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
Equipment
- cupcake tin
Ingredients
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.
Those are really beautiful. In love!
Those cupcakes are looking so cute!
A deightful flavor combination. Wonderful cupcakes.
Cheers,
Rosa
I love tea, but in cupcakes? Amazing! Wonderful idea. Saludos desde Mexico!
Gorgeous cupcakes, Heather!
You might want to check your recipe post: under 'Honey Frosting' it repeats the ingredient list for the cupcakes.
I'm allergic to honey (as I'm sure others are). A good substitute for honey is Lyle's Golden Syrup; it's liquid cane sugar with a lovely flavour & it's going to work really well with this recipe.
Thank you Naomi, this is Better Homes and Garden's original recipe that I put my spin on, so I'll let their editorial team know that the frosting recipe is missing.
Mmm. Looks yummy.
http://jenniferbakes.blogspot.ie
looks delicious!
btw, the honey frosting recipe isn't showing, it is the same recipe as the cupcakes. unless there is another link?
Just so pretty, Heather. I love the honey in the center and the clever repurposing of the tea tags!
Will you be able to notify us when BHG has the recipe corrected? I don't normally get on their site unless you have a recipe posted there.
Everything you do is always so beautiful. I don't always comment but I am always impressed. You are very talented and creative !!
How sweet! Love these and just love the tea bag toppers!
This combination sounds wonderful!
I submitted the edit to BHG, and the note has been passed forward but I'm not sure how long it will take to get fixed. Here are the frosting ingredients. The instructions are correct, so refer to them in the recipe.
Frosting ingredients:
5 oz. mascarpone or cream cheese
3 tbsp. butter
1/4 cup honey
3 cups powdered sugar
Thanks everyone for your patience. xx-Kisses!
Oh these cupcakes look just perfect!
I love the idea of making cupcakes with earl grey tea,…. mainly because the taste reminds me of warm fruit loops ceral
THANK YOU for the frosting ingredients!!! I just made the cakes last night and the shopping trip for the frosting was this morning. I had a frosting panic attack!! BTW the cakes are so yummy!
I want to use this recipe for an 8in cake. What adjustments will I have to make?