*This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure for more details!*

Luscious and light lemon & poppyseed cupcakes topped with lemon buttercream frosting.

Cupcake recipes

These sort of cupcakes really are a lemon version of my easy vanilla cupcakes and there is nothing wrong with that, the recipe works so well, and is so foolproof that I never want to mess with it. I adore a simple cupcake recipe as you know, and this lemon and poppyseed cupcake recipe is definitely a good one.

Cupcakes are the sort of thing that people know and love. Some people find them a little boring, and I get that – but I think they have a special place in the baking world due to the simplicity and success of what they are. They are easy to serve at parties, easy to bake for special occasions, and I love them really.

My most popular cupcakes have to be my biscoff cupcakes, or my red velvet cupcakes, or even my carrot cake cupcakes and they are all super accessibly and popular flavours. Flavours and bakes like a cupcake are just glorious.

Lemon & poppyseed

My lemon meringue cupcakes are a delicious cupcake twist on a classic recipe, and they always seem to be a hit. However, I get that there are some people who want something a little different to that, or they just want something more normal.. hence these beauties. I often get lemon and poppyseed muffins at a coffee shop as they’re different to something over chocolatey, but these cupcakes.. they’re the perfect twist.

A delicious and moist cupcake mix made with lemon zest & poppyseed to make them crunchy yet FULL of flavour. The lemon buttercream frosting is made with fresh lemon juice so is packed full of the zingy sweet flavouring that marries so well with the cupcakes. Seriously, they’re heavenly.

Cupcake batter

This batter is a simple standard basic mixture on purpose. A typical cake mix is equal quantities of butter/sugar/flour/eggs and it creates a thick and beautiful bake and end result.

Butter – you can use unsalted block butter at room temperature, or you can use a baking spread/margarine straight out of the fridge
Sugar – I typically use caster sugar (white or golden) as it suits the flavour of the cupcake as it doesn’t overpower
Flour – I use self raising flour as it’s readily available in the UK, but you can use plain flour + baking powder instead.
Eggs – I tend to stick to medium eggs to make my life easier with my bakes, but you could get away with 3 large instead.
Flavours – lemon zest and the poppyseeds. You can use lemon extract instead of the zest if you don’t want to buy a fresh lemon

I usually beat together the butter and sugar together until creamy. I beat these together first so that there are no lumps of butter and that the end result will be smoother. I then add in all of the eggs and flour at the same time as the lemon zest and poppyseeds and mix again as little as possible until smooth.

Buttercream Frosting

This is a simple American buttercream frosting, and I purposely wanted it to be super simple. I wanted a zingy but quick to make frosting of three ingredients, and I love it.

Butter – you need to use a block butter, and not a baking spread of margarine. If you want the frosting to be slightly less sweet, you can use salted butter
Sugar – I use icing sugar – and as this is an American style frosting, you use double the amount of icing sugar to butter.
Lemon – I use fresh lemon juice as I used the fresh lemons for the zest, but you can use lemon extract here as well. I would recommend 1-2tsps depending on strength of the flavouring.

I beat my unsalted butter on its own until smooth. I use block unsalted butter, at room temperature, and make sure this is nice and smooth and supple. The more you beat the butter on its own, before adding any other ingredient, the lighter in colour the buttercream will become. I then add in the sugar, and start to add in the lemon juice and beat well to get a light but thick buttercream frosting that is perfect for piping.

Decoration

The decoration when it comes to a simple and classic recipe like these lemon and poppyseed cupcakes, is also quite delicate in my opinion, and I think the beauty comes from the simplicity.

I used this piping tip for this style of decoration with these piping bags and did a simple swirl. You can start this sort of piping decoration on the inside of the cupcake and swirl outwards, or start on the outsider and just swirl upwards – but either way, you can practice piping onto a chopping board first if you aren’t sure, and then use the buttercream again on the cupcakes.

I personally love to add decoration of the theme of the bake as well, so on this occasion I added a little sprinkle of poppyseeds and lemon zest as well, but that is optional and you can do what you fancy.

Updated recipe

So this blog post is very old, so it needed a little updating to match what better represents my knowledge now. However, if you want to bake the original recipe here are the ingredients (the method is the same) :

Cupcakes
– 150g unsalted butter, softened
– 150g caster sugar
– 3 medium free range eggs, beaten
– 150g self raising flour
– finely grated zest of 1 lemon
– 1tbsp poppyseeds

Lemon frosting
– 150g unsalted butter, softened
– 350g icing sugar
– 2-3tbsp lemon juice

Tips & Tricks

These cupcakes will last in an airtight container for 3-4+ days
You can freeze these cupcakes for 3+ months
The lemon frosting can also be made with lemon extract, but I use the same lemon that I zested so as not to waste anything
The poppyseeds are also optional, but its such a classic recipe
I used this piping tip for this recipe
I used these piping bags for the decoration
You can add a centre of lemon curd for a delicious extra