Easy Lemon Cheesecake Cupcakes
- mabayo77
- Aug 23
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 11
I think it's safe to say that summer is winding down in the UK. We had a really good summer this year – I can't remember when I've seen so many days of consecutive blue skies and warm temperatures. Honestly, at one point I was living in shorts and T-shirts and I loved every moment! So, in honour what has been the great British summer time, here is an end of summer treat that combines two of my favourite things – cakes and cheesecakes!
I love cream cheese buttercream (frosting if you're American). I think it's because I find regular buttercream a bit too sweet on its own and I like the tang of cream cheese. I particularly like it on these cupcakes because they really do taste like I'm biting down into a slice of cheesecake with a cupcake as its base. The addition of a lemon curd filling was just to really drive home the lemon flavour.
This recipe is probably the easiest one that you will see on this blog. Even for beginner bakers, it's quite hard to get cupcakes and buttercream wrong as long as you follow the some of the basic rules of baking.
Keep your cake ingredients at room temperature unless the recipe tells you otherwise
Beat your butter and sugar together for longer than you think – I do it until it looks super pale (almost white)
Don't overmix the batter once you've added your flour. Mix it just enough for the flour to be fully incorporated. Any more and you risk your cupcakes being a bit chewy.
After that, it's just a matter of what you like to add for taste and texture. You could very easily swap out the lemon care for raspberry jam and top the cupcakes with crunchy almonds to get a classic Bakewell vibe. Or add orange zest instead to the cake and add some melted chocolate to the buttercream to get a Terry's chocolate Orange flavour. The thing I love about cakes in particular is that they are blank canvas that you can flavour with anything you like.
If you try this recipe please let me know by commenting below or tagging me on my Instagram (@diaryofahopefulcook).
Speak soon!
Mary
Note on the sauce:
If the buttercream is difficult to pipe after being in the fridge, let it sit at room temperature for a few minutes before trying to pipe again.
Notes
1
Preheat your oven to 175°C (fan). Add your cupcake liners to your 12 muffin baking tray.
2
For the cupcakes: in a large bowl, add caster sugar and lemon zest and rub together with your fingers until the sugar is a pale yellow and resembles wet sand. Then add your softened butter and beat with an electric hand mixer until the mixture is very pale and fluffy (almost like thick whipped cream). You can also do this with a wooden spoon but it will take a while!
3
Crack the eggs in one at a time, making sure to only add the next egg after the first has been fully mixed into the butter and sugar.
4
Use a fine mesh sieve to sift in the flour, salt and baking powder into the bowl. Mix together with an electric whisk until all the flour is fully incorporated (do this on a low speed to avoid over mixing) or fold together gently by hand with a wooden spoon or spatula.
5
Divide your mixture evenly between the 12 cupcake liners in your muffin tray. The cupcakes will rise in the oven so try to avoid filling the cupcake liners more than 3/4 of the way up. (You can always bake a second batch is for some reason you have left over batter).
6
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, turning halfway through, until a skewer poked in the middle of the cupcake comes out clean. Leave to cool completely.
7
For the buttercream: beat together butter and sifted icing sugar with an electric hand whisk until completely smooth and slightly fluffy. Then add in half of the cream cheese and beat again until completely smooth. Add the remaining half of cream cheese and beat again. Add in the vanilla extract and mix completely. Then add in the lemon curd and swirl into the buttercream with a large spoon. Transfer the buttercream into a piping bag with fitted with a large piping nozzle. Leave refrigerated until ready to pipe.
8
To assemble: using a small knife, hollow out the top of each cupcake to make room for a lemon curd filling (you decide how deep you want it to be). Fill each hole with a teaspoon or so of lemon curd. Pipe the buttercream on top of each cupcake in a pretty swirl. Serve and enjoy!
Instructions
175 g softened unsalted butter
175 g caster sugar
Finely grated zest of 2 or 3 lemons
3 large eggs (room temperature)
175 g self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
12 teaspoons lemon curd
For the cupcakes:
150 g softened unsalted butter
150 g icing sugar
300 g full fat cream cheese (Philadelphia)
1 to 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (to taste)
For the buttercream
Diary of a Hopeful Cook
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Lemon Cheesecake Cupcakes
A zesty and bright summery sweet treat with the tangy cream cheese buttercream!
12 servings
Prep Time
30 min
Cooking Time
15 min
Rest Time
0 min
Total Time
45 min
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