July 31, 2017
Lemon and Raspberry Cupcakes!
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Lemon Cupcakes with a Raspberry Jam Centre, and Swirled Lemon & Raspberry Buttercream. My new favourite Summery Lemon and Raspberry Cupcakes!
So recently I was asked to bake a few cupcakes for work, and I was a little stuck for ideas. It seems ironic, as I have so many on my blog… but I just couldn’t decide what flavours to bake! I knew I wanted to do Chocolate, and Caramel, but I wanted something fruity and ohmydays I just couldn’t work it out. When I was buying the ingredients, I bought lemons as I thought lemon would be the best choice (if potentially boring to some) but when I strolled past the Freeze Dried Raspberries, I thought… YES. yesssssss. Lemon AND Raspberry Cupcakes!
I am questioning to myself why I have never thought to do these before, because I have regularly made cake versions, or loaf cake versions, but honestly… one of my new favourite cupcake flavours now exist in my world.
I decided to bake a Lemon Cupcake and a Raspberry Jam centre because I didn’t want to faff about making different flavoured sponges. Also, I love Lemon Cake. However, I did decide that swirling together Raspberry Buttercream with Lemon Buttercream would give it the show it needed, along with representing that its double flavoured.
Sprinkling on some Freeze Dried Raspberries is just a must for me as they look so god damn pretty, but you can easily decorate with fresh raspberries instead. Anything Raspberry is good my books because I love them oodles amounts.
Combining Lemon with other fruits is always delicious, such as with my Lemon & Blueberry Sweet Rolls. However, in Cake form, it is just that much better. It’s so fresh, and somehow you feel less guilty about eating cake when its so fruity.
My White Chocolate & Raspberry Blondies is a good alternative if you’re craving something Raspberry like with chocolate… but honestly, these lemon and raspberry cupcakes are so delicious you will LOVE them! Enjoy! x

Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes!
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 150 g Unsalted Butter/Stork
- 150 g Caster Sugar
- 3 Medium Eggs
- 150 g Self Raising Flour
- Zest of 1 Lemon
- 150 g raspberries (optional)
Lemon/Raspberry Buttercream
- 150 g Unsalted Butter (room temp)
- 350 g Icing Sugar
- 2 tbsp Lemon Juice
- 1 tbsp Raspberry Jam
- Pink Food Colouring
Decoration
- Raspberry Jam
- Freeze Dried Raspberries
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 170C/160CFan and Line a 12 Hole Muffin Tray with Large Cupcake Cases/Muffin Cases or put 12 Iced Jems Baking Cups onto a flat tray!
- Cream together the Butter and Caster Sugar till light & fluffy and smooth – add in the Beaten Eggs, Self Raising Flour and Lemon Zest and beat again for about about 20-30 seconds on a Medium Speed – it really doesn’t take too long, you don’t want to overdo it!
- Pour the raspberries into the mix if you're using them and gently fold them through.
- Spoon your cupcake mix into your Iced Jems Baking Cups and bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes or until cooked through! Leave to cool on a wire rack.
- Once the cakes are cool, make the buttercream frosting – beat the softened Butter until smooth – this can take a couple of minutes. Add in the Icing Sugar 1/3 at a time, making sure the sugar is fully incorporated until moving on!
- Once all of the Sugar is in the mix, split it between two bowls. Add the Lemon Juice to one, and beat. Add the Raspberry Jam, and a little pink food colouring to the other and beat.
- Once both buttercreams are combined, add them both to a piping bag (with each flavour on one side) or add them to two smaller piping bags, and then add that to a larger one.
- Hollow out some of the cupcake, like you would for a Butterfly Cupcake, and then spoon in a little Raspberry Jam. Using a 2D Closed Star Piping Tip, pipe the buttercream onto the cupcakes, ontop of the jam.
- Decorate your cupcakes how you like – I use Sprinkles, freeze dried Raspberries which I found in Waitrose, and a fresh raspberry – ENJOY!
Notes
- YOU MUST USE ACTUAL BUTTER FOR BUTTERCREAM – I can’t stress this enough. I get comments often about ‘why is my buttercream so runny’ and 9/10 times its because the incorrect butter was used. You can’t use stork, or a spread, or a substitute for buttercream.
- I buy my Cupcakes Cases/Baking Cups from Iced Jems – here!
- These lemon and raspberry cupcakes will last in an airtight container for 3 days at room temperature!
ENJOY!
Find my other Cupcake Recipes on my Recipes Page!
