Hydrangea cupcakes recipe

Turn your mini cupcakes into beautiful hydrangea cupcakes by following this simple step-by-step recipe. 

Each flower is made using flower paste, which you can buy in most cake decorating shops or online. The petals are then carefully brushed with edible dust to create a realistic finish. Finish with flower paste green leaves.

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

• 125g unsalted butter, softened
• 125g caster sugar
• 125g self-raising flour
• 2 medium eggs
• 2 tablespoons milk

For the buttercream:

• 55g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 250g icing sugar
• 1/2tsp vanilla extract
• 30ml milk

For the flowers:

• 300g flower paste
• Green paste food colouring
• Spring green, dusky pink and aubergine edible petal dust

Method

1. Preheat the oven 180C, gas 4 and line the muffin tin with the mini cupcake cases. In a large mixing bowl, add all of the cupcake ingredients together and whisk with an electric hand whisk. Spoon into the cases and bake for 15-20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, colour 50g of the flower paste with the green paste food colouring, then cut out leaves out using the leaf cutter and leave them to dry on the sponge or drying mat. You'll need 3 or 4 leaves per cupcake.
3. Roll out the remainder of the flower paste until it is roughly 1/8 inch thick and cut the hydrangea flowers out using the hydrangea cutter. You'll need 33 flowers for each cake.
4. Before the flowers can dry out too much, grease the veining tool with a tiny touch of vegetable fat, and make a vein in the petals by poping the flower into the veining mould. Leave them to dry on a sponge or drying mat.
5. When the flowers are dry, use the edible dust to create a two-tone effect on the petals. Dip a paintbrush lightly in the green and swirl it around the centre of the flower. Brush the tips of the petals with pink or aubergine colour until the ends of the petals until all the petals are painted.
6. Meanwhile, make the buttercream by whisking all of the buttercream ingredients together in a large mixing bowl until combined.
7. Attach the nozzle to the piping bag and fill 2/3 full with the buttercream. Twisting the top of the bag as you go, pipe a swirl onto the cake. Do one cake at a time otherwise the buttercream forms a crust. Once you have piped the swirl arrange the flowers on the top, placing a few leaves around the bottom of the buttercream. Repeat for the rest of the cupcakes.

Top tips for making hydrangea cupcakes

This cupcake recipe requires a lot of different cake decorating tools including the following:

• Sturdy mini muffin cases (2cm high, 3.5cm across the base)
• 12-hole mini muffin tray
• Piping bag
• Piping nozzle with a plain tip
• 1 x small Hydrangea cutter
• 1 x flower veining mould
• 1 x leaf cutter
• 1 x foam drying tray or large sponge
• Non-stick pastry mat
• 3 x small soft paint brushes
• Vegetable fat such as Trex (to stop the icing petals sticking to anything)
• Silicone mat

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