Cupcake bouquet recipe

Learn how to make a cupcake bouquet with our easy recipe. These impressive cupcakes are infused with lemon zest and topped with a light, mascarpone buttercream. 

This cupcake bouquet design is a simple yet creative way to display your cupcakes and perfect for special occasions like Mother’s Day or for that special someone’s birthday as a food gift. You can experiment with colours and flavours of the buttercream and sponge. Make red roses for Valentine’s Day or white roses for a wedding gift. This recipe makes 20 mini cupcakes.

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

• 100g unsalted butter
• 100g caster sugar
• 100g self-raising flour
• 2 eggs
• Zest 1 lemon
• ½tsp lemon extract

For the leaves:

• 50g fondant mixed 
• Green food colouring
• ¼tsp tylose powder (optional)

For the buttercream:

• 1x 250g tub mascarpone
• 80g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 400g icing sugar
• ½tsp vanilla extract
• Varied food colours for the roses

You will also need:

• Deep mini muffin pan with 20 mini cupcake cases
• Piping bags with Wilton 1M nozzle
• Flower pot
• Polystyrene ball - cut in half
• Cocktail sticks
• Small bag of salt or something to weigh the pot down
• Tissue paper and ribbon
• Double sided tape
• Scissors
• Mini rose leaf cutter

Method

1. The day before, add the tylose powder, if using, to the fondant and knead well. Add green food colour until you get your desired shade, roll to 1/8 of an inch thick and using the leaf cutter cut 40 leaves. Leave them to dry on greaseproof paper or a drying sponge but not in an airtight container or they won’t dry.
2. To make the cupcakes: Add all the ingredients into a large bowl and beat until smooth. Don’t overbeat or the mix will be greasy and your cases will peel. Spoon into the mini cupcake cases and bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 160°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3. Remove and cool for at least half an hour before assembling the bouquet.
3. For the buttercream: Beat the mascarpone and butter until light a fluffy then add the icing sugar a bit at a time until smooth. Add the vanilla and beat again. Don’t over beat or the icing may become runny.Divide into 4 and colour as you wish.
4. To assemble the bouquet: Start with decorating your pot. Wrap a piece of ribbon around the pot and stick down with double sided tape. Tie a bow with a piece of ribbon and stick over the join.
5. Weigh the pot down with a food bag of salt/rocks from the garden etc. Lay the tissue paper over the top of the pot, Victoria used two squares and to make it look like flower paper. Push the halved polystyrene ball into the pot, pushing the paper down with it.
6. Take the cocktail stick and prick a hole in the centre of the bottom of each cupcake. Push the cocktail sticks into the centre of the polystyrene ball. Push them half way in, then pop a cupcake onto the stick to hold it in place.
7. Start in the middle, putting 6 cupcakes around the centre one and then filling in the gaps after that. If you run out of cakes, don’t worry, you can pin the paper up around the cakes to fill in any gaps. Once the bouquet is full, you can start to ice your cakes.
8. Add the icing to your piping bag. Pipe roses onto the cupcakes, starting in the center and piping over what you already piped by millimeter. Then repeat with the other colours until all the cupcakes have been decorated. For more tips on how to ice cupcakes, see our handy guide.
9. Finish off by adding the rose leaves to fill any gaps. Store in a cool place and remember not in a window or the flowers will melt off the cakes.

Top tips for making a cupcake bouquet

Food colouring gels or paste are much better than using liquid as liquid food colours can often make the buttercream runny.

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Basic cupcake recipe

Chocolate cupcake recipe

Vanilla cupcakes recipe