Lavender Earl Grey Cupcakes for Better Homes and Gardens

Dried culinary lavender and Earl Grey tea come together in these Lavender Earl Grey Cupcakes – a delicious tea-time treat! A drizzle of honey adds sweetness to the creamy mascarpone buttercream.

Hi friends! This month I’ll be sharing a few of my cake creations on the Better Homes and Gardens blog – starting with these tea-time inspired cupcakes! They’re so easy to make, and perfect for a Mother’s Day dessert. But Lavender-Earl Grey Cupcakes are great any time of year!

Lavender and Earl Grey flavors have a natural affinity for each other, but you can use any tea that strikes your fancy. For example, you could use orange spice tea, chocolate rooibos, or even hibiscus tea for a whole different take on this cupcake.

The fluffy lavender-studded cupcakes make the perfect blank canvas for creamy honey-mascarpone buttercream. These are even tempting without the frosting.

Pipe a circle of frosting using a large open star tip on top of the cupcakes, and leave a little space in the center. Then fill it up with more honey!

I thought it would be cute to make some Earl Grey cupcake toppers using the tea bag tags. Just snip them off with scissors and tape them to toothpicks. So easy!

Use your favorite pre-packaged shortbread cookies to pair with the cupcakes. Or, you could use my favorite homemade shortbread recipe. (Just swap the rosemary with more dried culinary lavender).

Lavender-Honey Cupcakes

Heather Baird

These cupcakes are infused with fragrant Earl Grey Tea and dried culinary lavender. They're the perfect tea time treat!

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Prep Time 20 mins

Cook Time 18 mins

Total Time 38 mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 18

Equipment

• cupcake tin

Ingredients

 

US CustomaryMetric

 

1x2x3x

Cupcakes

• 2/3 cup milk
• 4 earl grey tea bags
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons dried lavender
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• ¼ cup honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Honey buttercream

• 5 ounces mascarpone cheese or cream cheese
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 cups powdered sugar

Toppings

• 1/2 cup honey
• 18 ready-made shortbread cookies

Instructions

 

Cupcakes

• Line 18 muffin tin cups with paper bake liners.
• Heat milk in a saucepan on the stovetop over medium-high heat until steaming. Add tea bags and steep 15-20 minutes. Let cool to room temperature.
• Preheat oven to 350F.
• In a large mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, the 2 teaspoons lavender, and the salt.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter with on medium-high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, honey, and vanilla. Mix until combined. Add eggs, one at a time; beat well after each addition. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to butter mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until mixture is combined. Begin and end with flour
• Potion batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each about 3/4.
• Bake for 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool completely on wire racks.

Frosting

• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whip attachment, beat mascarpone, butter, honey, and vanilla with mixer on medium until light and fluffy. Gradually add powdered sugar. Beat until light and fluffy. Add more powdered sugar if mixture is lax.
• Using a decorator piping bag fitted with a large open star tip, pipe frosting in a circle on top of each cupcake leaving an open hole in the centers. Fill centers with a spoonful of honey. Garnish with cookies, if desired, or serve them alongside cupcakes.

Keyword dried culinary lavender, earl grey tea, mascarpone cheese, organic honey

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