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J x
© Jane’s Patisserie. All images & content are copyright protected. Do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words and credit me, or link back to this post for the recipe.
Does anyone know any UK supermarkets selling freeze dried raspberries? I used to be able to get them in Sainsburys or Tesco but both seem to have delisted them! Thanks 🙂
I saw some in hobbycraft this week and you can also buy a big bag from Amazon!
Can you use cake flour for this recipe?
Hi Jane!
I recently made these cupcakes for my family and they tasted amazing! Everyone couldn’t stop talking about them, so thank you for sharing your recipe with us. I’ve been asked if I could make these cupcakes into a lemon sponge cake (3 or 4 layers in 10 inch tin), is it possible to do so? If so do I need to just keep the ingredient measurements the same or should I double them?
Jess 🙂
Hiya! Take a look at my lemon and raspberry cake recipe! Hope this helps, enjoy! x
Great recipe! Only problem I had was after I separated the buttercream & added the lemon juice to one half. It was too loose so added another 6tbs of icing sugar. This helped a bit but will have to remember next time that I don’t need need 2tbs of lemon juice as think 1 would have been plenty! X
Hi Jane!
These were such beautiful cupcakes; light and spongey and so pretty too! The only problem I had was that after adding the lemon juice and raspberry jam, the butter cream was too soft to pipe. I tried to pop it back in the fridge for a while to stiffen up which helped but after they warmed back up to room temperature they were very soft again…
Literally LOVE following your recipes – my favourite therapy! Thank you!
Lianne x
I made these and they were INCREDIBLE! So delicious, so light and fluffy, mine didn’t look anywhere near as pretty as yours, I need to work on my piping skills, but thank you for ANOTHER great recipe.
I tell anyone who’ll listen about your website, I’ve never had a bad recipe or a failed bake since finding you. Just wanted to say THANK YOU!
Hey!! Oh my gosh this is actually the nicest message ever. Thank you so much it makes me so happy to hear that you love my recipes. You are so welcome and thank you for all your support!xx
Hiya, would I be able to swap the raspberries for blueberries?
Yes!! x
My pink buttercream was fab but as soon as a I added lemon juice to my lemon buttercream it was so sloppy and lost its shape when I piped it? I used proper butter from Tesco and tried to add more icing sugar but no luck🤦🏼♀️ Please help, what did I do wrong?
That’s really strange – I have never had that with block butter! It sounds like too much lemon juice or the butter was far too soft x
Will the raspberry jam split the buttercream? And does it give a strong flavour? Thank you!!’
No it doesn’t! And it’s not a hugely strong flavour, but its a lovely flavour!
I would like to add some gin to this cupcake recipe, how best would i do it? in the icing or cupcakes or both and do you think flavouring or actual gin would be best?
many thanks
Flavouring is the safer way as liquids can ruin a buttercream for example, or you can try the gin drizzle from my G&T cupcakes x
Hi Jane,
I recently made these but unfortunately they turned out quite dry. I’m sure its something I have done and not your recipe, but I can’t work out what. Any ideas?
I also recently made your carrot cake cupcakes and they were amazing and light. Just wish these would have been as good!
Any tips greatly received.
Thank you xx
That sounds like they are over baked – usually these are softer due to the fruit so it’s quite strange that they are dry! x
Hi Jane I’ve just made the lemon and raspberry cupcakes. Can I freeze them with the jam in the middle until I want to pipe them ? X
Yeah you can do!! x
My buttercream was super runny and lost all of its shape when piping. Any suggestions on how to improve? Super tasty recipe though! X
What type of butter did you use? x
Can you turn those into a cake?
I’m wondering if you think these will work with fresh raspberries?
I’m sure it would!
Hi Jane.
I make these this week to take to work. They were amazing and everyone loved them. 😋 The freeze dried raspberrys on the top were fab . Thanks for a great recipe will definitely make these again soon. Going to try your crunchier ones next week.
These look beautiful! I particularly love the freeze dried raspberry topping. I made similar cupcakes last year (not as pretty as yours though!) but used a lemon cream cheese icing which worked really well.
Hi Jane,
Recently when I am baking cupcakes some are peeling away as soon as they come out oven and others a bit later? This never used to happen and I haven’t changed ingredients.
I use stork for cakes and beat with sugar so really light first?
Any ideas why this happening?
Thank you xx
Hey!! So this typically means the cupcakes haven’t finished baking/need a bit longer! It can also depend on what cupcake cases or baking cups you use. For example, with the baking cups I use, you could cool them on the tray you baked them on, so the cooling process is slightly slower! x