There’s only one thing better than a vase filled with freshly cut hydrangeas, and that’s cupcakes that not only look like beautiful flowers but taste amazing as well.
Ingredients
- 125g butter, softened
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 1/3 cups plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup milk
For buttercream:
- 180g butter, softened
- 2 1/4 cups icing sugar, sifted
- 2 tbsp milk
Method
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Step 1Preheat oven to 180C. Line a 12-cup muffin tray with cupcake papers.
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Step 2In the bowl of a stand mixer, or using hand-held beaters, cream butter and sugar until pale. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Beat in vanilla. Sift flour and baking powder together and add to mixture with the milk. Beat until just combined.
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Step 3Divide mixture evenly between cupcake papers, filling each approximately three-quarters full. Bake for 18 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Allow to cool completely.
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Step 4To make icing, beat butter until pale. Add icing sugar and milk and continue beating until smooth. Divide into three separate bowls and add food colouring to make desired colours.
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Step 5Spoon icing into piping bags with a closed star tip. Ideally use the style that screws on so you can move the tip between the different bags of icing colours. Pipe flowers onto cupcakes, alternating the colours as you go to create an authentic hydrangea look. Be sure to pipe right to the edge, covering the top of the cupcake paper. Place on a plate or board to serve.
Recipe Notes
For icing colours, I used blue, purple and a dusty pink. Use a little food colouring at a time so you can gradually create the desired colours.
Make sure you have a large closed star tip rather than an open star tip, which will create a completely different flower.
There are lots of videos on YouTube showing how to pipe icing for various flowers.
Recipe and photo by Greer Worsley.
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