Pretty flower cupcakes are perfect for so many occasions. Mother’s Day, wedding showers, baby showers, and gender reveal parties are the perfect backdrops for these gorgeous cupcakes. Flower cupcakes are the best if you just want to celebrate spring or enjoy some brightly colored flower cupcakes at your next birthday celebration.
Whatever the occasion, These fluffy scratch-made vanilla cupcakes with buttercream frosting flowers are going to be a hit! I’ll even show you the easy way to pipe buttercream roses and other frosting flowers. You don’t need to be a buttercream wizard to make simple and pretty cupcake decorations.
Need more ideas for baby shower cupcakes? Try my Pinata Cupcakes that are filled with sprinkles and fun! I have more cute cupcake ideas in my list of dessert recipes too.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Beautiful Flower Decorations – I think that making cupcake roses is easier than piping roses onto a large cake. The combination of bright colors and fancy flowers on top of these cupcakes makes the most gorgeous presentation.
- Scratch Vanilla Cupcake Recipe – This vanilla cupcake recipe creates a moist, dense, and flavorful cupcake that will rival the ones you get from your local fancy bakery. Everyone will love them!
- Step By Step Icing Flower Instructions – I’m teaching you the easiest way I know how to make buttercream roses. It might take a bit of practice, but I’m confident that you can make these easy flower cupcakes.
Key Ingredients
Complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
- Unsalted Butter: I almost always choose unsalted butter when baking sweet recipes. This allows us to ensure that the final cupcakes aren’t overly salty.
- Sugar: You must have sugar to make cupcakes! Regular/granulated white sugar is ideal for this recipe.
- Eggs: Allow your eggs to come to room temperature. They mix in more thoroughly that way.
- Yogurt: Plain yogurt, either regular or Greek style gives this vanilla cupcake recipe a dense crumb, like cupcakes you’d get from a bakery.
- Pure Vanilla Extract: The better your vanilla extract, the more delicious your flower cupcakes will be!
- Flour, Baking Powder, and Salt: The dry ingredients are just some simple pantry items.
- Vanilla Buttercream: A simple American buttercream is made from unsalted butter, powdered sugar, heavy cream, and vanilla.
- Food Coloring: Gel food coloring will give you vibrant colors without changing the texture of your icing. I like this set that has all of the basic colors.
How to Make This Recipe
- Get Ready to Bake: Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C and line a muffin pan with 12 cupcake liners. Set aside while you make the batter.
- Cream: In a large bowl, using an electric hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar at medium speed until lighter in color and smooth. Then add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each until it’s well-incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and yogurt, and continue to mix until incorporated. Set the bowl of wet ingredients aside.
- Mix Dry Ingredients: In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Combine Wet and Dry: Pour about one-third of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until combined using the electric mixer. Then add the rest of the dry ingredients. Mix just until everything is combined.
- Bake: Fill the cupcake liners halfway to ⅔ full with batter. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Allow to rest and cool completely before decorating.
- Make Frosting: Make a simple buttercream cupcake frosting by creaming butter in a large bowl. Slowly add the powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Add the salt, vanilla, and heavy cream, and continue blending to get a smooth frosting. Add additional cream if needed to get the right consistency for piping.
- Color: Separate the icing into separate bowls and tint with gel food coloring as desired.
- Decorate the cupcakes with buttercream frosting using the instructions below.
Cupcake Baking Tips
Don’t overfill. Filling the cupcake liners only halfway, and no more than ⅔ of the way is key to making sure that cupcakes don’t overflow.
Measure Correctly: See my tricks for making sure you’re measuring your ingredients correctly! When baking, it’s important to accurately measure everything to get the best results in the end.
Let them Cool. There’s nothing worse than putting buttercream frosting on a too-warm cupcake. It will sadly melt and slide right off. Be sure that the cupcakes are fully cooled before decorating.
How to Make Buttercream Cupcake Roses
I am showing you step by step how to pipe two different styles of buttercream roses, and a primrose frosting flower. Making all of the flower cupcakes a bit different will add variation to your display, making it look like a beautiful bouquet.
The icing tips that I’m using for these three flowers are made by Wilton. You can get them at your local craft store, or find them online.
- Petal Tip – Wilton #104 makes fancy roses and can be used to make all sorts of different flower designs.
- Drop Flower Tip – Wilton #2D is a large tip that can be used to make roses in a spiral pattern or very simple smaller flowers with just a single wrist movement. Sometimes referred to as a closed star tip, It’s a must have.
- Leaf Tips: Leaves are optional, but I think they add so much color and contrast to the plate. I like this set that comes with two different leaf tips and some small drop flower tips too.
Buttercream Rose with Wilton tip #104 (Petal Tip)
This is probably the hardest of the three, but once you master piping roses you will be a flower cupcake pro!
- Start by making a small blob of icing right in the center of the cupcake.
- Hold the icing bag so that you are on the side of the blob but mostly above it, and position the tip so that the widest part is down.
