THM-S, Low Carb
These Sugar Free Blackberry Lemonade Cupcakes are as delicious as they are beautiful. The lovely lavender color of the frosting alone is enough to put me into a “I can’t wait for spring trance” so I thought I’d take this opportunity to mesmerize you with them too.
I realize that blackberries aren’t as readily available throughout the year for some, but in the spring and summer they are usually plentiful and this is definitely a great cupcake to grace your spring/summer tables this year. Before creating this recipe, I was inspired by this post from one of my favorite, Non-Thm blogs.
I love how this blogger takes the time to understand her ingredients and explain why they might behave the way they do. Although her ingredients are usually very different from mine, sometimes our culinary paths cross and in this case, I learned from her that blackberries are just the fruit to use if you want a pipeable icing of this sort.
Be sure and wait to frost these Sugar Free Blackberry Lemonade Cupcakes until they are completely cool. Pipe very cold frosting onto the cupcakes or just smooth a thick layer of this fantastic frosting onto the cupcakes for a more rustic cupcake because blackberries are a super rustic berry.
Blackberries! I must live in the blackberry capital of … the world or something! Our blackberry season around here is HUGE. I grew up helping family members scout out wild blackberry (small dewberries almost exactly like their larger cousins) patches along the side of deserted roads when the blooms came on in the spring so that we could send out a picking party to harvest them in May.
I raised my kids to do the same and although they’re grown now, most wouldn’t bat an eye if you asked them to grab a basket and hop in the truck to go pick some blackberries when they’re in season.
Then in June, the large juicy cultivated blackberries come on and they are so plentiful that people who don’t grow them, which I have done in the past, almost always know someone who does!
So….blackberries it is! Now, raspberries are a different matter around here and if I subbed a berry for these I might choose them over strawberries because they do seem to have a lower moisture content. But according to the baker extraordinaire that I’ve linked to above blackberries are the fruit to use if you want a scrumptious berry lemonade cupcake and if you’re reading this post I think you do!
As far as the lemonade cupcakes go well I just plugged away at these until I got a lemony flavor so strong that they could very well deserve their name and although these are fantastic the first day, they are sugary, bakery style quality on the third day. So just try to keep one around to try later.
If you love spring cupcakes be sure and check out these Italian Cream Cupcakes too. They were one of the most popular posts on my blog last year and they definitely deserved it!
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Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
- 3/4 cup *coconut oil, refined (no flavor) or unrefined or use butter if needed
- 1 cup sour cream
- 3/4 cup gentle sweet*or 1/4 plus 2 tablespoons pyure or truvia
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- 1 1/2 teaspoon pure lemon extract
- 5 medium eggs *(fresh pastured eggs made these cakes so yellow)
- 1 1/2 cup baking blend or 1 1/2 cup local blend
- 1/4 tsp mineral salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
For the Blackberry Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 1 cup fresh blackberries, divided
- 8 ounces full-fat block cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup powdered xylitol or Swerve confectioners (powdered)
- 1/2 cup powdered gentle sweet* (Or just sub 1 more cup of xylitol or Swerve for this)
- 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoon blackberry puree from the blackberries (above)
- 2 pinches mineral salt (important)
Instructions
For the Lemonade Cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Line a muffin pan with 12 cupcake liners.
- Add coconut oil, sour cream, sweetener, lemon extract, and lemon zest together in a large mixing bowl and beat together until smooth.
- Add the eggs one at a time and beat after each addition. I beat the wet ingredients on medium with a hand or stand mixer for about 3 minutes.
- Turn the mixer off and sprinkle the baking blend (if using the local blend be sure and combine those flours together in a separate bowl first).
- Then sprinkle the baking powder on top of the baking blend. Mix just until combined well but do not beat.
- Spoon this batter into the prepared cupcake pans using a heaping tablespoon of batter for each cup and then go back and disperse the remainder of the batter evenly over all cups (about 1/2 heaping tablespoon more.)
- Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes and check for doneness. My electric oven took a total of 20 minutes to be perfectly done when tested with a cake tester.
- Cool completely before frosting.
