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Sweet & Tangy Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes start with fluffy, moist lemon cupcakes and are topped with a fresh strawberry frosting!
Nothing says summer like a cool glass of Homemade Lemonade, or even better – Strawberry Lemonade! These Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes bring that delicious summer flavor, but in cupcake form!
Summertime in a cupcake
I absolutely love strawberry lemonade because it’s like summertime in a glass and pretty in pink. And whenever there’s a delicious flavor combination – I always want to make it into cupcake.
These strawberry lemonade cupcakes are moist, perfectly fluffy, and bursting with fresh fruit flavors. The cupcakes have a delicious slightly tangy lemon flavor. Then we’re using fresh berries for the frosting. Isn’t strawberry season the best?
These have the perfect flavor combination. The hint of tanginess and fresh lemon flavor, moist cupcake crumb, and creamy strawberry frosting – I hope you love them as much as I do!
Making Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes
PREP. Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Line a 12 cavity muffin pan with muffin papers.
DRY INGREDIENTS. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt.
WET INGREDIENTS. Then in a large bowl using an electric mixer beat together the butter, sugar and lemon zest until fluffy. Add in the egg whites and vanilla extract and continue mixing until combined.
COMBINE. Turn the mixer down to low speed and mix in about ½ of the sour cream followed by half of the flour mixture. Then turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Repeat with the rest of the sour cream and flour mixture. Then turn off the mixer and stir in the lemon juice. Be careful not to over mix.
BAKE. Spoon the batter into your prepared muffin pan, filling each muffin paper about ⅔ to ¾ full. You’ll end up with 12-14 cupcakes total. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-18 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Frosting
PREP. Core the strawberries to remove the green centers. Then puree in the food processor or blender until smooth. Then push the puree through a wire sieve to remove the seeds. You should have about ¾ cup of puree.
BOIL. Transfer the puree to a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil while gently stirring. Allow the mixture to boil for about 15-20 minutes, or until the mixture has reduced to about ⅓ to ¼ of the original volume (about ¼ cup). The thicker your puree is, the thicker your frosting will be.
CHILL. Remove from the heat and allow mixture to cool fully. You can place it in the fridge or freezer to speed up the process.
BEAT. In a large bowl beat the butter until fluffy, then beat in about 1.5 cups of the powdered sugar. Then turn the mixer down to low and beat in 2-3 tablespoons of the reduced strawberry puree. The mixture must be cold when it’s added to the frosting, otherwise the frosting will separate. Once added, beat in the rest of the powdered sugar and the whipping cream if necessary.
FROST. Frost the cupcakes either with a piping bag (I used a 1M tip) or with a knife.
Storing Info
Make ahead: These cupcakes can be made a day ahead of time, covered, and stored in the fridge before serving. If you want to make these cupcakes farther in advance you can store them separately and then assemble before serving.
STORE frosting in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 3 months.
STORE cupcakes in an airtight container on the counter for 2-3 days or in the fridge for about 5 days. To FREEZE them you’ll want to individually wrap them and store them together in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 6 months.
And for more favorite strawberry treats:
- Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes
- Strawberry Shortcake Bars
- Strawberry Shortcake Poke Cake
- Frozen Strawberry Dessert
- Strawberry Cookies
Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes
Ingredients
Lemon Cupcake
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 tbsp lemon zest freshly grated
- 3 large egg whites (you can discard the yolks)
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup sour cream room temperature
- 3 tbsp lemon juice freshly squeezed*
Strawberry Frosting
- 8 oz fresh strawberries
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 3-4 cups powdered sugar sifted
- 1 tbsp heavy whipping cream if needed
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Line a 12 cavity muffin pan with muffin papers.
- In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt.
- Then in a large bowl using an electric mixer beat together the butter, sugar and lemon zest until fluffy. Add in the egg whites and vanilla extract and continue mixing until combined.
- Turn the mixer down to low speed and mix in about ½ of the sour cream followed by half of the flour mixture. Then turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Repeat with the rest of the sour cream and flour mixture. Then turn off the mixer and stir in the lemon juice. Be careful not to over mix.
- Spoon the batter into your prepared muffin pan, filling each muffin paper about ⅔ to ¾ full. You'll end up with 12-14 cupcakes total.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 15-18 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Strawberry Frosting
- Core the strawberries to remove the green centers. Then puree in the food processor or blender until smooth. Then push the puree through a wire sieve to remove the seeds. You should have about ¾ cup of puree.
