These vegan lemon cupcakes with lemon buttercream frosting and lemon zest are so divine, they are my latest favorite cupcake in the whole entire world.
Well, of course that is until I bake one of my other absolute favorites in the entire world – such as – any of the other cupcakes on this site! Love them all I must admit!
These were super good and I’m a big fan. As is everyone else who ate them!
That being said I didn’t have the easiest time in making these. I had the idea of using lemon juice (in quite a large quantity) to make these, but hey, it just didn’t work out. I couldn’t even tell you why.
But the moment I added that lemon juice to the batter it fluffed up in a way that just didn’t look right, so I was highly sceptical even before they went into the oven, and I wasn’t wrong! They came out just as ‘not quite right’ as they went in.
So I had to ditch the lemon juice idea (maybe my lemons just weren’t great?) and instead went for lemon zest and lemon essence to create the deliciously lemon flavor. The lemon buttercream ended up being where the lemon juice got a chance to shine!
The lemon buttercream has lemon juice and lemon essence and has a fabulously lemony taste, and topped with lemon zest there is no doubt that these are lemon cupcakes!
I adapted the recipe from my vegan vanilla cupcakes which is just the best recipe! Perfectly moist with a light and spongey texture.
Just as a side note if you like lemon then you will also love my vegan lemon pie! And my key lime cake is a winner too – okay it’s not lemon but pretty close!
I think you are going to love these vegan lemon cupcakes! They are:
- Deliciously lemony
- Light and spongey
- Topped with lemon buttercream
- Super easy
Keep them covered at room temperature where they will stay fresh for a couple of days, or keep them in the fridge (covered) where they will last up to a week.
So let us know what you think of these lemon cupcakes! Leave a comment and rate the recipe if you’ve made it!
If you take any pics tag us #lovingitvegan on instagram so we get to see it! We simply love to see what you’re baking out there!
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Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream Frosting
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Prep Time: 20 mins - Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 45 mins
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Yield: 12 -
Category: Cupcakes, Dessert -
Cuisine: Vegan
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Light and spongey vegan lemon cupcakes with lemon buttercream frosting. Deliciously lemony, moist and simple cupcakes with a velvety frosting.
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes:
- 1 and 3/4 cups (220g) All Purpose Flour
- 1 cup (200g) Sugar
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 cup (240ml) Soy Milk (or other non-dairy milk)
- 1/3 cup (80ml) Vegetable Oil (I used extra virgin olive oil)
- 1 Tbsp White Vinegar (or Apple Cider Vinegar)
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 tsp Lemon Extract
- 1 Tbsp Lemon Zest
For the Lemon Buttercream Frosting:
- 3 cups (360g) Powdered (Confectioners) Sugar
- 1/3 cup (75g) Vegan Butter or Margarine
- 2 Tbsp Lemon Juice (freshly squeezed)
- 1 tsp Lemon Extract
For Decoration:
- Lemon Zest
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the sugar, baking soda and salt. Then add the soy milk, vegetable oil, vinegar, vanilla, lemon extract and lemon zest. Whisk briefly with a hand whisk to combine properly and remove any lumps.
- Line a cupcake tray with cupcake liners and divide the batter between them.
- Bake for 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- When baked transfer to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.
- Prepare your frosting by adding the powdered sugar, vegan butter, lemon juice and lemon essence to an electric mixing bowl. Start at slow speed and gradually increase speed until smooth and thick. If it’s too thick, add a little more lemon juice (a couple of drops at a time) until you reach the right consistency.
- Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes and then decorate with some lemon zest.
Notes
Adapted from our Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Cupcake (of 12)
- Calories: 345
- Sugar: 48g
- Sodium: 254mg
- Fat: 9.4g
- Saturated Fat: 1.4g
- Carbohydrates: 63g
- Fiber: 0.6g
- Protein: 2.5g
Keywords: vegan lemon cupcakes
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Looks lovely and tastes better!
★★★★★
Can you clarify for me what you used for lemon essence please? I’m not familiar with any.
It’s like vanilla extract, it’s a flavoring extract but you get essence and extract basically the same thing! So you can use either.
Could I use Lemon Juice instead of Lemon Essence? Thanks 🙂
It won’t work as a flavoring as it won’t be strong enough – the lemon essence is very intensified lemon flavor, however if you don’t really mind less of a lemon flavor then it’ll work fine.
I use food grade lemon essential oil instead of lemon extract or essence. Just a tip 💖
Awesome! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
These are delicious! The recipe is very similar to my mother’s “crazy cake” recipe. I think it was called that because it didn’t use eggs. Anyway it’s basically a chocolate version of this recipe. I did changed this recipe to coconut lime because I used so many coconut based ingredients. I used coconut milk and oil and then halved the sugar with coconut palm sugar. Trying to limit sugar intake. I also used white whole wheat flour to put in some whole grain. Still very moist and delicious but more reminiscent of a sweet muffin. Anyway the recipe is great as is or as a base to play with other flavors. Thanks so much for posting!
Cool! Thanks for sharing!
I’m making this now for my 15 year old grandson to bring to work. He works with some people that can’t have dairy. Hope this tastes as good as it looks. By the way my grandson pick this recipe.
Awesome! I’m sure they will love it! 😁
Can I use bread flour instead?