For the Blackberry Cream Cheese Frosting:
- Puree 1/2 cup - 2/3 cup blackberries in a small food processor. Push through a fine mesh strainer to rid the seeds. This should yield 2 tablespoons of puree.
- In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment beat the cream cheese and butter together on high speed until smooth and creamy. Add sweetener, heavy whipping cream, vanilla, blackberry puree, and salt. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then switch to high speed and beat for 2 minutes.*
- Frost cooled cupcakes. Pipe very cold frosting onto cupcakes or just smooth the frosting onto the cupcakes for a more rustic cupcake because blackberries are a super rustic berry.
- If you choose to pipe this frosting on be sure that it is chilled very well. This frosting will hold it's shape at room temp but needs to be cold to pipe.
- Garnish with remaining berries.
Notes
Don't fill the cupcake holders over 3/4 full or they could rise too high for the pan and then fall back down. Since they are frosted that won't be noticeable but the cakes won't be as light and fluffy if this occurs.
Make ahead tips:
Store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 4-5 days. Plain cupcakes can be made ahead 1 day in advance, tightly covered, and refrigerated. Frosting can also be made 1 day in advance, covered, and stored in the refrigerator until ready to use. Unfrosted cupcakes can be frozen just thaw overnight in the refrigerator and frost.
Plain cupcakes can be made ahead 1 day in advance, tightly covered, and refrigerated. Frosting can also be made 1 day in advance, covered, and stored in the refrigerator until ready to use. Unfrosted cupcakes can be frozen just thaw overnight in the refrigerator and frost.
Frosting can also be made 1 day in advance, covered, and stored in the refrigerator until ready to use but cover tightly as it will pick up refrigerator odors easily.
Unfrosted cupcakes can be frozen just thaw overnight in the refrigerator and frost.
Sweetener subs:
Both powdered xylitol and confectioners Swerve can be used in this recipe because you really need the bulk of a sweetener that measures like sugar for at least part of the sweetener. I prefer xylitol because it is less cold tasting and generally tastes the most like real sugar. But it can cause digestive problems for some, big problems for indoor pets and you have to be able to grind it to a powder. So if any or all of those are a problem you might want to go for the Swerve option but make sure you're okay with the flavor (many people love it).
I actually borrowed this appliance to make these cupcakes, which took me a few weeks to develop to my satisfaction and wow was I impressed! It’s on sale for 32% off right now so if you can splurge, or have a special day coming up you might want to get one. Clicking on this picture will take you over to my affiliate link.
Good Morning! I had two questions, the first being should the “sugar” used in the cupcake batter be granular? And second, and I feel bad asking this but the sugar conversion charts totally confuse me. How much 1.1 sugar replacement would I need for the 3/4 cup of gentle sweet? At this point in time I have Lakanto and swerve, both measure 1.1 for sugar replacement. Thank you so much, I love your recipes!
Sheree
Hi, Sheree! The cupcake batter can be granular or powdered. And gentle sweet is twice as sweet as sugar so 1/2 cup equals 1 cup sugar and 3/4 cup gentle sweet equals 1 1/2 cup sugar.
I’m so glad that you’re enjoying these recipes and thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Thank you!
These are so good!!! Thanks so much!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them and thanks for stopping back by and letting me know! 🙂 <3
I’m thinking about making these for Easter….they look delicious! Did you hollow out some of the cupcakes and fill with extra frosting? Did you have to increase the amount of frosting to do this or did you have enough with the amounts listed? Thank you!
I made just a small indention in them Sandra and there seemed to be plenty of frosting, just don’t overdo it. Hope this helps and have a great Easter.
I can’t wait to try this out. I just had a quick question. I’m trying to make pumpkin cupcakes do you think I could just use this as a base recipe and add pumpkin and spices. Do you think it would work to just add a little more “flour” to offset the pumpkin. I know you haven’t tried it but do you think it could work.? Obviously I would t add the lemon. Haha.
Hi Crystal, I hope you enjoy it.
As far as the pumpkin cupcakes go though you might want to try modifying this recipe instead.
It’s a big cake though so you might try cutting it in half, that should make around 12 cupcakes. https://www.nanaslittlekitchen.com/pumpkin-maple-spiced-cake/