Honey and lavender is one of my favorite springtime flavor combinations! These light, honey lavender cupcakes are infused with tons of floral lavender flavor and then topped with a sweet honey frosting!
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Why You'll Love These Cupcakes!
- Honey lavender frosting - The buttercream is infused with honey and lavender extract for a sweet, floral frosting!
- Moist lavender cupcake base - These lavender cupcakes are super light, tender, and full of flavor!
- Lavender infused milk - Steeping lavender flowers in the milk adds extra floral flavor to the cupcakes.
- Super easy to decorate - All you need to make these cupcakes beautiful are some sprigs of dried lavender!
You might also like these blackberry cupcakes, these lemon poppy seed cupcakes, or this lemon lavender cake!
Ingredient Notes
With just a few fun ingredients in addition to classic pantry staples, these lavender cupcakes come together super easily!
- Cake flour - I always use cake flour in my cupcakes because it makes them super soft and tender, but all purpose flour also works great!
- Milk - To add even more lavender flavor to the cupcakes, I like to infuse the milk with lavender flowers.
- Lavender - I use both a combination of dried culinary grade lavender and lavender extract, for these cupcakes. More on that below! You can find lavender extract in the baking aisle at most grocery stores, or online! Just note that lavender extract is very strong, so a little goes a long way! Since we use two types of lavender flavor, you can just use one or the other if you can't find both.
- Purple food coloring - I used a tiny drop of purple food coloring to get this pretty lavender color but that's totally optional!
The complete list of ingredients and amounts is located in the recipe card below.
What is culinary grade lavender?
When you're baking with flowers like lavender or rose, you always want to make sure it specifies "culinary grade" on the packaging! This ensures that the product is processed properly and intended for human consumption. I typically buy this brand on amazon!
Where to buy dried lavender flowers?
You can find full bouquets of dried lavender flowers online and at local flower shops! Trader Joe's often has large bundles of dried lavender which is what I used for these photos!
How to Make Lavender Cupcakes
This is optional, but a great way to infuse more lavender flavor into the cupcakes. I recommend making the lavender milk the night before you plan to make the cupcakes so that it has time to fully cool.
Add the milk and lavender flowers to a small pot. Over medium heat, bring the milk up to a simmer. As soon as the milk starts to bubble, remove from the heat.
Let cool completely to room temperature then strain out the lavender flowers.
Preheat oven to 350°F and line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
Whisk the cake flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the melted butter and sugar until smooth. Then whisk in the eggs, vanilla, and lavender extract until combined.
Next whisk in the honey until fully incorporated.
Stir in about half of the flour mixture. Then stir in the ½ cup of the cooled lavender milk and the rest of the flour mixture and mix until fully combined. The batter will be thick.
Pour about ¼ cup of batter into each cupcake liner (they should be about halfway full).
Bake at 350°F for 18-22 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack.
Let cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
Frost the cooled cupcakes and top with sprigs of dried lavender and a drizzle of honey.
Tips for the Best Baked Goods
Use room temperature ingredients! Always make sure ingredients like butter, eggs, milk, yogurt, etc. are at room temperature before baking (unless the recipe indicates otherwise)! This ensures they'll incorporate into the batter more easily and leads to overall better texture. Remove all ingredients from the fridge 30 minutes to an hour before baking for best results.
Measure your flour correctly! It's most accurate to use a kitchen scale, but if you're measuring by volume you want to spoon and level! Fluff up the flour a bit with a spoon, and then spoon flour into the measuring cup. Once it's overflowing, use the back of a knife to level it off. Don't ever pack flour into the measuring cup or you'll end up with way too much! Improperly measured flour can lead to dry, dense baked goods. [Measure cocoa powder the same way!]
Use an oven thermometer! Just because your oven says it's 350, doesn't mean it is! If you oven hasn't been calibrated recently, it can be as much as 30 degrees off, which will negatively affect all baked goods from cakes to macarons! An oven thermometer is the easiest/cheapest way to ensure your oven is always at the proper temperature.
Make sure you baking powder is fresh! Baking powder is important for helping baked goods rise properly, but it has a relatively short shelf life once opened, so it's one of the few items I never buy in bulk! To test if your baking powder is still fresh, add a small amount to boiling water. If it bubbles it's still good to use, but if not it's time to toss it!
Cupcake Decorating Tips
- Make sure you let the lavender cupcakes cool completely before frosting!!
- For these big beautiful frosting swirls on these honey lavender cupcakes, I use the 1M tip from this decorating kit. The tips are much larger than standard sizes and so fun for decorating cupcakes!
- I used a few drops of purple food coloring to get this pretty lavender color.
