The Best Lavender Cupcakes {Made with Earl Grey Tea}
These Lavender Cupcakes capture the essence of Georgetown Cupcake’s “lavender earl grey teacake” seasonal flavor. You’ll make simple vanilla cupcakes and vanilla buttercream frosting from scratch, infused with floral lavender and lovely earl grey tea.
I wasn’t so sure about earl grey lavender cupcakes, but the fusion of delicate vanilla cupcakes and herbal lavender earl grey tea is outstanding. The tea refines the decadent vanilla cupcakes and buttercream frosting with sweet, floral flavor.
Whether you’re dreaming of a luscious Georgetown cupcake or a pretty, purple cupcake for an elegant dessert table, these early grey lavender cupcakes with lavender buttercream are perfect. They’re bright, botanical, and perfect for any occasion!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Puts a floral spin on a simple vanilla cupcake
- Perfect for birthdays, showers, tea parties, and more
- Adaptation of earl grey lavender cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake
- Simple to make, but the flavors are fancy!
Ingredients You’ll Need
For the cupcakes:
- Flour, baking powder & salt: the dry elements behind moist, cakey cupcakes.
- Unsalted butter, eggs: These are the tender cupcake essentials. Be sure they’re room temperature.
- Sugar: granulated or caster sugar.
- Whole milk: Milk activates the leaveners and creates the ideal density.
- Vanilla: Use a quality pure vanilla extract for the richest bites.
- Lavender earl grey tea: For the most vibrant botanical flavor, steep at least 2 lavender earl great tea bags in a 1/2 cup of water with lavender sugar or lavender simple syrup (optional).
For the earl grey lavender buttercream:
- Unsalted butter & confectioner’s sugar: The most basic buttercream is made by combining butter and sugar.
- Buttercream enhancements: but this buttercream isn’t basic, so we’re adding whole milk, vanilla, and salt to make the utmost sweet and creamy frosting.
- Lavender earl grey tea: brewed strong!
- Food color: for lavish purple frosting. I use the violet Wilton gel food coloring.
How To Make Lavender Cupcakes
Step 1: Prep for baking. First, preheat your oven to 350F and line the cupcake pans with silicone or paper liners.
Step 2: Mix dry ingredients. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl.
Step 3: Blend wet ingredients. In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together on medium speed. Then, slowly mix in the eggs one at a time. In a separate bowl, stir the vanilla extract and milk together.
Step 4: Combine dry and wet mixtures. With the speed on low, mix a third of the dry mix into the butter mixture. Then, mix in a third of the milk and vanilla mixture. Mix in another third of the dry mix, followed by another third of the milk mixture. Scrape down the bowl, mix in the remaining dry mixture, and then the remaining milk mixture until combined.
Step 5: Add flavorings. Finally, mix in cooled lavender earl grey tea and lavender sugar until well incorporated.
Step 6: Bake cupcakes and cool. Fill baking cups 2/3rds full with batter, and bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean (18 minutes). Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes, and then finish cooling on a rack before frosting.
Step 7: Make the lavender buttercream. Beat the unsalted butter and confectioner’s sugar together until smooth and creamy. Then, add the vanilla, milk, salt, lavender earl grey tea, and purple food coloring. Beat the ingredients at high speed until light and fluffy.
Step 8: Frost and serve. Once cooled, frost the cupcakes with lavender frosting and enjoy a cup of rejuvenating lavender earl grey tea or a relaxing blueberry lavender mojito.
Recipe Tips
- For extra strong tea, brew at least 2 teabags per cup of water. The tea must be cooled completely to room temperature before adding to the batter and the frosting.
- The batter yields 18 lavender cupcakes, so you’ll need two pans.
- While warm, drizzle a tiny bit of simple syrup over the top of each cupcake before frosting for optimal moisture. Lavender syrup would be great here.
- Use a heaping ice cream scoop (or 3 tablespoons) of batter per cupcake.
- To achieve Georgetown Cupcakes’s signature cloud-like swirl, pipe the frosting through a large, round piping top, ideally an Ateco #808.
Variations
Dried culinary lavender – If you can’t find lavender early grey tea, DIY! I steeped earl grey and a tablespoon of dried culinary lavender buds in a tea infuser. Another option is grinding dried lavender into a fine powder and then stirring a couple of teaspoons directly into a cup of hot water.
Lavender paste and lavender extract – to amp up the lavender flavor. If you cannot find it in stores, it can be ordered online.