Not really, at least not without changing the end result quite a bit. It would result in a more bread-like texture, more chewy and tough, less light and fluffy.
Omg your cake looks delicious!!!! Can I substitute cake flour?
You should be able to, but I haven’t tried it with cake flour. Cake flour has less gluten than all purpose flour which ‘could’ result in it being a bit more crumbly or holding together less well, but it could also be just fine! Please let us know how it turns out if you do try it like this. 🙂
Hi Alison made these today can I tell you how wonderful they are I ran out of vegan butter so I just dusted them with a little powdered sugar! pleased even my picky husband he said they were super moist would you happen to have a strawberry cupcake recipe I heard that you can use freeze-dried strawberries for natural flavoring for the buttercream would love to try thanks again for all your amazing vegan recipes!:0)
★★★★★
Hi Cindi! So happy they came out so well! We do have a strawberry cupcake recipe, but I didn’t use freeze dried strawberries, even though I have heard that can work out great! However, I can’t get hold of them at all in my part of the world, so went with fresh strawberries instead, but check it out anyway! 🙂
I’ve made your strawberry cupcake recipe and it’s amazing! I’d need to make a lemon cake in a 9×13 pan. Will these amounts work for that? And what’s the difference in cook time? Thank you!
Hi Aimee, take a look at my vegan lemon cake recipe, I think that might work better. I’m not sure about adapting for 9×13 but you could definitely try it, in terms of baking times I would probably check it somewhere around the 22-25 minute mark and see from there. Let us know how it goes! 🙂
Can you use gluten free flour?
Hi Monique, I have not tested this as gluten-free so can’t advise the specific adjustments you would need to make, but if you do try it, use a gluten-free all purpose flour blend.
Tried these cupcakes and was astounded at the results! They tasted as good as, if not better, than ‘real’ cake! I need to make an 8inch cake for this weekend – what quantities would I need to use for this please?
Lauren x
★★★★★
Hi Lauren! So glad you liked the cupcakes! Thanks for sharing! I have done a perfect 2 layer 8 inch lemon cake recipe that would be perfect, you can find it here: vegan lemon cake.
Super, thank you for your help!! Can’t get enough of your recipes … not a vegan myself but just love the simplicity and results with these recipes!
I normally don’t write reviews, but these are terrific! I made them for my birthday using whole wheat pastry flour; tonight I made them with a fine pastry flour and they rose so much better. Either way, they are absolutely delicious. Just enough lemon flavor!! I made these for a potluck at my job tomorrow, I can’t wait as none of my co-workers are vegan, so I’m interested in what they are going to think of these.
★★★★★
Fantastic Tiffany! Great to hear it works well with pastry flour, I have never tried that. Thanks so much for sharing and your awesome rating! 🙂
I would say the only thing you need to do differently with the pastry flour is adjust the time. I made these again and baked them for 19 minutes instead of 25 and they came out moist and spongey.
Thanks Tiffany! 🙂
I made these with pastry flour, and I was scared that I overfilled the cupcake liner, but they came out perfect and rose beautifully! Thanks for the easy recipe.
★★★★★
Glad to hear they came out great, thanks Luna! 🙂
These look amazing and I want to make them but I can’t find apple cider vinegar, I have cider vinegar and white wine vinegar can I use one of these instead? Thanks
Cider vinegar would be fine as it is apparently really the same thing. 🙂
That’s great thank you, I thought the cider vinegar might be the same but just wanted to check. 😃
Made these cupcakes last weekend for my son who is vegan, he loved them as did all the rest of us, they are delicious!. They were really easy to make too! Just trying to decide which of your gorgeous looking recipes to try next!
★★★★★
So happy to hear that Louise! Hope you find lots of other recipes here that you enjoy. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Mine are in the oven as I post … I’m just wondering what you use to get the cake batter into the muffin cases …? My batter was quite runny and I made quite a mess! Thanks
Hi Karen, I usually put the batter into a measuring jug (half of the batter at a time so I don’t overload it and make it harder to control) and then pour out into the cupcake liners when the batter is quite thin. If the batter is thick, then I just spoon it. 🙂
This was my first time ever making cupcakes and they came out exactly like your pictures. I used all ingredients to the measures suggested. They were so great the family were raving about them. I was a bit worried about the buttercream as I’ve never made it before and the icing sugar flew out when I turned on the whisk however after whisking for a while it came together. Am rubbish at piping so will watch some videos on youtube before trying piping again. Many thanks for the recipe, I will try your other vegan cupcakes and I know my vegan colleagues will enjoy them. Thank you again!
★★★★★
Hi Hassan, so happy you like the cupcakes! Yes, if your stand mixer has quite a small bowl when you first start mixing, icing sugar can go everywhere, what I often do is hold up a tea towel over the bowl when it first starts mixing to avoid that. Thanks so much for posting! 🙂
These are my absolute favorite cupcakes – both to make and to eat! Every time I make them, my non-vegan friends and co-workers have said, “you can’t even tell that they’re vegan!” 😉 The only change I would make is total time – maybe I’m just a slower baker, but it takes me much longer than what’s above the recipe, but that’s okay! Because these are seriously good and totally worth it. Thanks for sharing your recipe!
★★★★★
So happy to hear they’re a hit with everyone! Haha, yes, maybe I’m a bit speedy now since I do so much baking! Thanks for the great review. 🙂