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.
I think these are the prettiest cupcakes I have ever seen!
I used your idea and mine looked awesome. I used a sage green and lighter green, worked great!! Thank you!
Nice to know you still answer older post questions. Don’t really know how you find the time to do all you do. I can only imagine how time-consuming blogging must be…let alone all the baking, decorating and clean-up involved with running a family. Thank you for all you share. You are the BEST.
Wondering if you still read comments on this page????? We shall see.
I’m having a heck of a time trying to achieve your gorgeous colors. Will you please share more info on how you put together your frosting colors? You just said blue and purple. I need your help…….mine doesn’t look like yours at all. Big hug of thanksgiving.
Hi Annabelle,
I use Americolor brand colors, and although I don’t know for sure the exact proportions, I likely used sky blue and regal purple.
I admire you. You are perfect. Thank you for all your tutorials. Diamond from Turkey
hi there, i really like the way you present things and i tried making this just now 🙂
Glory, do you have specific colors that you mixed. The colors were just stunning as is the whole presentation!! Just thought you might have written down what you did exactly to get the colors.
Thanks
Glory, I made these and the frosting turned out pretty goopy. It didn’t get fluffy like yours. Any tips?
Your frosting was just too thin, either your ingredients (butter, cream cheese and cream) were too warm, or you added too much liquid. The frosting should be quite thick. Also, as you are working, the warmth of your hand will warm up the piping bag quite a bit. As needed, put the bowl of frosting, and/or the piping bag (with frosting in it) in the refrigerator as long as needed until it firms up (30 minutes or more).
This wonderfully beautiful recipe has been featured on Whistlin’ Wednesday at Be Wit’n WIse!
http://bewitnwise.blogspot.com/2013/05/ww-spring-cupcakes.html
You did great with these cupcakes, they’re so…… well……… Glorious!
Gorgeous! Just one question – how do they freeze? Will the cream hold up well?
I would not recommend freezing the finished cupcakes. You could freeze the undecorated cupcakes if needed, then decorate them the day, or day before you plan to serve them.