Have you ever met a beekeeper? I have met several over the years in my day job as a journalist and I am here to tell you that people who dedicate their lives tending to bees, hives, and all the paraphernalia that comes with it, are amazing.
I recently interviewed a beekeeper who I have met several times now. She is passionate and knowledgeable about all aspects of beekeeping and at the end of the interview she gave me a jar of honey from her hives.
This honey is nothing like the stuff you buy at the shops. It is thick and unctuous and just begging to be via a spoon dipped in the jar. Mmmm, honey. As the hive is located a few suburbs away it is possible that the bees may have even visited my garden to alight on my lavender bush.
I was inspired by a recipe in Good Housekeeping’s The Baking Book for these cupcakes. I didn’t even notice how few ingredients it had until I was standing with the mixer going, and then I was happily amazed.
GATHER:
125 butter, softened and roughly diced
125g runny honey
2 eggs
125 grams self-raising flour, sifted
buds of two lavender blossoms, finely crumbled, plus extra for garnish – ensure they are chemical-free, ideally from a loved one’s garden. These are from The Hungry Nonna’s garden – thanks mum 😉
Whipping or thickened cream, for garnish.
LET’S GET TO IT:
Preheat oven to 170C and line 6 Texas-sized cupcake holes with wrappers.
In bowl of electric mixer beat honey and butter until combined.
Add eggs, one at a time, then beat. Mixture will look curdled, is fine.
Using a silver spoon stir in flour and mix until just combined. Scrape into wrappers and bake for 15-20 minutes / until a skwere comes out clean.
Remove to wire rack to cool completely.
Meanwhile beat some thickened cream until soft peaks, then dollop on top of cakes. Garnish with extra lavender buds.
the hungry mum 
Beautiful photos! 🙂
Thanks 😉
That icing looks so fluffy and I love the lavender and honey idea.
It is such a girly combo – and so delectable x
I can’t believe there are so few ingredients in this recipe! I wish I can visit a bee farm one day, it’d be an amazing experience!
I know – so few items for such a great cupcake.
These honey and lavender cakes look luscious ,Can we please have them at our next family “do”.
Sure, Hungry Nonna. Luckily I still have a stash of your lavender 😉
Lavender and honey are a wonderful combination. Your cupcake looks very pretty with the beautiful frosting. My auntie used to keep bees and when she would visit she would bring us some honeycomb – it was the best honey ever xx
Wow, honeycomb is like nothing else. Such a delicious, if somewhat alien-esque looking, treat.
We listened to a talk by a beekeeper! It was so fascinating and we learned so much about the crazy life of bees 🙂
Isn’t it amazing? The whole process is incredible. And the fact we can buy such delicious Australian honey for just a few dollars a jar – such a labour of love for many beekeepers.
They look delicious and I love the easy recipe!
Thanks Linda- it is probably the shortest ingredient list you’ll ever see for a cupcake recipe!
Nice combination. An old man who lived in our road was a bee keeper, he always had the.most delicious huge jars for honey for sale.Sadky he passed away 2 years ago and I always wondered what happened to all his bees and hives.
Oh, I hope someone ‘adopted’ his bees and hives. Every beekeeper I have met, and there’s been a few, are such interesting characters.
These look delicious!
They vanished in mere moments when I took them to work yesterday 🙂
That certainly is the response I always look for when bringing goodies to work! Excellent job!
I love that you used real flowers on the cupcake! So pretty!
Thanks 😉 Nature is pretty cool.
Nothing a beats a three or four ingredient dessert.Your post reminds me of an article I read a few years ago about the angry bee keepers in Ribeauville – up in arms after discovering their bees were pollinating the sugary waste of an M&M factory some 200 miles away in favour of the flowery fields of Alsace. Sacre bleu they were producing rainbow hued honey. Not surprisingly the bee keepers refused to sell the tainted product. By all accounts the bees were attracted to the sweeter waste over the natural nectar of the flowers. Thankfully the factory was slapped with a huge fine and forced to clean up its waste.
I hadn’t heard about this. What an incredible story. Rainbow-hued honey – how very strange.
I’ve never before met a beekeeper but I can only imagine what that honey is like!!! I love love the floral accents for these cupcakes!!! gorgeous!!!
