Lavender Cupcakes & Lavender Cream Cheese Frosting

Easy lavender cupcakes made with cake flour, butter, vanilla, and lavender essential oil, topped with smooth cream cheese frosting. They’re soft, slightly sweet, and have just the right hint of floral — totally delicious and not overpowering!

When we lived in North Carolina, we spent a lot of time in the Appalachian Mountains, especially in one of our favorite towns – Blowing Rock. After a full day of hiking, eating at our favorite restaurants, playing at the park, and grabbing ice cream, we always ended our trip with a cup of coffee for the drive home.

One of the local coffee shops there served lavender coffee. I remember seeing it on the menu and thinking, what??! I didn’t try it right away, but on our next visit, I gave it a shot — and instantly fell in love. From then on, it was my go-to order.

Since then, I’ve noticed lavender popping up everywhere, especially on menus across the South — it’s become the new salted caramel!

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Now that we’ve moved to Wisconsin, I can’t visit that little mountain coffee shop anymore, and my lavender cravings have only grown stronger. So, I decided to try a new recipe for Lavender Cupcakes with Lavender Cream Cheese Frosting. I mean, doesn’t that sound heavenly?

In order to achieve the lavender flavor in these cupcakes and frosting, I used a few drops of lavender essential oil. By using this method, you can add more drops to give it a more bursting flavor…or less if you’d prefer a more subtle hint of lavender.

Facts About Lavender

• Lavender is a flowering plant of the mint family.
• Lavender is one of the key herbs found in the Herbes de Provance seasoning mix. Often used to flavor fish, meats, and vegetable stews
• Has a sweet aromatic fragrance and can be used in body spray or perfume and put into roller bottles

Can You Eat Lavender?

• Yes! You can eat lavender! Lavender is actually an herb that adds a pleasant flavor to many culinary dishes.
• You can eat the leaves and the flowers.

I have a TON of lavender growing in our garden beds so I was able to pick off some flowers to garnish my beautiful cupcakes! And yes, it is safe to eat the lavender flowers, they are an herb! Just be mindful of any pesticides, etc that may have been sprayed on them!

This cupcake batter made 24 cupcakes, and the frosting was enough for almost twice that! I still have about half the frosting in my fridge, ready for another batch.

I really loved these cupcakes! They were so flavorful…slightly dry, but still, really yummy. They would definitely be a make again!

You could easily swap this cupcake batter for my gluten-free cupcake recipe. Use my dairy-free frosting recipe too, and just add the lavender essential oil.

You can buy your lavender essential oil here!

Recipe

For this recipeI used this lavender essential oil because it is a safe, food grade.