Honey Bee Cupcakes with Honey Cream Cheese Frosting

This Honey Bee Cupcake recipe is adorable and great for summer parties!  The Honey Bee Cupcakes pair perfectly with ice cold lemonade or tea.  I made these cupcakes for a recent bridal shower at The Peninsula that you can see here.  I also thought this Honey Bee Cupcake post would be perfect for Barre Bee Fit's three-year anniversary. If you didn't know, Barre Bee Fit is my absolute favorite gym in Chicago!  Definitely check out one of their many heart-pumping classes.  So have your cupcake and eat it too!
Recipe courtesy of Lauren Kapeluck via The Cake Blog. 

Honey Cupcake Recipe

Ingredients: 

1 stick butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla

Honey Cream Cheese Frosting with Honey Bee garnish, recipe follows

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350-degrees.
2. In medium bowl mix together dry ingredients and set aside.
3. In small bowl mix buttermilk, honey and vanilla.  Set aside.
4. In bowl of stand mixer cream butter and sugar on medium speed until combined.
5. Add eggs, one at a time beating well after each addition and remebering to scrape down the sides of bowl.
6. Gradually add the dry and wet ingredients. Alternate by starting and ending with dry ingredients and mix until combined.
7. Using ice cream scoop fill cupcake tins about 2/3 full.
8. Bake for 18-20 minutes.
9. Let cupcakes cool in pans for 5 minutes, then remove to wire rack to finish cooling.
10. Once cupcakes are completely cool, ice with Honey Cream Cheese Frosting.

Honey Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe with Honey Bee garnish
Ingredients: 

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
4 oz cream cheese, softened
3 cups confectioner’s sugar
3 Tbsp honey
Yellow food coloring (optional)
Lemon Drops or Lemonheads

Sliced Almonds

Black food coloring

Directions: 

1. In bowl of stand mixer cream butter and cream cheese until combined.
2. Gradually add confectioner’s sugar and continue to mixing scraping down sides of bowl.
3. Mix in honey.
4. Add yellow food coloring to tint the icing to your desired shade of yellow.
5. Place the icing in a piping bag fitted with a round decorating tip and swirl the frosting on top of the cupcake going in a circular motion.
6. Taking lemon drops. 
7. Using a toothpick, dip the toothpick in the black food coloring.  Paint two black stripes on the lemon drop. 
8. Gently push the striped lemon drop into a frosted cupcake.  
9. Add two almond slices to either side of the lemon drop. 

Note: In the pictures below, I doubled the frosting recipe. 

Add dry ingredients to a bowl. 

Mix and set aside. 

In a separate bowl, add buttermilk. 

Add honey.

Mix well. 

In a clean mixing bowl, add softened butter and sugar. 

Cream until light yellow and fluffy. 

Add eggs one at a time. 

Add half of the flour mixture.

Add half of the honey-milk mixture. 

Add remaining flour. 

Remember to scrape down the sides of the bowl. 

Mix until just incorporated.  Be sure not to overmix the batter.  It's okay it you see some flour on the edges of the bowl. 

Just use a spatula to gently fold in the remaining flour.  Overmixing the batter creates dense, brick-like cupcakes.  We don't want that. 

Line cupcake tin. 

Using an ice cream scoop, fill cupcake liners. 

Bake in a 350-degree oven for about 18-20 minutes. 

All ovens are different, so I always use the fork test.  Here, at around 18 minutes, my cupcakes were still not done. 

A clean fork shows a happy cupcake.  This was at the 20 minute mark.

Move to a wire rack to cool. 

To make the frosting, add softened butter and cream cheese. 

Cream until well blended. 

Add powdered sugar and mix. 

Add honey and mix. 

I use concentrated food gel to dye my frosting.  But any sort of food coloring will do the job. 

Dip a toothpick or a chopstick in the food gel.

Always start with a little bit of food coloring and gradually build the desired color.  

I wanted to reach a pastel yellow color for the frosting. 

Take some lemon drops.  I purchased a small package of CVS store brand lemon drops. 

Using a toothpick, draw stripes on the top half of the lemon heads.  Don't worry about the bottom since those will be pressed into the frosting.

Wingless bees. 

Once the cupcakes have cooled, frost cupcakes forming a honeycomb shape.  

Take two sliced almonds. 

Place the almonds on either side of the lemon head. 

Repeat garnish with remaining cupcakes. 

Perfect for any party. 

Happy Birthday BBF! 

Happy baking. 

xoxo

Grace