Five Star Buttermilk Cupcakes with Lemon Frosting
Five Stars. Top Dog. Fireworks Worthy. Blue Ribbon. Top Drawer. Best in Show.
These are the best cupcakes that have ever come out of my kitchen. Now, I am not saying it is the best CAKE I have ever baked as my Chocolate Beet Layer Cake is hard to beat. But, as far as cupcakes go, the crumbly cake and firm, flavorful frosting lend themselves perfectly to hand-held beauties.
Once again, my buttermilk love continues to grow with this new recipe. My sister, whose delicious cooking has been an inspiration since the beginning of Whipped, sent this recipe my way after hearing my plan to seek out all wonderful things buttermilk!
Buttermilk Cake
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
2 cups bleached flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter cake pans and line bottom with parchment paper or line put papers in a  cupcake pan. Beat the butter and sugar for 5 minutes at medium speed until light and fluffy (be sure to do the entire 5 minutes – this makes a big difference!). Beat in eggs one at a time, scraping bowl and beaters between each to incorporate.
Sift flour with the baking powder and baking soda. Add a quarter of the flour mixture to the butter-egg mixture. Then add vanilla and a third of the buttermilk. Repeat, beginning and ending with the flour mixture and scraping well after each addition.
Pour batter into prepared pans and spread to edges. Bake 25-30 minutes for layer cakes 18-20 minutes for cupcakes or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool pans on a rack for 5 minutes. Turn cakes out and cool completely.
Lemon Frosting
2 sticks butter, firm but not cold
zest of one lemon
1/8 tsp. salt
3 1/4 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
2-4 tsp. buttermilk
Beat butter, zest and salt on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low, gradually add sugar, beat until blended. Add the vanilla and lemon juice and beat until smooth. Do not over mix or frosting will incorporate too much air. It will be creamy and dense. Add buttermilk 1 tsp. at a time until frosting has a spreadable consistency.
I really, really want to try making these! They look, and sound, delicious!
these look amazing.
These look great. I love buttermilk cakes.
Buttermilk cupcakes, with lemon frosting? This could be my new favorite! (I have a terrific recipe for cupcakes drizzled with a lemon glaze… but they aren’t buttermilk based, so I’m giving this recipe a try.)
Since you’re onto all things buttermilk, you should really try marinating chicken in buttermilk (overnight) before frying or baking. It’ divine!
Viva la buttermilk!
Wow, those cupcakes look like something out of a dream. And some lemon frosting might even trick me into believing it’s spring – I will be making them as soon as I can. :)
Oh my goodness!! I can’t wait to try these .They look delicious..Thanks for sharing with us.
keep up the work.
http://www.lifeinfozone.com/category/foods-beverages/dessert/
Oh gorgeousness! You’ve hit on some of my favorite flavors here: buttermilk cake and lemon (in the frosting). Oh, you could bring these to my door any day and I would be a happy, happy girl.
these look like little dream cakes. isn’t buttermilk the best? it’s so hard to find proper traditional buttermilk (sans stabilizers) but well worth seeking it out! thanks for the recipe i’m very excited to try it!
I, too, have a thing for buttermilk. It makes baked goods so tender! These cupcakes look scrummy.
Ohhh yum! Everywhere I look today is cupcakes! I just wrote about my Chicago cupcake crawl and it seems like everyone is in a cupcake mood. The frosting on these is soo pretty, and I think you sold me with your photo description!
Sues
Ohhhhh this look amazing. I especially love the look of the frosting. I know what I’ll be making this weekend! :)
How many cupcakes does this make? I’m going to buy a cupcake pan for this one!
I dont want to displace your chocolate beet layer cake (it sounds delish) but given your obsession with buttermilk, you might want to try the Double Chocolate Layer Cake from Gourmet 1999 published on epicurious. It makes a moist yet fluffy deeply flavoured chocolaty cake or cupcakes and best of all, contains buttermilk. Best of luck becoming a mommy, I bet that baby will have some wonderful birthday cakes.
I’m a big buttermilk fan, too, and I so want to make these cupcakes this weekend, but I’ve already committed myself to kuchen! And my mom has committed to spilling her secret techniques, though that remains to be seen.
I agree with Sandie — buttermilk does wonders for chicken.
Best wishes to you and that baby girl!
Susanne
These are fantastic. I just pulled them out of the oven, and wow! . I hate using 6+eggs and all my butter for one batch of something and I really appreciate that this uses ingredients sparingly. Thanks for the recipe.
you SO have my attention. dog-earing this. digitally.
Thank you for this recipe! The cake came out beautifully; very moist and decadent. It was a sensation at the birthday party I brought it to. I filled the two-layer cake with lemon curd and frosted it with a lightly-flavored lemon buttercream. Mmm. Thanks again.
We’ve been very focused on teenagers. Maybe we need to look beyond the teenage years.
These look so good. I dig the buttermilk flavor, I use it in a lot of stuff…its great as a sub for fresh milk in soups! Oh and if you havent tried it, buttermilk pie was my latest adventure…and its dangerously yummy. I found myself fantasizing about my next slice…lol
This buttermilk cupcake recipe was amazing! They were very moist and the flavor was delicious. Great basic cupcake. I loved that I could vary the recipe by making a chocolate butter frosting and they are still amazing. They have become a favorite dessert in our home.
Hello just wanted to give you a quick heads up.
The text in your article seem to be running off the screen in
Internet explorer. I’m not sure if this is a format
issue or something to do with browser compatibility but I thought I’d post to
let you know. The design look great though! Hope you get the problem
fixed soon. Thanks