- Garnish with sprigs of dried lavender! If desired, you can also drizzle on some extra honey, (but that does make things a bit sticky and messy so I only drizzle the ones I plan to eat immediately).
Recipe FAQ's
The cupcakes are best the same day, but will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days! However, they taste best when served at room temperature! I like to let them sit at room temperature for about an hour before serving.
Short answer, no! Honey is not a direct replacement for granulated sugar! It's sweeter and has a higher water content than sugar which can affect the outcome of your cupcakes. Sugar also provides more structure to the cupcakes so replacing with honey will make the cake much denser. This recipe was designed with specific measurements of granulated sugar and honey for the perfect balance of flavor and texture.
Tips for Success!
For best results I always recommend using weight measurements (especially when baking) because it's the most accurate. Kitchen scales are super affordable and also reduce the number of dishes you have to do! However, all my recipes also include US customary measurements for convince. Use this chart to convert measurements for common ingredients!
Substitutions: In all my recipes, I've included substitutions that I know will work, but I cannot guarantee results if you substitute ingredients that I have not recommended. [For example, granulated sugar and honey are indeed both sweeteners but they have very different properties so they can not always be swapped 1:1. Using honey in a cookie recipe that calls for granulated sugar will yield a giant mess.] In the recipe card you'll find links to the specific ingredients/brands that I use.
A note on salt: I almost exclusively use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt because it's the best all-purpose salt for cooking and baking. If you're not using kosher salt, consult this handy guide for a conversion chart! When in doubt, if you're using table salt just reduce the amount by half for baked goods. When cooking, I prefer to under-salt because you can always add more! If you've over-salted, adding a little bit of acid (like lemon juice) can help.
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Recipe Card
Honey Lavender Cupcakes
Special Equipment
Ingredients
Lavender Milk
- ¾ cup whole milk
- 1 tablespoon dried lavender flowers
Cupcakes
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- ¼ cup honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon lavender extract paste, optional
- 1 ½ cups cake flour, substitute all purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup lavender milk
Lavender Buttercream
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- ¼ cup honey
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon lavender extract paste, optional
- 1-3 tablespoons lavender milk, as needed
- 2-4 drops purple food coloring
Garnish
Instructions
Lavender Milk
- This is optional, but a great way to infuse more lavender flavor into the cupcakes. I recommend making the lavender milk the night before you plan to make the cupcakes so that it has time to fully cool.
- Add the milk and lavender flowers to a small pot. Over medium heat, bring the milk up to a simmer. As soon as the milk starts to bubble, remove from the heat.
- Let cool completely to room temperature then strain out the lavender flowers.
Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
- Whisk the cake flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the melted butter and sugar until smooth. Then whisk in the eggs, vanilla, and lavender extract until combined.
- Next whisk in the honey until fully incorporated.
- Stir in about half of the flour mixture. Then stir in the ½ cup of the cooled lavender milk and the rest of the flour mixture and mix until fully combined. The batter will be thick.
- Pour about ¼ cup of batter into each cupcake liner (they should be about halfway full).
- Bake at 350°F for 18-22 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack.
- Let cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
Lavender Buttercream
- In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and honey until smooth.
- Add in the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time until fully combined and smooth.
- Set the mixer to low speed and slowly drizzle in the lavender milk until it's fully incorporated into the buttercream.
- Add in the salt, lavender extract, and food coloring, then beat the frosting on high for 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy.
- If the frosting in too thick, you can add in 1 tablespoon of lavender milk at a time to thin it out a bit.
- Frost the cooled cupcakes and top with sprigs of dried lavender and a drizzle of honey.
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Marg says
Absolutely delicious!! Make again for sure. I decorated the icing with the honey drizzle and purple sugar…so pretty for our lavender work shop. Thank you!
Leira says
Hi! Can I use lavender extract liquid instead of paste? Is it the same amount?
Leira says
Also, do you think I could add blackberries? I have a surplus and want to use them but I'm worried they might mess something up.
Kyleigh Sage says
Yes use the same amount of lavender extract! I actually have a blackberry lavender cupcake recipe that’s super similar to this one!
https://www.barleyandsage.com/blackberry-lavender-cupcakes/
But if you want to add blackberries to the batter, I wouldn’t do more than 1/2 cup and toss them in a little of the flour first. It should work fine!
Liyan says
can I use maple syrup instead of honey?
Kyleigh Sage says
Yes that will work!
Emma says
Absolutely delicious and a very unique flavour! I’ve made this recipe a couple times now and it’s always a hit! Definitely recommend getting the lavender extract paste - I’ve used it subsequently in cookies or in early grey tea so it’s usable for things outside of this cake recipe, too!
lynn says
Do you have to use whole milk or will a 1% work?
Kyleigh Sage says
Any milk will work!