Natural purple food dye – Adding a purple hue to the lavender frosting enhances their whimsical aesthetic. Try replacing food coloring with juiced blueberries, raspberries, or purple sweet potato to dye purple frosting.
Flavor Options – The lavender earl grey tea is subtle, leaving plenty of room for something extra. See below for additional flavors that pair well with lavender:
- Lemon – Add a few tablespoons of fresh lemon juice to the batter and incorporate the zest into the buttercream.
- Raspberry or blackberry – Fold fresh or frozen berries coated lightly in flour into the batter.
- Dark chocolate – Add mini dark chocolate chips to the batter.
Storing & Freezing
Storing: Since the frosting includes milk, keep cupcakes in an airtight container in the fridge and enjoy within a week.
Freezing: Yes! They can be frozen. To freeze, first, place the frosted cupcakes on a plate or small baking sheet and place it uncovered in the freezer until the cupcakes and frosting are frozen. Then, wrap the cupcakes individually in plastic wrap and keep them in a container in the freezer.
Recipe FAQ
Definitely! The vibrant, citrusy, and floral aromatics are lovely paired with the mild lavender flavor.
Imagine the best vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream frosting you’ve ever had enriched with floral undertones and bright botanical flavor.
More Gorgeous Cupcakes
Spring Gluten-Free Cupcakes with Fondant
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Lavender Earl Grey Tea Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups flour sifted
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 8 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups whole milk
- 1/2 cup extra-strong lavender earl grey tea cooled to room temp
- 2 tsp lavender sugar (optional)
- For the frosting:
- 16 tbsp unsalted butter
- 4 cups confectioner’s sugar, sifted
- 1 tsp whole milk
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup extra-strong lavender earl grey tea cooled to room temp
- 1/4 tsp purple food color (I use the Wilton gel Violet color-you can also leave out the dye)
Instructions
- For the cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Line 2 cupcake pans with 18 baking cups
- Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
- Place the unsalted butter in the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Add the sugar; beat on medium speed until well incorporated.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing slowly after each addition.
- Combine the vanilla extract and milk in a large liquid measuring cup.
- Reduce the speed to low and add one-third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, then gradually add one-third of the milk mixture, beating until well incorporated.
- Add another one-third of the flour mixture, followed by one-third of the milk mixture. Stop to scrape down the bowl as needed.
- Add the remaining flour mixture, followed by the remaining milk mixture, and beat just until combined.
- Mix in the cooled lavender earl grey tea (and lavender sugar) until fully incorporated.
- Scoop batter into baking cups and bake for 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
- For the frosting:
- Place the unsalted butter in the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Add the confectioner’s sugar; beat on medium speed until well incorporated.
- Add the vanilla extract, milk, salt, tea, and purple food color, and beat on high speed until light and airy.
- Transfer to a piping bag with a large round piping tip and frost each cupcake with Georgetown Cupcake’s “signature swirl”(I used a different favorite decorating tip)
Notes
- For extra strong tea, brew at least 2 teabags per cup of water. The tea must be cooled completely to room temperature before adding to the batter and the frosting.
- The batter yields 18 lavender cupcakes, so you’ll need two pans.
- While warm, drizzle simple syrup over the top of each cupcake before frosting for optimal moisture. Lavender syrup would be great here.
- Use a heaping ice cream scoop (or 3 tablespoons) of batter per cupcake.
- To achieve Georgetown Cupcakes’s signature cloud-like swirl, pipe the frosting through a large, round piping top, ideally an Ateco #808.
Nutrition
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The color of that frosting is SO beautiful! Congrats to your daughter, I’m sure she loved this cupcakes!
Thank you Shaina! It was so fun to meet you this past weekend! 🙂
Hello Anne! These cupcakes look delicious. I was wondering, how many tea bags would you recommend using to get that “extra strong” lavender early grey tea?
Two tea bags should be perfect.
Hello! Just wondering, how many tea bags would you use to get that “extra strong lavender earl grey tea”?
I love lavender as a flavor to desserts, and these look so good! It was great meeting you at Blogher Amee!
Thank you Gerry! It was wonderful to meet you, too!
Their purple color is stunning! Thanks for coming and linking up at The Weekend Social. Please be sure to come back next week starting Thursdays at 9PM EST on culinaryflavors.gr ! I hope to see you there!
I know you posted this years ago, but how much tea did you steep to get it “extra strong”. Did you just double the tea bags and follow the brewing instructions?
You could double the tea bags for the extra strong flavor or just steep it longer. Both ways would work just fine.