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.
you have outdone yourself glory! hydrangeas are my most favorite flower, i havn't attempted anything like this. just beautifuL!
These are gorgeous! I wish I had an excuse to whip up a batch some time soon! Thanks for sharing! You are amazing!
Wow, thanks so much for each of your lovely comments!!
batson44- The cupcakes are just slighly domed, and that's just the way they bake up. The recipe is on the blog as well. Sometimes they have a slightly larger dome, but never quite as much as with a box mix.
Brittany- I'd love you to share these with your readers, as long as you don't re-post my whole post. Please send me a link when you have it up. Thanks!
Jen (Passion for Parties)- Thanks for linking to me!
Kelly- I don't have a "white" cake recipe, but I'm working on perfecting a vanilla cake recipe that is quite good. I will be posting it, but I'm exactly sure when yet. Thanks!
Wow, those are beautiful cupcakes! Glory I was wondering do you have a go to white cupcake recipe? If so and you don't mind sharing I would love to find one.
Thanks!
WOW! Thank you for the tip! They are adorable!!!
glory, i can't believe you did Hydrangea-cuppies! i'm in charge for my sister's wedding cake/cupcakes in august, and i SO wanted to decorate them with real Hydrangeas. but i read that they aren't eadible at all… and i don't want the cake to be not eadible any more when it got in contact with the flowers 😉
now: your post!!!! THANKS so much! i'm not very experienced with using tips yet (that's why this weddingcake-thing is quite a challenge for me!), so i hope it's gonna work as easy in my kitchen as it did in yours… but if my Hydrangeas turn out half as beautiful as yours, i'm fine 😉
sunny greetings from hamburg, germany!
Prettiest cupcakes I've ever seen!!
Well done!
These are so beautiful! I love them! Thanks for sharing!!
These look amazing! The use of two colors gives them such a "real" appearance! Hydrangeas are my fave…I'm definitely going to have to give this a try! In the meantime, I'm heading over to my website's FB page to share your link! 🙂
These are amazing and so incredibly beautiful. Great job & I am definitely going to try this!