Lavender Haze Cupcakes
Inspired by Taylor Swift's song 'Lavender Haze', these smoky lavender cupcakes are topped with whipped cream clouds + a love spiral, as well as some handmade chocolate koi, in a nod to the song's music video.
Servings 12 - 16 cupcakes
Equipment
- 12-16 lavender cupcake cases
- 1 large round piping nozzle
- 1 large open star nozzle
- 2 piping bags
- 1 offset spatula
Ingredients
For the smoky lavender whipped cream:
- 500 ml double cream
- 1.5 tsp dried lavender (see note 1)
- 1 lapsang souchong tea bags
- 2 tbsp icing sugar
- Lavender food colouring
For the chocolate koi decorations:
- icing sugar , for dusting
- 36-96 g white modelling chocolate (see note 2)
- flaked almonds (see note 3)
- edible ink markers, black and orange (see note 4)
For the smoky lavender cupcakes:
- 240 ml milk
- 1 1/2 tsp dried lavender (see note 1)
- 1 lapsang souchong tea bag
- 250 g plain flour
- 250 g caster sugar
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 100 g unsalted butter, at room temperature (see note 5)
- 2 eggs
- 1/8 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Make the smoky lavender cream:
- Begin by cold-infusing the smoky lavender cream, as it will need to infuse for about 3 hours. Add the cream, dried lavender and lapsang souchong teabag to a bowl, cover and place into the fridge. Leave for 3 hours, while you make the rest of the cake components.
Make the chocolate koi:
- Dust a clean work surface with icing sugar. Knead your modelling chocolate on the surface, until you have a smooth ball.
- Take 3g of the modelling chocolate and roll into a ball between the palms of your hands (dip it into the icing sugar if it gets too soft/sticky). Flatten your palms slightly and continue rolling to elongate the ball- you're aiming for a rough sausage shape. Gently taper off one end of the sausage for the tail. Bend the sausage slightly, so your koi has a curved body.
- Use your finger to press down on the very end of the tapered part of the sausage to flatten it and begin the tail. Carefully peel the 'tail' off the work surface, then dip the underside of it into icing sugar to prevent further sticking. Use a small, sharp knife to make a cut down the centre of the flattened tail.
- Select 2 small flaked almonds (try to find 2 that are a similar size/shape to each other). Gently insert one almond into the chocolate on each side of the thicker part of the body. Set this first koi aside to dry out a little while you make the others- you will need 1 or 2 per cupcake, depending on how you plan to decorate.
- Once you have shaped all of the koi, it is time to decorate them. Using the orange edible marker first, gently sketch rough patches of colour all over the body and almond fins of the koi. Set these aside to dry for 10-15 mins, before repeating with the black marker. Set the decorated koi aside to dry, at room temperature, while you make the cupcakes (at least 30-40 minutes).
Make the smoky lavender cupcakes:
- Preheat the oven to 140°C (120°C fan) and line a 12-hole cupcake pan with lavender cupcake cases (this recipe will make 12-16 cupcakes, so you may find you need an additional 4 cases to line another cupcake pan).
- Begin by infusing the milk. Place the milk, lavender and lapsang souchong tea bag into a small saucepan. Place over medium heat and bring to just below a simmer. When you see little bubbles forming around the edge of the pan and steam starting to come from the milk, turn off the heat, cover and set aside.
- After 10 minutes, remove the teabag from the milk (you can discard the teabag at this point). After a further 5 minutes, strain the milk into a jug through a fine mesh sieve and discard the lavender. Allow the infused milk to cool to room temperature before proceeding.
- Sieve the flour, sugar and baking powder into the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the butter and mix on low speed for 2-3 minutes, until the mixture resembles fine sand and no large lumps of butter remain.
- Add the eggs and vanilla extract to the cooled infused milk. Whisk to combine and then, with the mixer on low, add the wet ingredients to the butter/dry ingredient mixture in a slow, steady stream. Once you have added all of the wet ingredients, stop the mixer (the mixture will still look a little lumpy and undermixed at this stage) and add the lavender food colouring. Turn the mixer up to medium speed and mix until you have a smooth, evenly coloured batter- about 1 minute.
- Fill the cupcake cases about 3/4 of the way full (I use a regular-sized ice cream scoop). Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the cupcakes spring back when touched lightly. Carefully remove from the pans as soon as the cupcakes come out of the oven (this will help to prevent greasy cupcake cases) and transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Prepare the whipped cream topping:
- Once the cream has been infusing in the fridge for 3 hours, strain it through a fine mesh sieve to remove the lavender and the teabag. Divide the cream into two equal parts (about 250ml each- though you will inevitably have lost a little cream in the straining process) and place each half in a separate, medium bowl (see note 6).
- Sift 1 tbsp icing sugar into each bowl of cream, then whisk (I prefer to use an electric hand whisk) the cream in one bowl until stiff peaks form (be careful not to overwhisk, or you will end up with butter).
- Colour the second bowl of cream lavender with food colouring, before whipping to stiff peaks, like the first bowl. Once both creams are whipped, you can proceed to decorating the cupcakes.
Decorate the cupcakes:
- Fit one piping bag with a large round nozzle, and another with a large open star nozzle. Place the uncoloured cream into the bag with the round nozzle, and the lavender cream into the bag with the star nozzle.
- Begin with the uncoloured cream. Pipe dollops of cream around the edge of each cupcake, then use the offset spatula to drag each dollop into the centre, to make the 'clouds'.
- Switch to the lavender icing. Pipe a spiral of cream into the centre of each cupcake, in between the clouds.
- Once the cupcakes are iced, place a chocolate koi on top of each cake to decorate. Once iced, the cupcakes must be refrigerated and are best eaten within 2-3 hours, though they will keep for up to a day. If you want to make the cakes in advance, you can bake the cupcakes and keep them, undecorated, in an airtight container for 2-3 days, then decorate just before serving.
Notes
- Make sure the lavender you purchase is culinary grade. You can buy the packet I got here.
- I used white modelling chocolate, but you can use any pale modelling paste, e.g. fondant or marzipan. You will need 3g of modelling paste per koi, so decide how many koi you want to put on each cake to work out how much paste you need.
- You will only need 2x flaked almonds per koi, but it is best to have more than you need. This will ensure that you are able to find matching pairs of flaked almonds that are on the smaller side, so that the fins are proportional to the bodies of the fish.
- I used edible ink markers for easier application (you can find the markers I used here- I used the shades Liquorice and Tangerine), but you can use regular or powdered food colouring if you prefer. Regular food colouring will, however, take longer to dry and be more likely to stain your mouth when you eat it.
- I prefer to use Stork in place of butter in my cakes, because I think it produces a lighter, softer crumb. If you're using Stork, substitute the butter for an equal amount of Stork. If you're using unsalted butter, make sure it is softened and at room temperature before you begin baking.
- Once cream reaches soft peaks, it will stiffen up incredibly quickly, even when mixing with a spatula by hand. It's best to split the cream into two separate bowls and add the lavender food colouring to one bowl of cream before whipping it, so you can get an even colour distribution without worrying about overmixing the cream and ending up with butter!