Lavender Cupcakes with Lavender-Blueberry Buttercream (Gluten-Free and Vegan)

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Sometimes inspiration comes from the tiniest places. I found miniature and adorable Easter-themed cupcakes liners a couple months ago, which led me to want to make Easter-themed tiny cupcakes, which led a million ideas of what that means. I settled on lavender because it is a lovely and underutilized flavour and the pastel colour is perfect for spring.

Lavender has several culinary complements but I wanted to keep it simple and use berries so I wouldn’t strangle the delicate flower bud with something like ginger. I hoped to get a wonderful purple colour out of my buttercream without the need for food dye and so I arrived at blueberries. Excellent.

There are very few times I am 100% satisfied with the results of my culinary adventures. This is one them. These are so lovely. I threw technique I know about baking, vegan baking and gluten-free baking and I poured them into this. Please enjoy.

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Makes 12 large or 30 miniature

Lavender Cupcakes

1/2 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk
2 tablespoons food-grade lavender flowers
1/2 cup firm silken tofu
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 1/3 cup all purpose gluten free flour (mine)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 non-dairy margarine, cut into 8 pieces
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoons good quality vanilla
1/4 cup Earl Grey tea, brewed and cooled to room temperature (non-dairy milk, if you prefer)

In a blender, whiz together the non-dairy milk and lavender flowers for about 5 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of firm silken tofu and whiz again, until combined and no solid tofu bits remain.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Add liners to the cupcake tins. Set aside in a small mixing bowl and whisk in the apple cider vinegar. In a large mixing bowl, whisk all the dry ingredients together. Using a hand or stand mixer, add the non-dairy margarine one piece at a time. Add the oil and mix until the mixture starts to look like wet sand, or little clumps have formed. Add the vanilla, lavender-milk-tofu mixture and Earl Grey tea and mix until fully combined. Using a spoon or a small ice cream scoop add one scoop to each miniature liner. If using a regular sized cupcake tin, add fill each liner about 2/3 full. Bake miniature ones for 20 minutes. Bake regular sized ones for 25 – 28 minutes, or until they spring back at your touch. Let cool on a rack.

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Lavender-Blueberry Buttercream

1 cup non-dairy margarine, softened
1 teaspoon lavender flowers, crushed
4 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon good quality vanilla extract
1/2 cup blueberries

Using a hand or a stand mixer, whip the non-dairy margarine and crushed lavender flowers on high speed for at least 5 minutes. Add the vanilla and one cup of icing sugar, beating for an additional 5 minutes. In a food processor, add the blueberries and a scoop of the frosting mixture and pulse until well combined and all the blueberry has been blended. The blueberry may separate a bit from the frosting at this point, but have no worries it will come together beautifully. Add the remaining icing sugar in several batches, making sure to whip for another 5 minutes total. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes in desired form.

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