Lavender, lemon and honey cupcakes and a review

Recently I was sent a set of 2 paisley park baking moulds from dotcomgiftshop to review.  It's a great site full of lovely gifts for yourself or family and friends. They have quite a good baking selection and I've already built up a little wish list for myself.  The big question was which cupcake to make? 

I narrowed it down to hot chocolate cupcake, earl grey tea cupcake or lavender cupcake.  The decision was made when my lovely friend whom I baked the weight watchers coffee tiramisu cake for gave me a bunch of fresh lavender from her garden. I did a search for recipes and really liked the sound of lavender, lemon and honey cupcakes with a lemon and honey cream cheese frosting. 

lavender from my friend's garden 

The lavender taste is very subtle but definitely there. I am surprised that you can actually taste the honey as sometimes I find it gets lost in the cake. The lemon is the predominant flavour and I might try reducing the lemon flavour next time.  Overall, a very delicious, moist cupcake which paired well with the lemon and honey cream cheese frosting. 

The moulds come in this cute box. There are 2 silicone baking cups and 2 saucers (which are for presentation only). It comes in other colours too but I liked the pink one! The cups themselves are quite sturdy, easy to wash and the cake slid out easily with no problems. No need for greasing and flouring.  I was not too keen on the look of the saucers on their own as they look quite "plasticky"  but when presented with the teacup it actually looks quite cute. For the price, this was reasonable and I would have been happy to buy this for myself or a friend. It would be great if it came in a pack of 4 but you can always double up your order! 

 teacup and saucer 

 blitz the lavender flowers with caster sugar 

 lavender sugar smells lovely! 

 ready to go in the oven - I made regular cupcake as well as I only had 2 silicone cups 

 fresh from the oven - it keeps its shape very well. 

 add the frosting and a sprig of fresh lavender 

 The cupcake on the left came out of the silicone cup - you can see that it retained it's shape and is browned evenly on the outside. 

 the regular cupcakes! 

Recipe adapted from hooray for off weekends

Makes ~ 11 cupcakes

Lavender, lemon and honey cupcakes 

150g caster sugar

1/2 teaspoon dried lavender flowers

170g butter

3 tablespoons good quality honey

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

zest and juice of 1 lemon

185g flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Lemon and honey cream cheese frosting

150g cream cheese

100g icing sugar, sifted

1 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon lemon juice

purple food colouring (optional) 

• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• Blitz the sugar and lavender in a food processor.
• Beat the butter, lavender sugar and honey until pale and fluffy. 
• Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
• Add the vanilla extract, lemon zest and lemon juice.
• Mix in the flour and baking powder. 
• Spoon into cupcake cases and bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown and the tops spring back.
• Allow to cool completely. 
• Mix all the ingredients for the frosting in an electric mixer with a paddle attachment until smooth. 
• Spread on top of the cupcakes. 
• Decorate with a sprig of fresh lavender. 

Disclaimer: I was sent these baking moulds to review free of charge. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.