We all know desserts aren’t exactly the healthiest things to eat. But guess what? Sometimes you just want a sweet treat, and if you’re going to indulge on a regular basis, might as well incorporate some fresh fruit into the mix! Cupcakes are perfect little portions of sweetness, and fruit cupcake recipes incorporate all the sweet along with a “healthy” ingredient: FRUIT! Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. It’s still dessert and definitely not a health food! But, when “nature’s candy” is in it, you can feel better about enjoying your baked treat!

Fruit Cupcake Recipes Loaded with Fresh Ingredients

Fruit. Naturally sweet and truly versatile. You can use fruit in savory dishes, not just sweet ones. An easy way to enjoy dessert without overdoing it and regretting it later? Baking up fruit cupcake recipes! Cupcakes come in a few sizes, but even when you make the biggest ones, they’re still pretty portion controlled. It’s the perfect little dessert! Even better? Less mess to clean up after enjoying them with friends and family – no one needs a fork, or a plate, really. I mean, grab a napkin, your cupcake, and have at it.

What are some of the best fruit cupcake recipes you can enjoy baking and eating any time of the year? Let’s find out!

Strawberry Cupcakes

One of my favorite summer fruit of all time, so much so that I have my own patch of them in my yard: strawberry. You can make so many amazing things with this little bright red fruit. There’s nothing more delicious than an ice cold homemade strawberry lemonade made with fresh strawberry puree, matched up with Joy Food Sunshine’s Strawberry Cupcake. Making them in the winter with my frozen strawberries I saved from my own garden brings me back to summer, and gets me through the worst winter blues.

Banana Cupcakes

Sour cream in the batter of Preppy Kitchen’s Banana Cupcakes recipe helps keep these little gems moist. The buttermilk helps keep everything fluffy. Bananas can be dense, causing a cupcake to feel heavy and sink to the bottom of your stomach and just sit there like a rock. But, buttermilk helps lighten the batter up and create a much more pleasant banana cupcake experience everyone will want more of.

Lemon Cupcakes

I know, a lot of people turn their noses up at lemons. Personally, I love them. They add brightness to any dish, and frankly, cut the sweetness level on any dessert it’s incorporated into. However, even as a die hard lemon lover, when an entire dessert has lemon from cake all the way through to the buttercream frosting – it might need a hot cup of tea or coffee to cut the citrus punch when enjoying Life Love and Sugar’s Lemon Cupcakes.

Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

Fresh fruit is always my preference, but sometimes fruit preserves are necessary. Baked by an Introvert’s Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes calls for black cherry preserves, or regular cherry preserves, in both the batter and for the frosting. BUT, nothing says you can’t top them with a fresh cherry, maybe even a chocolate covered fresh cherry!

Triple Berry

Blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries – along with my strawberry patches in my own yard, I also have my own blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry bushes throughout my property. We never lack for fresh berries, and if we can’t eat them all ourselves, we tend to freeze a lot of them, and we also find ways to bake with them. A fantastic fresh berry cupcake recipe I’m a fan of is Baker by Nature’s Triple Berry Cupcakes!

Even when you’re not a huge fruit lover, once they’re baked into a dessert, not a lot of people would say no to enjoying them!