The Story:
Cupcakes tend to be something that keep me social. I bake, and then I need to give all the treats away. So I meet a lot of new people on campus and in my apartment complex. It’s remarkable how many people want to be your friend when you carry around a plate of cupcakes all the time.
And not only does this cupcake look like a party, the recipe calls for a party as well! Because it makes 48 cupcakes 🙂
Lemon Neapolitan Cupcakes
Servings 48 cupcakes
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake:
- 1 box Devil's Food Cake mix
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup oil
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Lemon Cake:
- 1 box White Cake mix
- 4 egg whites
- 1/3 cup oil
- 2/3 cup milk
- juice of 2 lemons
- zest of 2 lemons
- 1/2 cup sour cream
Strawberry Buttercream:
- 2 cups butter softened
- 5-6 cups powdered sugar
- 1/3-1/2 cup strawberry puree fresh
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
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1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line pans with cupcake liners.
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2. Sift both cake mixes (into separate bowls) and set aside.
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3. Chocolate Cake: Combine the remaining ingredients in a large bowl and mix until smooth. Add cake mix and stir until fully incorporated.
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4. Lemon Cake: Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl and mix until smooth, add cake mix and stir well.
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5. Fill your cupcake liners by placing one small scoop of chocolate batter on one side and lemon on the other side. It doesn't need to be perfect, they will bake beautifully no matter what.
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6. Bake cupcakes for 15-20 minutes, or until an inserted knife comes out clean.
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7. Buttercream: Beat butter for 2 minutes, scrape down sides and beat again. Slowly add powdered sugar until your mixture is very thick. Add your strawberry puree a little bit at a time until your frosting becomes light and fluffy. If the frosting becomes too thin, then add more powdered sugar. Add vanilla extract and beat.
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8. Pipe buttercream onto cooled cupcakes and top with a fresh strawberry.
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9. Throw a party!
Recipe Notes
Make your strawberry puree by placing berries in a food processor or in a blender and mix until very smooth, like a soup. For an extra boost of flavor, add freeze dried strawberries to the puree.
Oh my…I’m so making these. They look delish and with 48 cupcakes I’m sure I’ll make a lot of new friends (:
that frosting looks soooooo delicious 🙂
Gorgeous! So THAT’S how you make friends after college, I see! Haha. I love how pretty these look!
OMGoodness Lizzy! I made these for a birthday party over the weekend and they were delicious. I must say instead of lemon I used vanilla since it was for kids. I used the strawberry buttercream recipe from the pop tarts recipe…YUMMO! I added a teaspoon of strawberry icing fruit and it was simply divine. I really like the idea of using freeze dried fruit. The possibilities have just become endless! Thanks again for another winning recipe combination.
Just made these this morning! Haven’t made the buttercream yet but the cupcakes alone are super yummy!!
Hi Lizzy, have you ever tried making a vanilla OREO cup cake and vanilla OREO frosting?
Check out my cookies and cream cupcakes!
I wanted to make mini cupcakes…with a classic cupcake swirl..what tip would I use? Would I use the same one? do you know the wilton sizes?
Thanks!
Hi Lizzy,
May I substitute white cake for yellow? I’d love to make try this recipe but I’m out of white cake.
Thanks in advance.
BTW I love your blog.
I like this weblog it’s a master piece! Glad I found this on google.
These looks absolutely gorgeous, and I would like to know where do you get those sanding sugar that you sprinkle on the top. Love the presentation, too pretty that I don’t want to eat it 🙂
I get my sanding sugar from a place in Salt Lake City, Utah called Gygi’s.
The frosting looks so pretty, want to know what piping tip did you use because it doesn’t looks like the one that you’re normally use, is it the open star tip?
Yes, it is an open star tip
Can I use the lemon cake mix instead of the white cake mix? If yes, Should I just omit the lemon zest and juice then? Thanks!
Yes, you can do that! I just like to use the white and turn it into lemon because they I can control how lemony I make it
I was wondering where you can get those scooper things because I don’t have any but I would really like to make this recipe and it looks like you might need them to get the batter in. I also wanted to know which recipe you would recommend for a pretty good 12 year old baker (heads up, it me :D) Thanks~
You don’t need food scoops to get the batter, in, a regular spoon will do just fine. Any of my cake mix recipes are great to start out with for any age! You can get food scoops in specialty stores but also online
Hey it’s jaila& I was wondering how you started your buisness, and also I want to know how you made a web page. I’m 12 years old and I’m trying to put my cupcakes out there, actually I already have a few people wanting me to send them samples of my cupcakes so I could possibly become famous like you, but I need some help! So whenever you can reply back o my messsge :)!
i love this recipe!!!i will do it !this cupcakes are AWESOME!!!
Hi this is Jaila and I was wondering how you separated the chocolate from the vanilla for the neaoploitain cupcake, can you give me some tips please!!
The batter is quite thick, so you just scoop a spoonful of each batter into the cupcake liners and they don’t blend together!
The food was delicious. Easy-to-understand recipe, I recently learned many such recipes and I think this recipe is great.
The information is good, i need more, i’m still learning about it.
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