These Fruit Flower Cupcakes are vanilla bean cupcakes filled with fruit ganache, topped with vanilla mascarpone buttercream and adorned with a fruit flower.
As I write this, we have now moved to Nebraska from Texas! Before we left Texas, I was determined to use up ingredients and leftovers in my freezer so as to not waste. I had been collecting leftover fruit ganache fillings in my freezer from the various flavors of macarons I have made in the past 3-4 months, including banana, green apple and strawberry.
I knew I wanted to use them as fillings for a vanilla cake, but it was only when I saw the flat top iced cupcake hack trending in the baking world that I decided to do cupcakes.
How make flat icing on a cupcake
If you want a flat surface on your iced cupcakes, pipe a large dollop of buttercream, then invert the iced cupcake onto a sheet pan lined with parchment or wax paper.
Repeat until you have a full pan of upside down cupcakes. Place the tray in the freezer for 5 minutes. Remove from the freezer and peel away the cupcakes from the parchment paper. You should be left with a flat iced cupcake.
This buttercream design works really well for writing on cupcakes, or in my case adding flat designs like a large flower.
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Tips for flat icing on a cupcake
My #1 tip for flat icing on a cupcake is to add a bit of corn or glucose syrup to your icing so that it pipes more smoothly. I saw this tip on Instagram after I made these cupcakes, and was kicking myself that I didn’t do it for this icing!
I was very impressed with this flat top icing method, but there were a few cupcakes that ended up with some pock marks from uneven piped icing because it wasn’t so smooth. So be careful about piping the blobs well and placing them carefully upside down to spread the icing nicely to the edge.
Tips for this recipe
- The fruit ganaches can be made ahead, as I mentioned above. I keep extra ganache on hand in my freezer for occasions just like this.
- This cake will stay moist for 3-4 days at room temperature. You could make the cupcakes ahead of time and just make the buttercream fresh, if desired.
- Add a bit of corn syrup or glucose to your buttercream if you are struggling to pipe it.
📖 Recipe
Fruit Flower Cupcakes
Ingredients
Vanilla bean cupcakes
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (240g)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 4 large eggs room temperature
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar (300g)
- ½ cup unsalted butter (115g)
- 1 cup whole milk
- 3 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract
- 3 teaspoon neutral oil like grapeseed or vegetable
Fruit ganache (I used banana ganache, apple ganache and strawberry ganache)
Vanilla mascarpone buttercream
- ½ cup mascarpone room temperature (113g)
- 226 g unsalted butter room temperature (1 cup or 2 sticks)
- 2 tablespoon heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3-4 cups powdered sugar sifted
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon corn syrup optional
Instructions
Do ahead
- The fruit ganaches can be made ahead of time and left in the fridge or freezer until needed. Just let them come to room temp before piping. Here’s the recipes for my banana, green apple and strawberry ganaches.
Make the cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prepare a cupcake pan with liners and a light spray of oil.
- Whisk together flour, salt and baking powder until thoroughly combined and set aside.
- Crack eggs into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat the eggs on medium speed for 1 minute. With the mixer running, slowly stream the sugar in.
- When the sugar is completely in, turn the speed to high and beat for about 7 minutes. The mixture should be light and fluffy.
- Combine the milk and butter in a saucepan and gently heat until completely melted. Do not let it overheat or simmer. Set aside but do not let it cool off too much (do not do this ahead of time).
- Add the flour mixture in three parts to the egg mixture just mixing until almost combined. If you still see flour, finish mixing by hand by folding the batter with a rubber spatula.
- Add vanilla and oil to the milk-butter mixture and whisk to combine.
- Remove two large spoonfuls of batter and add it to the milk-butter mixture and whisk to completely combine. This tempers your milk mixture so that it does not cook your egg mixture.
- Pour the milk mixture into the rest of the egg mixture with the beaters running on low. Continue beating just 10-15 seconds more until combined.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes.
Make the buttercream
- Beat room temperature butter on high with a paddle attachment (or hand beaters) for 3-4 minutes, until pale and fluffy.
- Add the mascarpone, heavy cream, vanilla and salt. Beat until thoroughly combined.
- Sift in powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, beating between additions.
- Transfer to a piping bag with a large round tip.
Assemble the cupcakes
- Punch out the centers of the cooled cupcakes with the back of a large piping tip or a small round cutter, reserving the punched out cake pieces.
- Pipe ganache into centers and return the punched out cake piece. If you want flat tops like mine, pipe a large dollop of buttercream, then invert the iced cupcake onto a sheet pan lined with parchment or wax paper.
- Repeat until you have a full pan of upside down cupcakes. Place the tray in the freezer for 5 minutes. Remove from the freezer and peel away the cupcakes from the parchment paper. You should be left with a flat iced cupcake.
- Pipe flowers with remaining ganache and buttercream, if desired.
thank you very much for this ly
You're so welcome! Happy baking!