Lemon Coconut Cupcakes

The perfect spring dessert! These lemon coconut cupcakes are packed with zesty and bright lemon flavors then topped with a coconut buttercream.

These moist cupcakes are absolutely perfect for spring or anytime of year really. They are bright, flavorful and so much fun! To make these cupcakes super festive, they are topped with toasted coconut and candy chocolate covered eggs. Yum!

About these Lemon Cupcakes

• Fluffy and moist
• Buttery crumb
• Easy to make
• Topped with a coconut buttercream and toasted coconut
• Festive and perfect for spring

Cupcake Ingredients

These lemon coconut cupcakes are super simple to make, even though they look like they took you forever to make. These cupcakes are made with 10 ingredients that you likely already have on hand. The chocolate eggs are completely optional but really make these spring cupcakes so cute.

Ingredients

• All Purpose flour: I prefer to use all purpose flour but cake flour would work here too.
• Baking Powder: This is what helps the cupcakes rise just enough.
• Salt: Just a small pinch of salt is needed to balance out the sweet and tart flavors.
• Butter: Butter is used to help create a tender cupcake.
• Sugar: Provides the perfect amount of sweetness to the cupcakes.
• Eggs: Needed for the structure of the cupcakes and also helps with leavening.
• Milk: Adds moisture to the batter and helps make a moist and fluffy cupcake.
• Vanilla: Although this is a lemon cupcake, the vanilla adds extra warmness to the cupcakes.
• Lemon Zest: Adds a brightness to the cupcake and adds so much flavor.
• Lemon Extract: Adds more lemon flavor to the cupcake without being over powering.

How to make Lemon Cupcakes

1. Before starting, it’s super important to make sure all of your ingredients are room temperature.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup cupcake tin with cupcake liners.
3. In a medium size bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. In a stand mixer, cream together together the butter and sugar for 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs one at a time. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl. Next, add in the lemon extract, vanilla extract and lemon zest.
5. Then mix in half of the dry ingredients and all of the milk and mix until just combined. Add in the remaining ingredients.
6. Spoon the batter evenly into the cupcake liners, filling about 2/3 full. Allow the cupcakes to bake for 16- 18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before icing.

Tips for fluffy cupcakes

1. Follow the recipe. Sounds obvious right, but sometimes mistakenly adding too much of this or not enough of that will alter the texture of the cupcakes.
2. Working with room temperature ingredients. I can’t stress enough how important it is to work with room temperature ingredients. Not only will it prevent over mixing but it will help all of the ingredients come together better.
3. Not overmixing or undermixing. After the flour is added into the batter, it’s important to mix just enough to not over work the flour. This could result in a dry and dense cupcake.
4. Over baking. Be sure to keep an eye out for your cupcakes. You will know they are done if you gently tap the top of the cupcake and it bounces back or if a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Frost with a Coconut Buttercream

This coconut buttercream is super simple. All you need is butter, powdered sugar, milk and coconut extract. Mix on high for about 5-8 minutes or until light and fluffy.

Toasted Coconut

When toasting the shredded coconut, it’s important to keep your eye on it to make sure it doesn’t burn. You should pull it out when there is some golden brown pieces through out. Let it cool before using.

Assemble the cupcakes

To assemble these lemon coconut cupcakes, it’s important that the cupcakes are cooled completely. Using a large piping tip, pipe buttercream in a circular motion until you have the desired amount of frosting on each cupcake. For this cupcake recipe, I used an open star tip.

After the icing has been piped onto the cupcakes, sprinkle with the toasted coconut, then add 3 eggs on top. Enjoy!

Looking for more cupcake recipes?

Try these Moist Chocolate Cupcakes.