- Pipe a circle around the center blob.
- With the widest part still down, pipe petals by creating overlapping strips of frosting around the piped circle, slightly lifting in the center to create an arched shape.
- The first few rounds will have 3 or 4 petals, and as you reach the outside there will be more petals added.
- Would you like a visual? I used this Youtube video to help me!
Buttercream Rose with Wilton Tip #2D (Closed Star Tip)
You can use any closed star tip to make this easy spiral rose.
- Start in the center of the cupcake and pipe a continuous spiral until you’ve covered the whole cupcake.
- Add leaves if desired using a leaf tip.
Buttercream Flower with Wilton tip #104 (Petal Tip)
The purple flower I made here reminds me of a primrose or a fluffy wildflower.
- Start on the outer edge of the cupcake for this design. Hold the piping bag so that the thicker part of the tip is pointing downward and touching the top of the cupcake. Angle the tip about 45 degrees up.
- Each petal is a semi-circle “loop” shape. Pipe petals around the whole outside of the cupcake.
- Repeat the process, making a smaller circle of petals inside of the first one.
- Make the center of the flower using an edible sprinkle or candy.
Tip!
Buttercream frosting flowers don’t have to resemble any specific type of flower to be great cake decorations. Get creative and make any type of flower you want!
More Dessert Recipes to Try
If you’re planning any parties, you should have these impressive dessert recipes on your list:
- Funfetti Layer Cake is perfect for holidays, birthdays, or workplace celebrations.
- This Banana Pudding that uses Chessman cookies is so creamy and amazing.
- A classic fresh Peach Pie, Watermelon Cupcakes, or easy Blueberry Cheesecake Bars will wow everyone this summer.
- If you like flowers, but don’t want to actually pipe them, see how I make a Sunflower Cake using marshmallow Peeps!
Recipe fAQs
Yes, sour cream will work well if you’d rather use that instead of yogurt in this recipe.
While you can freeze baked cupcakes before icing them, I don’t suggest freezing them with flower decorations already piped. When they thaw, the buttercream will not hold its shape quite the same. Do the piping within a few days of serving the cupcakes.
Store the cupcakes in a single layer in an airtight container in the refrigerator. They can be stored for up to 3 days this way.
You are going to make the most beautiful set of flower cupcakes for that special occasion coming up! Feel free to double or triple this recipe as needed.
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!
Flower Cupcakes
Equipment
- 12 cup muffin pan
- Petal Tip – Wilton #104
- Drop Flower Tip – Wilton # 2D
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup yogurt natural or greek
- 1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Vanilla Buttercream:
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 4-5 cups powdered sugar
- ¼ cup heavy cream or whole milk, or half and half
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- Food coloring
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C and line a muffin pan with 12 cupcake liners. Set aside while you make the batter.
- In a large bowl, using an electric hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar at medium speed until lighter in color and smooth. Then add the eggs, one at a time, mixing after each until it’s well-incorporated. Add the vanilla extract and yogurt, and continue to mix until incorporated. Set the bowl of wet ingredients aside.
- In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Pour about one-third of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until combined using the electric mixer. Then add the rest of the dry ingredients. Mix just until everything is combined.
- Fill the cupcake liners halfway to ⅔ full with batter. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Allow to rest and cool completely before decorating.
- Make a simple buttercream cupcake frosting by creaming butter in a large bowl. Slowly add the powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Add the salt, vanilla, and heavy cream, and continue blending to get a smooth frosting. Add additional cream if needed to get the right consistency for piping.
- Separate the icing into separate bowls and tint with gel food coloring as desired.
- Decorate the cupcakes with buttercream frosting using the instructions below.
Buttercream Rose with Wilton tip #104 (Petal Tip)
- Start by making a small blob of icing right in the center of the cupcake.
- Hold the icing bag so that you are on the side of the blob but mostly above it, and position the tip so that the widest part is down.
- Pipe a circle around the center blob.
- With the widest part still down, pipe petals by creating overlapping strips of frosting around the piped circle, slightly lifting in the center to create an arched shape.
- The first few rounds will have 3 or 4 petals, and as you reach the outside there will be more petals added.
Buttercream Rose with Wilton Tip #2D (Closed Star Tip)
- Start in the center of the cupcake and pipe a continuous spiral until you’ve covered the whole cupcake.
- Add leaves if desired using a leaf tip.
Buttercream Flower with Wilton tip #104 (Petal Tip)
- Start on the outer edge of the cupcake for this design. Hold the piping bag so that the thicker part of the tip is pointing downward and touching the top of the cupcake. Angle the tip about 45 degrees up.
- Each petal is a semi-circle “loop” shape. Pipe petals around the whole outside of the cupcake.
- Repeat the process, making a smaller circle of petals inside of the first one.
- Make the center of the flower using an edible sprinkle or candy.
Nutrition Information
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
© Little Sunny Kitchen
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