Iced Lemon Muffins are sweet, tart, and buttery. They are topped with sweet lemon icing, and make the perfect quick breakfast recipe.
This is a surprisingly quick recipe; it only takes 30 minutes to bake these delicious fluffy muffins. For more delicious fruit Baked Goods try Blueberry Buckle and Banana Coffee Cake.
Sabrina’s Iced Lemon Muffin Recipe
The lemon flavor in these soft fluffy muffins makes them the perfect bright combination of tangy and sweet. You’ll love these sunny lemon muffins, complete with a little food coloring to make them extra colorful and bright. You won’t be able to help but smile when you enjoy these muffins.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter , softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 drops yellow food coloring , optional
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Lemon Icing Frosting
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a 12-cup muffin tin with muffin liners.
- To your stand mixer add butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes.
- Add in the eggs, vanilla extract, and yellow food coloring until smooth and creamy.
- Add in lemon juice and sour cream until smooth.
- Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add to your stand mixer on the lowest speed setting a little at a time until just combined.
- Scoop batter evenly, using an ice cream scoop, into your muffin liners and bake for 20-22 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let cupcakes cool completely before dipping into the icing.
- Whisk together powdered sugar and heavy cream until thick and creamy.
- Dip the top of the cooled muffins into the icing then sprinkle lemon zest on top.
Nutrition
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Table of contents
About this Recipe
This Iced Lemon Muffin recipe is great for beginning bakers. The ingredients are simple and easy to whisk together and only take about half an hour. They are topped off with a creamy lemon icing which makes them even sweeter and adds some extra lemon zest to the recipe. For less sweet muffins, just skip over the icing, and enjoy warm breakfast muffins with melted butter spread over the middle.
How to Store
- Serve: Keep covered or in an airtight container at room temperature for 1-2 days.
- Store: You can keep leftover muffins in an airtight container for up to a week.
- Freeze: You can also freeze them for 2-3 months. Freeze them for an hour while still in the muffin tin, then you can transfer them to a freezer bag. Let them thaw in the fridge overnight for a quick breakfast in the morning.
Variations
- Flour Mixture: You can use whole wheat or whole grain flour in place of all-purpose flour. If you want gluten-free flours use coconut flour, almond flour, or oat flour.
- Flavorings: For more flavoring add in a little extra to the 4 tablespoons lemon. You can also mix in some almond extract, pure vanilla extract, or mashed bananas.
- Add-ins: You can mix in frozen blueberries or fresh blueberries. If you use frozen blueberries let them thaw for a little while first. You can also add fresh raspberries, sliced strawberries, almonds, or chia seeds.
- Flax eggs: If you don’t want to use regular eggs, you can replace them with flax eggs.
- Lower calories: For fewer calories you can use low-fat sour cream for a more healthy dessert. You can also replace the butter with olive oil or avocado oil. For more butter replacements, try exchanging the regular real butter in the recipe with coconut oil, coconut butter, cashew butter, or other nut butters.
- Streusel: Try making lemon crumb muffins with a streusel topping. To make the streusel muffins combine ¾ cup all-purpose flour, ¾ cup sugar, and ¼ cup cold butter cubed. Use a fork to combine them into crumbs then top the muffins with the streusel instead of glaze.
- Glaze: You can replace the creamy lemon icing with a variety of other kinds of frostings. Try making a sweet and tangy lemon glaze. Whisk together the frosting in a small bowl with 2 cups powdered sugar mixed with 3 tablespoons lemon juice. Drizzle glaze over the top of cooled cupcakes for Glazed Lemon Muffins. You could also make Cream Cheese Frosting or Buttercream Frosting.Add a little lemon juice to the cream cheese or buttercream frosting to keep the flavor.
- Sugar: Instead of regular granulated sugar, you can replace the white sugar with maple syrup, brown sugar, honey, or coconut sugar. Maple syrup or brown sugar will give a deeper flavor to the muffin.
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Would these bake properly in a Bundt pan instead of a muffin pan? Would I need to adjust any ingredients or baking directions?
I haven’t tested it but I would think the easiest would be convert to mine bundt cakes that way you wouldn’t have to adjust anything. Good luck!