Lemon & Almond flour cupcakes with blackberries buttercream frosting

Just a good recipe with a twist for lemon cupcakes.

The buttercream frosting with fruits is a show stopper even you're not a fan. It just has such a beautiful color! Make the buttercream as tart as you'd like by adjusting the amount of sugar. Add some slightly mashed blackberries for added texture and color if you don't mind the seeds.

I made a batch for a friend's b-day at the office and my husband stole one. He's not much a sweets kind of guy but all I know is that he came back upstairs and said he loved it! Made my day so I felt like this recipe was worth sharing.


For the cupcakes
1 stick (8 T) unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup (leveled, minus 1 T) sugar
1/2 T lemon extract
zest of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs whole plus 1 yolk
1 cup milk
1 T lemon juice or vinegar
1 T half and half
1 cup cake flour (preferably)
1/2 cup almond flour
1/2 T baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

In a stand mixer, cream the butter with the eggs and sugar. Add this last one little by little. While it's creaming, add the lemon zests and extracts (vanilla and lemon). Set aside.
In a measuring cup, stir the milk with half and half and lemon juice. You'll use it in a little bit.
In a large bowl, whisk the dry ingredients: cake flour, almond flour, salt and baking powder.
Turn the mixer back on on low speed and add the dry mix and liquid, alternating, finishing with liquid. About a third at a time.

For the frosting
1 stick of unsalted butter, room temp (= 8 tablespoons)
2-3 cups of confectioner's sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3-4 T pureed blackberries, seedless

In a little food blender or chopper, puree approximately 1/2 cup of blackberries. Transfer it to a sifter and push it through with a spoon.
In a large blender, cream the butter and add the confectioner's sugar little by little. Halfway through, add the blackberries puree and the vanilla extract. Add 2 cups for a softer frosting and 3 cups for extra hard, sweeter frosting according to taste. Also, the more sugar, the lighter your frosting will look if you follow the amount of blackberries here. You could probably add more blackberry puree with 3 cups of sugar and the consistency will still hold. I just haven't tried yet.
Fill a 24 in decorating bag and use a large cupcake decorating tip. Leave it in the fridge for an hour or longer.

Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Bake the cupcakes into a 12 tin pan or 10 of those taller liners (mini cake) for approximately 15-20 minutes (depending on the liner size you're using) or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Let the cupcakes cool for an hour or 2 before decorating. Take the frosting out of the fridge 15 minutes before piping so it's softer and easier to decorate.

Make sure not to add too much sugar to the cakes since the frosting is already pretty sweet! Adjust sugar in the frosting to your taste!

Double the recipe if you also want to use this as filling!

Happy baking!

Tip

Cake flour is just an excuse the large flour producers found to charge you more for something extra cheap! All purpose flour is not the best for cakes, indeed, but all you need to do is replace each cup of flour from the recipe by 3/4 cup of flour + 1/4 cup of corn starch, leveled and sift before mixing in the recipe. Pretty easy! Fluffy cakes guaranteed! That's what my grandmother and my mother always did when baking cakes. Little did they know they had a secret in their hands!