Lavender Cupcakes with Honey Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Wow the title sounds overwhelming! This cupcake has a little kick of spiciness from the lavender and the sweet and tang from the frosting, which make them pair so well and gives a nice balance!

The amount of lavender I used was from the experience I had with making honey lavender ice cream (which was delish by the way). I steeped a tablespoon of lavender in some milk and then added to the cupcake mixture. I also added a litle bit of the steep buds into the cupcake mixture. Because even though the buds have been steeps, it will still gives off that strong spicy to bitter taste when chewed. I know people like my boyfriend are not very fond of lavender, so adjust so that the eater can taste that it's lavender.

The frosting was super fun to make since it has so many components. I made a cream cheese frosting with a larger cream cheese to butter ratio, and a little less powdered sugar than usual. The honey will makes the frosting naturally sweeter so don't need as much sugar! Then I added lemon juice and lemon zests. Whipped them all up and viola! A sticky and gooey, sweet and tangy frosting.

Honey Lemon Cupcakes

I was inspired to make this cupcake when I saw a photo of cupcakes with some candy bees in Women's Day magazines. I was really excited to make the bees more than the cupcakes actually, haha.

I used yellow peanut M&M's for the bees. In the magazines, they use toosie roll for the stripes, but I am not a big toosie rolls fan, so I used chocolate.  I melted some chocolate and with a fork, I put eyes and stripes on the bees. For the wings, the magazine used clear spice drop candy, which I had no idea what it is, so I used sliced almond instead.

The frosting for my first batch was  super duper sour. So I tasted the frosting as I mix the second one. Working with lemon is tricky since they are so sour.

Buzzzzzz....