Baking Sunday: Lavender Cupcakes with Cream Cheese & Honey Frosting

I am so, so, so excited to share this Baking Sunday recipe with you! And I'm SUPER stoked about my pictures this week. I was getting fancy with my Iphone and VscoCam. Things have been so crazy in seminary lately that I haven't had much of a chance to blog about all of the delicious things that Jenny and I have been making -- scratch that, baking. From cinnamon rolls to key lime pie, banana bread bars, black bean double chocolate chip cookies, it's all been good, people. But these lavender cupcakes are the pinnacle of our baking, in my opinion. They're so creative, unique and dreamy. I've literally never tasted anything like them. The combination of lavender, honey and vanilla is too good.

When I told one of my friends at church that we were baking lavender cupcakes she made me nervous. She told me that her mother-in-law had made lavender cheesecake once and it tasted like a candle. Then, I was reading some of the reviews for this recipe and some people said that the dried lavender they used was tasteless. Let me tell you, we didn't run into either problem. The cupcakes don't taste like candles and they aren't tasteless. They're delicious! So, I feel like we hit the jack-pot. Please make these, okay?

Recipe courtesy of Jessie Next Door
*I've cut the frosting recipe in half because we had SO much left over. Unless you want to OD on cream cheese and honey frosting (which, hey, you might and I won't judge you) I think my adjustment covers the amount you'll need.

What you'll need for the cupcakes:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla 
• Purple, or red and blue frosting, tint the batter to your liking. We made ours a light lavender color. 
• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 2 1/2 tablespoons of dried lavender buds (I found mine at World Market...Whole Foods didn't have any, neither did Mejier and I didn't check at Trader Joe's)
• 2/3 cup cold milk

What you'll need for the frosting:

• 1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
• 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups of confectioners' sugar 
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla 
• 1 tablespoon of honey, and more for drizzling

To Bake:

• Preheat oven to 350 F. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners or grease the tins with butter. 
• Chop the dried lavender buds into fine pieces and set aside.
• Using an electric mixer or a stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each egg. Mix in the vanilla and the food coloring. 
• In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and chopped lavender buds. 
• Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and beat together, then stir in the milk. 
• Scoop the batter evenly into the muffin tins. 
• Bake for 18-24 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
• Let the cupcakes cool in the tins for 5-10 minutes and then move them to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the Frosting:

• In a large bowl (or in the stand mixer), beat butter and cream cheese together. Add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time, mixing on low, until the frosting is smooth and creamy. Beat in the vanilla and honey. 
• Scoop the frosting into a piping bag or ziplock bag and pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes in the way that you see fit. 
• After you're finished frosting the cupcakes, drizzle some honey on top (this is a great opportunity to use your honey spoon if you have one ;))!
• Garnish with some dried lavender, if you want, and enjoy

 *Store leftover cupcakes in the refrigerator since they have cream cheese frosting.