The honey is ALL the amazing – I have tried it literally straight off the comb from the hive and it really is food of the gods 😉 Thanks for your enthusiastic response!
Oh yum, looks delicious
Thanks, they vanished in a heartbeat at the office 😉
I imagine so lol
These cupcakes are gorgeous! Love the honey and lavender flavour – so beautiful!
O Thank you – so sweet of you 🙂 Honey equals yummmmm x
Simply damn delicious sweet bites!!!
I love lavender in baking, and with honey as well…yum!
Cheers Beck – it really makes you think about the role of nature in our world when you use straight=from-the-source ingredients.
Ah gheeezh! I now have another recipe I HAVE to make!! You should really link this to Fiesta Friday! It’s easy, just hit the link up button put your info in, then add a link to them on your blog. You don’t need to get all complicated with the badges or anything!
These truly look outstanding!!
Haven’t met a beekeeper yet, though there is a small farm near us that keeps bees! Your cupcakes look amazing- i especially love the whipped cream on top- it looks so pretty! 🙂
If you ever get the chance to have a natter with that beekeeper I recommend you do – they tend to know all there is to know about pollination, nature, plants, life cycles – amazing! Thanks for popping by 😉
What a cool flavour combination! You’re a very clever cookie!
The flavours are quite summery, even though it is the first day of winter here tomorrow in Sydney 😉
They look just too delicious! Wonderful idea using lavender, makes me yearn for summer even more …
It is the first day of winter here in Sydney and summer seems sooooo far away! Oh well, we will always have cake 🙂
This absolutely perfect timing. My sister has just taken up beekeeping this year, and I’ve got a massive crop of lavender exploding in my kitchen garden.
And it’s funny, I never stop to think about how lavender can be used in cooking.
I am all for cupcakes. And even more so for ones that are heavenly scented and divinely sweet.
Cheers!
oh wow! So envious! A beekeeper in the family would be just amazing. You’ll only need a smidge of your exploding lavender crop for this recipe – unless you up the quantities BIG time!
I haven’t met a beekeeper in my life nor get near with the place where they keep bees. I love fresh/raw honey over the store-bought. Nothing compares to that. These cupcake look amazing! Happy FF and have a fab week. 🙂 xx
oooh pretty and delicious. bet they were pretty delicious!!
they were pretty good, I must say 🙂
I am desperate for that fabulous fresh honey you described…. mmmmm. Lovely cupcakes! Simple & perfect 🙂
Fresh honey is like no other – unctuous and so full of flavour.
I have some culinary lavender that’s dried, is that okay to use? I couldn’t tell if it should be fresh. These sound so good!
I reckon that would be perfect! Let me know how it goes.
OMD! Lavender and Honey! I love anything lavender, and honey is one of the perfect flavor matches. And lavender is blooming around here! Yumm!
Hope you get a chance to make this Monica – you’ll be glad you did.
Reblogged this on the hungry mum.
I want to make those cupcakes – I really like the post! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I hope you do! They are easy but look so pretty.
We are interested in getting a bee keeper put a hive in the back of our property in the country. They are incredible insects! Your cupcakes look so cute and I’m sure they also taste delicious! I tried making biscuits using the lavender out of our garden but they were not that strong in flavour so I must give your cupcake recipe a go! x
I would love to have a hive! What an amazing experience, to have this in your yard. Some lavenders have a stronger taste than others, maybe you could add a bit more next time?
These look so good, this is definitely going on my list of things to bake.
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I love these cupcakes, they make a lovely change from vanilla or chocolate.
I’ll for sure make it in chocolate then 🙂 thanks for sharing
Except for the occasional red velvet, most cupcakes that I see are vanilla or chocolate, too. How nice to see such an attractive and flavorful alternative. A friend had a few hives and they produced the best honey I’ve ever tasted. Unfortunately, she lost them to Colony Collapse Disorder and when her attempts to replace them fell again, she quit. Drat! 🙂
Beautiful! 🙂 I wanted to get a hive for my back yard, my complex is all about sustainable living, there are gardens we can all eat from and it seems that things just grow and enjoy the environment. Thought it would be fun to make it even better with some beeeeeez. 🙂
Do I use fresh or dried lavender for this tasty treat?