Hydrangea bushes are in full bloom all over my neighborhood right now. I love all varieties of hydrangeas, but my favorite is this traditional shaped, blue-purple color. I picked a few this weekend and brought them inside as inspiration for cupcakes. I’ve seen cupcakes that resembled hydrangea flowers before, but I’ve never given it a try. It was much easier than I’d imagined and I was very happy with the results!
Hydrangea Cupcakes
~ Directions ~
I made a batch of my favorite chocolate cupcakes and delicious vanilla cream cheese frosting. Then I colored half of the frosting blue, and half purple (mixing a few shades of blues and purples to get a good color match to the real hydrangeas). When making the frosting, use very little cream (less than 1 tablespoon), because the coloring will add some liquid, and you need the frosting to be pretty stiff to hold a nice shape.
If you’d like to match other hydrangeas, you could certainly use other color options, like light blue and medium blue, or two shades of pink. But I do think that frosting these with two colors (instead of just one) really added to the effect.
I filled my piping bag with the two colors of frosting, side by side. Once your bag is filled (1/2 to 2/3 full), you may want to just squeeze some frosting into a bowl, until you see both colors coming out.
Then, using a Wilton 2D tip (a large closed star tip), I piped large, loose star shapes around the edge of the cupcake, and then filled in the center. If the frosting starts getting too soft (no longer holds a nice shape), then put the whole bag of frosting in the fridge for 15-20 minutes to let the frosting to firm up a bit.
Now I want to plan a pretty tea party just so I can make these again!
How to Make Hydrangea Cupcakes
Hydrangea Cupcakes
Ingredients
Perfectly Chocolate Cupcakes
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa best quality available
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract best quality available
- 1 cup boiling water
Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
- ½ cup unsalted butter 1 stick/8 Tablespoons, set at room temp about 10 minutes, but should still be cool
- 8 oz cream cheese directly from fridge
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract always use pure vanilla extract if possible
- 4 cups powdered confectioners sugar
- 1 to 3 tablespoons heavy cream heavy whipping cream (or milk- although I do like the richness that cream adds)
Instructions
Perfectly Chocolate Cupcakes
- Line muffin tin with paper liners. Heat oven to 350*F.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for one minute.
- Stir in boiling water (the batter will be thin, don’t worry, this is right).
- Fill liners 2/3 full with batter. (I usually put the batter into a large measuring cup with a pour spout, and then pour the batter into the liners.)
- Bake cupcakes for approximately 18-22 minutes.
- Cool completely on wire rack before frosting.
Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
- Place butter in a large mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Add cream cheese and blend until fully combined and smooth, about 30 seconds.
- Add vanilla extract and powdered sugar and blend on low speed until combined. Increase to medium speed and beat until it begins to get fluffy.
- Slowly add the heavy cream, a little bit at a time until desired consistency is met. (Don’t add too much if you want the frosting to stay in place when piped on cupcakes.)
- Beat until fluffy, about 1 minute.
- Use at once or keep refrigerated. (This frosting will keep well in the refrigerator for several days, but you may need to re-beat it for the best texture.)
Frosting the Cupcakes
- Color half of the frosting blue, and half purple (mixing a few shades of blues and purples to get a good color match to the real hydrangeas). (When making the frosting, use very little cream (less than 1 tablespoon), because the coloring will add some liquid, and you need the frosting to be pretty stiff to hold a nice shape.)
- Fill your piping bag with the two colors of frosting, side by side. Once your bag is filled (1/2 to 2/3 full), you may want to just squeeze some frosting into a bowl, until you see both colors coming out.
- Then, using a Wilton 2D tip (a large closed star tip), pipe large, loose star shapes around the edge of the cupcake, and then fill in the center. Repeat for all cupcakes.
Oh my lordddd! These are the most beautifully decorated cupcakes I’ve ever seen! I absolutely love Hydrangea! You are super talented! ; ) x
Thank you for your response. Another ?: Approx how many cupcakes will the 8oz recipe frost for the hydrangea design? Thank you again,
Question regarding your vanilla cream cheese frosting for piping the hydrangea cupcakes; If I add the addl 4oz of cream cheese, do I need to adjust the amount of the other ingredients? The hydrangea cupcakes are beautiful along with everything else I’ve viewed on your site! Thank you.
I’m not sure if you mean 4oz total cream cheese, or 12 oz total… either way, you can keep the other ingredients constant. I’m not sure if you use 12 oz. total if the frosting would be stiff enough to hold it’s shape for this design (the hydrangea flowers), I would suggest sticking with 4 oz or 8oz total.
Happy decorating!
Question – that I don’t *think* you have answered up there yet – I’m pretty new to the whole baking and decorating scene and while I’m definitely starting to get the hang of using a piping bag, I always seem to struggle with getting the frosting into the bags! So the idea of putting two different colors side by side seems impossible.. Any tips?
Thanks! –Heather
Heather, I have shared the tips the best I can in the post. Use a large cup to hold your pastry bag, and add one color of frosting along one side of the bag, then a scoop of the other color on the other side. Continue adding one large spoonful of each color, one side then the next until you bag is about 1/2 – 2/3 full. (See the photos in the post)
Happy Decorating!
I appreciate your reply Glory. Thank you so much. I do have one more question for you, I want to make a cake from your vanilla cupcake recipe, in order to make a cake in a 16″ square pan, how much of your recipe do you recommend me using?
Sara- I have never baked a cake in such a huge pan as 16″! I would say you could use one full recipe per layer, but they layers may be on the thin side. You made need 1 1/2 batches of batter per layer.
Stunning! Simple …stunning! Thanks for the instructions! Maybe even a novice good pull it off.
Thank you so much for sharing, I just came across your blog and I just LOVE it. I do have one question, I was searching for Wilton 2D tip as you mentioned, however that is not the closed star tip, it is drop flower tip. Can you please let me know which one if fact I need to get? Thank you so much
Hi Sara,
The tip I used is a 2D, just as I listed in the post. The tip can be used for drop flowers… technically, that’s exactly what I’m doing on the cupcakes. This style of tip is also considered a closed star, because the edges of the tip curve in a bit.
So. Pretty!
you are so creative and special to share them with us, I would love to make them !! Thanks for inspiring me.
OMG! You have such a terrific eye for color!! How did you get the color of the frosting to match almost exactly?! I wish I had your talent 🙂