Vanilla Cupcakes with Piped Hydrangea Flowers

I love hydrangeas. I think that they are one of the most beautiful flowers in the world. I love big vases full of hydrangeas in summer & they look so beautiful on the table for an afternoon tea.

In 2016 when we built our duck house we planted multi coloured hydrangeas along the front of the duck house and in the raised garden all around the base of the mulberry tree right next to the duck house. Well, that was extremely optimistic because our sweet ducks with their adorable yellow feet, stomped all over them and the plants did not last long.

Anyway, I have seen hydrangea flowers piped onto cakes a few times on the internet and they are so pretty. Last weekend I bought a Wilton 2D piping nozzle and I was so excited to bake cupcakes so I could try it out. Vanilla cupcakes seemed like the perfect choice because I still want yummy cake but really this one is all about the look of the icing. A simple but delicious and beautiful cupcake is the goal.

There are lots of videos on the internet about how to pipe hydrangea flowers. The really great tip I learnt to get two tone icing was to use a spatula to add one colour to the inside of the piping bag but just around the sides and then add the other colour to the centre. Squeeze until two colours come out. It is really effective but so simple. Whoever came up with that idea is a genius!

To get the best vanilla flavour, don’t skimp on the vanilla extract. I used pure Madagascar vanilla extract as well as one vanilla bean. I actually found both in Coles Supermarket (Australia) which surprised me so it isn’t hard to find.

CUPCAKE TIPS

Flax Meal

My preference is for Golden flax meal. I feel like it works better in the cake batter but that could be my imagination. It definitely looks better in a light coloured cake because the brown flax meal can leave flecks of brown which you can see.

I used to get golden flax meal from a health food shop but when I couldn’t find the one I like recently, I bought Golden Flax seeds from my local IGA supermarket (Australia) and ground them myself in my coffee grinder. I am so happy with how my cakes turned out, that I  grind my own from now one. It takes a few seconds in an electric coffee grinder and the meal is nice and fine.

I also only leave mine for a few seconds after I have mixed it but a lot of other recipes say to leave it for a few minutes. I find that it gets too think if left and doesn’t blend in as well to the rest of the cake batter.

Cupcake Wrappers

I also prefer to use the more upright cupcake wrappers in a thin cardboard rather than the traditional wrappers. The reason is that the traditional wrappers can be very fickle about peeling back from the cooked cake. If you undercook slightly then do it. If you keep them in a sealed plastic container, they do it. It doesn’t always happen but with the wrappers than I now use, it never happens and that make me happy! The other great advantage of these wrappers is that you don’t have to use a special pan. Then just sit on a flat tray and won’t lose their shape.

Ice-cream Scoop

This is the best and fastest way to get the perfect amount of cake batter in each cupcake wrapper. You need the old style scoop with the release handle. Makes baking so much faster.