Hydrangea Cupcakes!

I keep seeing these hydrangea cupcakes everywhere and they always seem so beautiful. They remind me so much of my wedding bouquet, white hydrangeas, roses, and calla lilies (everyone thought I was crazy for putting them in my bouquet but look whats all the rage now!!!) I thought about trying them a while back but it's a little daunting to try something new but hey today was the day. I did it with my vanilla cupcake and buttercream recipe. It tastes amazing but it is also simple.

Vanilla Hydrangea Cupcakes


Cupcakes:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1  1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk

Buttercream:

• 1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Food Coloring

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, while that is heating up mix the butter and sugar with a hand mixer or stand mixer until fluffy, I do it for 5 minutes so the butter color is lightened up and its all well combined. Add in the eggs one at a time until completely incorporated. Mix in the vanilla.
2. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together. Add half of that to the wet mix and beat until combined. Add half the milk then repeat with the dry. Scrape down the sides and make sure its all combined.
3. Divide up the batter into 12 cupcakes and let them bake for 20 minutes. Let them sit for a while until completely cool and start on making the buttercream.
4. Beat the butter for 5 minutes just like the cupcake batter until the color is lightened up. Mix in 2 cups of the powdered sugar and completely combine. Add the vanilla extract and 2 table spoons of the heavy cream. Once that is smooth add the last 2 cups of powdered sugar in and a tablespoon of heavy cream. 
5. Now is the time to divide up the frostings to make you different colors. You can do whatever color you would like but I did a few tablespoons of buttercream and mixed in the green, half the mix I made yellow and half purple. 
6. With a large (16 inch) piping bag and a tip I used a no. 35 closed star tip. Fold back the top part of the bag down the bag and spread out a little bit of one color of the buttercream in the bag, continue alternating colors until all the frosting is filled up. When you first squeeze the bag discard the buttercream that comes out until you see both colors coming out because the first few seconds will most likely be one color or the other not both. Start on the outside and work in squeezing for a 3 second count then a sharp yank upward to create the sharp lines. Work until the whole cupcake is covered. Add 3 more dollops to the top to add depth. 
7. Take the green buttercream for the leaves, cut a v into a piping bag and add the buttercream to the bag. Squeeze out as many leaves as you want to add, I used 3 or 4 leaves per cupcake. You are all set! Now you have a bouquet of hydrangeas.