These gluten free lemon cupcakes are loaded with fresh lemon and are topped with a fresh blueberry frosting. They make a wonderful fruity dessert!
Happy Birthday Nana Linda!!! This past weekend we celebrated 3 birthdays… :-O That was A LOT of birthday cake!! Cohl’s grandmother, Nana Linda (see picture below) turned 35 this past weekend. Haha… jk. But for real, she looks ah-mazing for her age! Since one of her favorite cake flavors is lemon, I set out to make a batch of fresh gluten free lemon cupcakes. And what better to top them with than fresh blueberry frosting?!
These cupcakes are 100% naturally flavored and colored. Adding the lemon zest to the cupcakes really gives them an extra punch of citrus. With Spring in full swing here in Texas, most people have been craving citrus foods. These cupcakes will definitely not disappoint.
For the frosting, feel free to add 1-2 T. milk depending on the desired consistency you want. I used a Wilton 12-inch disposable piping bag with a large coupler and a 1M piping tip to decorate the cupcakes. Then I topped them off with a fresh blueberry frosting and Voila!! Nana’s b-day cupcakes were complete.
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Let me know if you make these cupcakes and what you made them for–I would love to hear!! Hope you enjoy 🙂
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Gluten Free Lemon Cupcakes with Blueberry Frosting
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Ingredients
Lemon Cupcakes:
- ½ c butter softened
- 1 c sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 c white rice flour*
- ½ c tapioca starch*
- ¾ tsp xanthan gum
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ c milk (almond or soy milk works great too)
- 2 lemons zest
- ¼ c lemons juice
Blueberry Frosting:
- 4 Tbsp butter softened
- 1/3 c fresh blueberries
- 3 ¾ c powdered sugar
- 1-2 milk optional
Instructions
For the Lemon Cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a cupcake muffin pan with 12 cupcake liners. Spray each with non-stick cooking spray.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine butter and sugar. Mix for 1 minute on medium.
- Add eggs and vanilla and mix on medium for another 2 minutes, or until mixture becomes fluffy.
- In a medium-sized bowl, combine rice flour, tapioca starch, xanthan gum, powder, soda and salt. Toss to combine.
- Alternatively add dry ingredients and milk into the butter/sugar mixture, starting and ending with the dry ingredients.
- Lastly, mix in lemon juice and zest until well combined. (You might have to do this by hand since the mixing blade might trap the zest if you have long strips!)
- Fill each cupcake muffin liner to ¾ full and bake cupcakes for 22-24 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
For the Blueberry Frosting:
- Place butter, blueberries and 2 c. powdered sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Cream until incorporated. Add next cup of powdered sugar and cream until incorporated. Add the last ¾ c. of powdered sugar (and maybe 1-2 T. milk, depending on your desired consistency) and cream until smooth.
- Once cupcakes are completely cooled, frost with blueberry frosting and enjoy!
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Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Strawberry Cupcakes with Lemon Frosting
I made these and substituted with presidents choice all purpose gluten free flour, and had amazing results!!!!
These were my first gf cupcakes and I was not disappointed in flavour, nor the sponginess of the cake!
The frosting is very sweet, so next time I think I would add a touch of the lemon juice/zest. As well as go crazy with zest in the cake as well!
LOVE LOVE LOVE this recipe!!!
Hi Megan!! So so happy you enjoyed them. Yes, the frosting can be a little sweet but adding a bit more lemon zest/juice should do the trick! Thanks so much for your comment and rating 🙂
Would this recipe work to make a layer cake? I’m hoping to make a 2 or 3 layer cake
Hi Virginia! Yes, this recipe should work for a layer cake, as well! You will just have to adjust the baking times accordingly. 🙂
Cupcake calls for milk but there are no instructions on when to add the milk. Please fix & reply
Hi Stephanie! In step 5 it tells you to add the milk to the cupcake batter. Hope this helps!
i would love to try these for my nieces birthday. If I was going to use regular ingredients instead of GF what changes would I make?
Hi Becky! If you would like to use regular ingredients, simply use 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour in place of the rice flour, tapioca starch, and xanthan gum. I hope your niece loves them!
Hi, I would love to make these. I have the pilsbury gluten free 1:1 all purpose flour. Can I use that instead of rice flour and tapioca starch? It also already has xanthum gum. Thanks!
Absolutely!! I love the Bob’s Red Mill 1:1, also. Just substitute it for the rice flour and tapioca starch and leave out the xanthan gum! Should turn out great 🙂
I would very much like to make these. We are currently living in Italy and just purchased a huge bag of lemons from the Amalfi coast. My question for you is this- I have King Arthur all purpose flour. How can I change the recipe to use this instead?
These look amazing.
Hi Angel!! Oh the Amalfi coast is BEAUTIFUL!! My husband and I visited it 3 1/2 years ago and stayed in Sorrento. If you have an all purpose flour blend simply substitute the white rice flour, tapioca starch and xanthan gum for an equal amount of the flour. (That would be 1 1/2 cups of it total for this recipe.) These are some of my FAVORITES!
We made these cupcakes and they turned out like a buttery mess and they weren’t cooked in the middle but they were over cooked on the outside
Hi! After receiving your comment I decided it was time to make these lemon cupcakes again 🙂 I found a few places that might have resulted in a gooey inside / cooked outside:
1) The type of flour you are using (I use Bob’s Red Mill Tapioca Starch and White Rice Flour)
2) How long you cooked them (this time around I baked them closer to 22-24 minutes… I will be updating this in the recipe!)
3) Using softened butter, not melted (also updating this in the recipe!)
4) The amount of lemon juice (It is a solid 1/4 c…. updating this too!)
Thanks so much for your comment!
Hi! These looked so yummy! But mine did not turn out at all, sadly. I’m an experienced baker but a novice to GF. My only changes were to sub brown sugar for white and brown rice flour for white since that’s what I had on hand 😉 the batter was really runny and they didn’t rise at all- just ran all over the pan and sunk in the middle. Waaa! Any clue where I screwed up? My GF baking never seems to amount to much 🙁
Hi Bonnie! I am so sorry to hear your cupcakes did not turn out well! I think the main problem might have been the substitution of brown sugar. Brown sugar is more moist than white sugar, and thus more dense. This could have resulted in a runnier batter and a dense product. Another area to pay attention to when baking cupcakes/cakes is to make sure you mix the butter/sugar and egg until light and fluffy. This is crucial when making super fluffy baked goods! I hope this helps you troubleshoot some of your GF baking woes!
I used brown rice flour and they turned out beautiful and delicious! I also subbed 1/4 cup coconut oil for the batter. Like 1/4 cup coconut oil and 1/4 cup butter. I just made sure the coconut oil was in the fridge to harden a bit.
I love that idea to use coconut oil! I bet it gave it a nice lift in the cupcake! Thanks so much for commenting 🙂
These sound great! If I wanted to make a standard cupcake as well, would this be a good recipe? Just leave out lemon juice and zest? Thank you!
Hi Lindsey! If you would like to make regular vanilla cupcakes you can leave out the lemon juice/zest and add an additional 1/4 cup of milk to keep the dry ingredient: wet ingredient ratio consistent. I have not tested this version, but it should work! I will be sure to post a recipe for gluten free vanilla cupcakes soon for you!
Thank you!
These cupcakes are perfect for spring! Love the fluffy frosting especially.. a good frosting always makes a cupcake.
Thanks so much, Thalia!! And yes, that blueberry buttercream is to die for!