

You can decorate these cupcakes however you'd like! We kept things very simple today by swirling our frosting onto the cooled cupcakes using a disposable piping bag fitted with a 2D piping tip.

We topped each cupcake with either a slice of strawberry or small wedge of lemon.

Refrigeration

Because of the frosting, these Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes need to be refrigerated (in an airtight container or sealed bakery box, etc.).

However, for the very best flavor and especially texture, it is best to remove from the refrigerator 1-2 hours before serving. This will allow time for the cake and frosting to warm and soften.

Cupcake FAQs

More Fruity Cakes

We've made so many cakes with fruit over the years! Just a few of our favorites are orange cake, lemon cake, strawberry cake, and coconut cream cake.

Make sure to check out our full collection of cake recipes, including our favorite cupcake recipes!

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

BY Melissa and Bebe

These moist Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes consist of homemade strawberry cupcakes with Lemon Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting. You will love this combination of flavors!

Prep Time: 20 minutes mins

Cook Time: 17 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Servings: 24

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Ingredients

For the Strawberry Cupcakes

• ▢ 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, softened (170g)
• ▢ 2 cups white sugar (400g)
• ▢ 3 large eggs, room temperature (Place eggs in a bowl of warm water for five minutes if in a hurry.)
• ▢ 3 cups cake flour (342g)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons baking powder (8g)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon baking soda (3g)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt (3g)
• ▢ 1 cup sour cream (full fat) (227g)
• ▢ ½ cup plus two tablespoons strawberry puree (Puree fresh or frozen, thawed strawberries) (161g) Liquefy in a blender or food processor. We did not heat on stovetop.
• ▢ ⅓ cup vegetable oil (68g ) (We use canola oil)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons strawberry extract (8g) (If no extract, you can substitute 2 Tablespoons powdered strawberry jello!)
• ▢ *Pink Coloring Gel- Optional for desired color. We used a small amount.

Lemon Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

• ▢ 16 oz cream cheese softened (It must be full fat, not reduced fat or cream cheese in a tub, those are too soft.)
• ▢ 2 cups powdered sugar measure then sift (230g)
• ▢ 3 cups heavy whipping cream (696g)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons lemon extract adjust to your liking (8g)
• ▢ zest of one lemon optional
• ▢ Yellow Coloring Gel (very small amount) optional

Instructions

For the Strawberry Cupcakes

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, line cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
• In a medium sized bowl, add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Whisk to blend for 30 seconds.  Set aside.
• In another bowl combine the sour cream, strawberry puree, strawberry extract and oil, blend and set aside.
• In the bowl of your mixer blend the butter until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and mix on medium speed 3 to 5 minutes until fluffy and lightened in color. If using pink coloring gel, you can add it now or at any time during the mixing process.
• Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each until the yolk is blended
• With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and the sour cream mixture alternately, beginning and ending with the flour mixture (3 additions of dry ingredients, 2  additions of wet ingredients.)
• Mix just until combined. Scoop batter into cupcake pans that have been prepared with cupcake liners. We usually add about ¼ cup batter per cupcake.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 16-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. 
• Note that these cupcakes while soft and fluffy do not dome, they will most likely have flat tops. They just need a little frosting to dress them up!

Lemon Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

• Freeze your mixing bowl and beaters 15 minutes before whipping the cream (30 minutes if chilling in the refrigerator.
• 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. This can happen very quickly so don't walk away from the mixer. 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 extract and lemon zest. Add a bit of yellow coloring gel if you'd like. Mix until very smooth.
• Gently stir the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture (or vice versa)- I started stirring with spatula before switching to a handheld mixer on low speed. Mix until well combined (either with spatula or electric mixer).

Decorating

• Frost the cupcakes however you like! We used a 2D large star piping tip to swirl on the frosting, and then topped with either a sliced strawberry or small slice of lemon.
• Because of the frosting, these cupcakes should be refrigerated in an airtight container or sealed bakery box, etc. However, for the very best flavor and texture, remove from the refrigerator 1-2 hours before serving to allow the cake and frosting time to warm and soften.

Notes

Substitution for cake flour:  Using all purpose flour (plain in the UK) for each cup of flour in a recipe, remove 2 Tablespoons of flour replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour in the UK).  This recipe has 3 cups of flour so you will measure out 3 cups of all purpose flour, remove 6 Tablespoons and replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch, whisk to blend.           

This recipe makes 7 cups batter- approximately 28 cupcakes.

Fresh or frozen strawberries can be used.

 

 

**Note that if you'd like to add the lemon whipped cream cheese frosting as a filling as well, you would do this step first. Spoon the frosting into a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away, push halfway down into the cooled cupcake, squeeze piping bag for a couple of seconds to fill, and then add the swirl of frosting on top. (You can squeeze the bag for a couple of seconds on a plate first to get an idea of how much filling you will be adding-- or if you have a cupcake to spare, do a trial run and adjust amount accordingly for the others.)

 

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