- Transfer the puree to a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil while gently stirring. Allow the mixture to boil for about 15-20 minutes, or until the mixture has reduced to about ⅓ to ¼ of the original volume (about ¼ cup). The thicker your puree is, the thicker your frosting will be.
- Remove from the heat and allow mixture to cool fully. You can place it in the fridge or freezer to speed up the process.
- In a large bowl beat the butter until fluffy, then beat in about 1.5 cups of the powdered sugar. Then turn the mixer down to low and beat in 2-3 tablespoons of the reduced strawberry puree. The mixture must be cold when it's added to the frosting, otherwise the frosting will separate.
- Once added, beat in the rest of the powdered sugar and the whipping cream if necessary.
- Frost the cupcakes either with a piping bag (I used a 1M tip) or with a knife.
Notes
**I recommend storing these cupcakes in an airtight container in the fridge
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I am making these with my Culinary Arts kids, and I reduced the temp to 325 for my convection ovens. They all fell, any idea why? Trying them this next period with the original oven temp. I am not a baker by trade, so I don’t always know why a baking recipe doesn’t work out.
In general, overmixing cake batter, overfilling cupcake liners, and baking at high altitudes are all common reasons cupcakes fall. Since you specifically mentioned using a convection oven, here are a couple of additional ideas to consider:
Convection ovens can dry out delicate cupcakes and set their exterior too quickly, potentially causing the center to sink before fully baking. To counteract this, try baking at 325°F again, but start checking for doneness with a toothpick test at 13-14 minutes. If your oven allows, consider using a “Convection Bake” mode (which often uses a lower fan speed) or even turning the convection fan off for this recipe to see if a conventional bake works better.
Hopefully, this helps, and your culinary kids get successful results!
Great recipe for lemon cupcakes! I didn’t have fresh or frozen strawberries but did have freeze dried, so I ground those finely and then made a normal cream cheese frosting and stirred in the freeze dried strawberries. It was incredible.
Ooh that sounds yummy!! Thanks for sharing what you did! So glad you enjoyed the cupcakes!
Discard egg yolks?! At least you could propose an idea what to do with them like a flan or something. And the video that pops up with a dead naked chicken I don’t want to see that while reading the ingredients for cupcakes moreover being vegetarian. No way to stop this video.
I made these this weekend for a graduation party for my husband. They turned out amazing! The strawberry and lemon flavors really popped and you could truly taste the lemon. On its own, the frosting is a bit sweet, but when added to the acid of the lemon cupcake it creates a perfect blend. The frosting technique was also fun to practice. Would make again!
Yay!! I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed the cupcakes and they turned out so well!
If I could give this 10 stars I would!!!!!! This was soooooo good. I made them and took them to church tonight. It got rave reviews from the 14 people who were there. I will definitely be making this again!
Oh thank you!! I’m so happy to hear the cupcakes were a hit! Thanks for sharing.
The taste was amazing – truly tasted like fresh lemon and REAL strawberries. We had a family cupcake bake-off and these took first place! Yes, they were time consuming, but worth it. I think we overmixed them, though. Our cupcakes were very dense, not fluffy and moist. Overall, lots of fun, great recipe.
Thanks so much for your feedback! I’m so glad to hear the cupcakes were a hit!
Delicious!!! I’m a sucker for anything lemon flavored and these cupcakes did not disappoint! The strawberry buttercream was a great change from just regular vanilla or more lemon. The buttercream definitely took more time than other frostings that I have made, but it was well worth the extra time because it piped really easily and tasted amazing!!
Oh yay!! I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed the cupcakes. They are so yummy for summer too!
Hi. What can be substituted for corn starch? I recently been out of cornstarch I never been able to go to the store to get some
So in this recipe, the cornstarch joined with the all-purpose flour serve the same purpose as a cake flour would. So if you have cake flour, you can use that instead of the cornstarch/all-purpose flour. If you don’t, you can try omitting the cornstarch and they should still turn out ok. The cupcakes might be a bit less fluffy and light, but should still taste yummy!
Frosting tasted a little weird and did not have a very good flavor.
Thanks for your feedback and for trying the recipe!
Absolutely loved these. The recipe was a bit time consuming, but definitely worth it in the end. The lemon flavor was great and not overpowering or sour, and the strawberry complemented perfectly. I would suggest boiling the strawberries and making the frosting while the cupcakes are baking. The frosting was a bit too sweet, but that’s what you expect with cupcakes.
