These Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes feature a lemon cake with raspberry jam filling and lemon and raspberry swirled buttercream frosting. They taste just like a sweet refreshing drink on a hot summer's day!

Head-on view of a raspberry lemonade cupcake with swirled frosting, straw, and raspberries and lemon wedges all around with more cupcakes in background and recipe title at top

I think I'm still in denial that it's spring. Probably because it snowed for an entire day last week. But now it's teetering on 70 degrees, so I'm finally starting to feel comfortable diving into ALL THINGS SPRING!

Like fresh raspberries and lemon desserts galore.

I initially made these Lemon-Raspberry cupcakes way back in 2008, but when I revisited them recently, I decided they needed a major overhaul.

I made the cupcake recipe better, added on a swirled buttercream frosting (instead of just a simple icing), and am hereby calling them raspberry lemonade cupcakes.

Because they taste just like a nice cold, refreshing glass of raspberry lemonade.

Ingredients

These cupcakes are made with pretty standard baking ingredients... Plus a whole lot of lemon zest and lemon juice.

The raspberry flavor is introduced through a raspberry jam filling in each cupcake. Plus a raspberry buttercream frosting that's swirled with a lemon one, too.

Here's what you need for the cupcakes:

Unsalted butter
Confectioners' sugar
Lemon zest
Eggs
All-purpose flour
Baking powder
Salt
Buttermilk
Lemon juice
Raspberry jam

And here's what you need for the buttercream frostings:

Unsalted butter
Confectioners' sugar
Lemon zest
Lemon juice
Raspberry Jam
Whole milk
Vanilla extract
Salt

How to Make Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes

These cupcakes are super easy to make... The toughest part is grating all that fresh lemon zest!

But it's so worth it because it adds such a nice fresh spring zing to both the cupcakes and the frosting. We don't want any of that artificial lemon flavoring around here!

Lemon zest on cutting board with lots of lemons in background

Once you've grated all the lemon zest and juiced a couple of the lemons, too (pro tip: always zest your lemons BEFORE you juice them!), you're ready to start the cupcake batter.

In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, cream together butter, confectioners' sugar, and lemon zest on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Butter, sugar, and lemon zest beaten together in mixing bowl

Add eggs in one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in vanilla extract.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

With mixer on low speed, beat in half the dry ingredients. Add buttermilk and lemon juice, mixing to just combine. Blend in the rest of the flour until just incorporated, taking care not to over-mix.

Look at that pretty lemon yellow batter!

Now, fill cupcake papers a little more than ½ way with batter. Place 1 teaspoon of jam over each.

Lemon batter in cupcake tin with raspberry jam on top of each

Use remaining batter to cover jam. It's OK if some jam is still peeking through. The jam definitely sinks a little bit, which is why you want to add it close to the top of the batter.

Lemon cupcake batter covering raspberry jam in cupcake tin

Bake the cupcakes for 19-22 minutes, until they're just turning golden at edges and a tester inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Let them rest in the tin for a couple minutes before moving to wire racks to cool completely before you frost them.

While they're cooling, you can make the buttercream frosting.

How to Make Swirled Frosting

For the raspberry lemonade frosting, I made two separate buttercreams, added them both to a pastry bag, and swirled the frosting onto each cupcake.

Swirling frosting is super easy and has a stunning visual appeal! I use two different frostings here, but it's even easy to do three frostings.

For the lemon buttercream, beat the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl with a hand mixer until creamy.

With mixer on low, blend in confectioner’s sugar until well-combined. Mix in lemon zest, lemon juice, milk, vanilla, and salt and blend until combined.

Lemon Buttercream frosting in mixing bowl

If you want to use the same bowl for the raspberry buttercream, you can move lemon frosting to a bowl. You don't have to wash the bowl out or anything as it's not the end of the world if there's a little lemon in your raspberry frosting.

Now for the raspberry buttercream, beat the butter until creamy.

With mixer on low, blend in confectioner’s sugar until well-combined. Mix in raspberry jam, vanilla, milk, and salt and blend until combined.

Raspberry buttercream frosting in mixing bowl

And fill your pastry bag. I recommend placing the pastry bag (fitted with a tip- I used a Wilton 1M for these cupcakes) into a tall drinking glass. Using a spatula, fill half the pastry bag with the lemon buttercream and the other half with raspberry.

You don't likely be able to fit all the frosting in at once and will have to refill during the cupcake frosting.

Pastry bag filled with half lemon frosting and half raspberry frosting

Swirl on that frosting! How easy is that??

And add on a fresh raspberry and tiny lemon wedge for garnish. I also like adding a tiny straw on to really emphasize that these are raspberry lemonade cupcakes!

Head-on view of raspberry lemonade cupcake with raspberries and lemon wedges in background

If you want to make cupcakes that taste just like summer, these lemon raspberry cupcakes will definitely get you in the mood for hot days, beach time, and refreshing drinks.

They have just the right amount of tart lemon flavor along with the added sweetness from the raspberry jam filling and are perfect for any spring or summer gatherings you're planning.

Landscape overhead view of a raspberry lemonade cupcake with raspberries and lemon wedges and more cupcakes in background

More Lemon Desserts

Lemon desserts just screams spring/summer to me and I have plenty of lemon recipes in my arsenal that I continue to return to. Here are some of my very favorites:

That should be enough lemon recipes to get you through at least the first part of spring/summer!

I hope these raspberry lemonade cupcakes add a little extra deliciousness to your spring and summer celebrations!

And if nothing else, I hope this recipe teaches you how easy it is to get the swirled frosting look on cupcakes. Not only does it look fun, but I love that youc can combine two or three different frosting flavors on one cupcake!

What's your favorite lemon dessert?

📖 Recipe