Lavender Cupcakes ~ We Love delicious Food, Recipes, and Cooking Techniques

These lovely lavender cupcakes are delicate and delicious. The cake base is lavender flavored and has a lemon buttercream frosting on top, making them perfect for any special occasion!

Cupcakes are a delight! Bite-sized cakes made for just about every occasion mean that you can’t go wrong! Try these lemon blueberry cupcakes, these gorgeous red velvet cupcakes, or these amazing cannoli cupcakes!

Lavender cupcakes on a cake stand with purple frosting and garnish with lavender buds.

What are Lavender Cupcakes?

These cupcakes are the definition of flower power at their finest! My girls love having tea parties and coming up with all sorts of sweet treats to serve at them. I couldn’t have picked a more delicate and perfect dessert for them to bring to their next one! This lavender cupcake is so dainty and sweet, and not only do they taste exquisite, but they look so beautiful as well! They are sure to impress any guest!

These lavender cupcakes are unique and delicious. The cake batter is infused with lavender extract, which brings a flavor to the table that you’ve probably never even tried before. Then, they are topped with a lemon-flavored buttercream that goes so well with the lavender that you realize they are a match made in heaven! Once you try these, you will not be able to resist going back for a second one!

Ingredients in Lavender Cupcakes

There are a few unique ingredients on this list, but that’s when you know that you are making something new and delicious! See the recipe card at the bottom of the post for exact measurements.

Cake Flour: Cake flour makes your cupcakes lighter and more sponge like.
Granulated Sugar: The sugar will sweeten these cupcakes right up!
Baking Powder and Baking Soda: These cause the cake batter to rise without yeast!
Lavender Buds: These will go in the batter and garnish the frosting.
Salt: The salt will enhance all of the flavors in the cupcake.
Buttermilk: You can use storebought buttermilk or, you can try this delicious homemade buttermilk if you don’t have any on hand!
Milk: I used 1percent milk but you can use whatever you have on hand.
Clear Vanilla: Using clear vanilla will ensure that your cupcakes stay bright white.
Lavender Extract: This is the unique ingredient that you probably don’t have on hand! This is the lavender extract that I used.
Vegetable Oil: OIl in cupcakes is what makes them nice and moist.
4 Egg Whites: These will also keep that white color and keep your cupcakes fluffy!

Lemon Buttercream

Butter: Soften the butter to room temperature
Powdered Sugar: Using powdered sugar makes it so that you still get a sweet flavor but it dissolves easily creating a smooth texture.
Lemon Juice and Lemon Zest: This give the perfect soft, lemon flavor. It’s not to strong but definitley noticable!
Salt: This will enhance the lemon flavor.
Milk: You can use any milk that you have at home. I used 1 percent milk.

How to Make Lavender Cupcakes

These look beautiful, but the great part about them is they are easy. They aren’t any harder to make than regular cupcakes, but they will bring elegance to your table!

Prep: Preheat the oven to 350° and spray a muffin tin before lining with cupcake liners. Set aside.
Whisk: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, lavender buds, and salt.
Mix Wet and Dry Ingredients: Add the buttermilk, milk, vanilla, lavender extract, and oil to the dry ingredients and beat with the paddle attachment of a stand mixer or a hand mixer just until fully combined. In a separate bowl whip the egg whites until you get medium-stiff peaks and gently fold into the batter.
Bake: Scoop the colored batter into the cupcake liners until they are 2/3 of the way full. Bake for 20-25 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean and the tops of the cupcakes bounce back when lightly pressed.

Lemon Buttercream

Beat Butter: In the bowl of a mixer add the butter. Use the paddle attachment to beat the butter for 1-2 minutes until it is smooth and creamy.
Mix: Add the lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, and powdered sugar and mix on low until most of the sugar has been absorbed by the butter. You may need to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl a few times.
Add Milk: Add the milk 1 tablespoon at a time on medium-low. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and then beat on medium-high for 2 minutes, or until the frosting is looking quite white and fluffy. If you would like, tint the frosting light purple in color.
Pipe and Garnish: Pipe on top of the cooled cupcakes and top with lemon zest and lavender buds.

6 pictures showing the steps of how to make cake batter and frosting.

Baking with Lavender

It might be your first time using lavender in a recipe, and if so, then I have some tips for you!

Where Do I Buy Lavender Extract? I bought my lavender extract ahead of time here.
Can I Use Lavender Essential Oils? I don’t recommend using lavender essential oil as a replacement for the extract. Not all essential oil is meant to be ingested and it’s concentration may be different than the extract, which can lead to overpowering or underwhelming lavender flavor.

How to Make Cake Flour

If you don’t have any cake flour on hand, don’t worry! You can easily make some at home! The reason that I use cake flour instead of regular flour is that it makes the cake more tender! For every 1 cup of all-purpose flour, remove 2 tablespoons of the flour and replace it with cornstarch. Then, you will sift it together. Once it’s been fully sifted, then measure out the amount of flour that you need for the recipe!