I was so excited to spot a tutorial for gorgeous hydrangea cupcakes over on Glorious Treats. My brother and his wife designed their wedding color palette around hydrangeas (and other blue flowers), and hydrangeas were a prominent part of her fabulous bouquet. If I could pull it off, I knew the cupcakes would be the perfect dessert for their reception.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the frosting, though it required a bit of patience, was fairly forgiving. The distinctive combination of blue and purple frosting goes a long way in making the cupcakes look like hydrangeas.
Any cupcakes will work with this frosting technique, though those with a larger dome will more closely resemble the huge round clusters of hydrangea blooms. I made funfetti cake at my brother’s request, and chocolate at my mom’s. I used the recommended vanilla cream cheese frosting, because I wanted to be sure that my frosting was stiff enough to hold the shape.
Divide the frosting into two bowls and color one purple and one blue.
You need a large star tip (2D) to make the flowers. Fill your pastry bag with half blue and half purple frosting, but don’t worry too much about it being perfectly divided. By the end of each bag, the frosting began to get gooey (and shiny) from the heat of my hands and those petals ended up droopy. Expect to take several breaks to re-refrigerate your frosting! Colder frosting also breaks off better at the end of each star, so the shapes look more like petals.
Pipe large, loose stars around the outside of the cupcake, and then fill in the middle. Yummm, cream cheese frosting!
So pretty, and not nearly as hard as it looks. (Maybe Greg will whip up a batch of these next time he wants to give me flowers!)
I love your hydrangeas. I also saw the tutorial from Glorious Treats and have tried these flowers. I think my icing was too soft. Thanks for the tip about keeping the icing cool. I had trouble lifting the icing tip from the flower once I finished each petal. Your flowers look fabulous. Well done.