Yay! I’m glad to hear you loved the cupcakes! Thanks for your feedback.
The cupcakes were amazing! I used a blackberry buttercream instead of the strawberries. It was a huge picnic hit.
Ooh the blackberry sounds delicious!! So glad they turned out well!
Perfect combination, especially in the summer time.
The frosting makes it! Needed to keep them cold due to the frosting getting soft in the summer heat.
I agree! Love the frosting! Thank you!
I just made these for my daughters 11th birthday and they were amazing! They are absOlutely the best cupcakes i have ever made. Definitely making these again soon.
Glad they were a hit!! Thank you for trying them 🙂 Hope she had a great day!
Can the frosting be made ahead of time?
It should be 🙂
Omg, these are the best cupcakes ever, I made these for a project and the teachers loved them!!!
I am glad they did!! Thank you for letting me know!
2 Cups powdered sugar and 2 cups whipped cream
Thanks for the recipe!! I used the lemon cupcakes with a different frosting recipe, so I can only account for the cake, but the lemon is spot on. Bursting with flavor!! My batter actually made 15 cupcakes-I used a big scoop, but perhaps I could have put a little more in each one. It filled a normal cupcake liner though so….
I’ll be using this recipe for any future lemon cake/cupcake requests!! So delicious!
Thanks for sharing that!! Thank you!
Can this be made into a giant cupcake cake?
I haven’t tried, but I don’t see why not?? 🙂 That would be fun!
I i made this!
I sure hope you liked them!!
I would like to send you pictures of the cupcakes
Hello, I just signed up for your yummy recipes, happy I did. All look, sound, yummy. I can hardly wait to have the time to go through them, tasting only in my mind, until I can make them. I do have a “?” on the strawberry lemonade cupcakes. Are they super tart that children year to grade school might find them tart? I was going to make them for my grdaughter’s 1st bday party. My daughter choose the flavor. I choose because you say they’re moist & look awfully tasty. Thank you for time.
Sheryl
This is my contributors recipe, Fiona at https://www.justsotasty.com/. You may want to ask her. I haven’t tried them, yet, but I am so glad you signed up!! Hope you find some great recipes! 🙂 Thank you!
I want to make these for my daughter’s 1st birthday but I would like to do 2 frosting colors. Could I make a puree with blueberries the same way the strawberries are done and use that in the frosting?
I’m sure you could 🙂 I haven’t tried, but I don’t see why not! That would be good!
Well the cup cakes were a bit over all! Thanks for sharing this recipe! Also I did the blueberry frosting and it turned out great with the strawberry. The only thing was my strawberry frosting did not turn out nearly as bright in color as the ones you have shown in the pictures. Why might that be?
I meant “hit” not “bit”… Dang auto correct.
I’m glad they were a hit!! I’m not sure why they weren’t as bright. Maybe my contributor used a little more strawberries?
Can I use buttermilk instead of sour cream. And if so what is the measurement portions? Love the recipe thou.
I haven’t tried that, so I wouldn’t know an exact measurement. I’m sorry. I don’t want to tell you the wrong thing. I’m glad you like the recipe, though 🙂 If you give it a try, let me know how it comes out. Thanks!
Can I use buttermilk instead of sour cream?
I personally haven’t tried. I’m not sure if or how that would change anything. You can always try?? I’d love to know. Good luck!
My family and I are not big fans of sour cream or buttermilk. Do you think it could be substituted with anything such as whole milk/cream or be omitted altogether?
The sour cream helps the cake be moist and tender. I haven’t tried omitting that dairy element, so it could yield a drier result. Whole milk is a different consistency than sour cream obviously, so it may also affect the texture differently. If you enjoy greek yogurt, you could probably swap the sour cream for a plain greek yogurt and it would turn out pretty similar! If you do use the whole milk or omit the dairy, you’ll have to let us know how they turn out. 🙂
Instead of sour cream can buttermilk be used?
These are so perfect for summer! Yum!
Totally!! 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
In baking cornstarch helps to make things more tender. In cooking it helps thicken. I haven’t tried leaving it out, so I’m not sure what might happen if you leave it out.
Thanks for trying them! This recipe is from Fiona at https://www.justsotasty.com/. You may want to ask her, since it is her recipe.
I am sorry they were. I wish I knew why? I am glad you liked the flavor!