Sunflower Cupcakes

5 from 1 vote

Learn how to make buttercream sunflower cupcakes with this tutorial and video. Great idea for weddings, birthdays and even baby showers!

Prep Time30

Cook Time20

Decorating time2

Total Time2 50

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: cupcakes

Calories: 184.5kcal

Prepare your cupcake casings.
Preheat oven to 170°Celsius.
Beat butter and both sugars till light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Fold in the sifted ingredients into the creamed mixture alternately with milk, starting and ending with flour.
Add in the vanilla extract and mix well.
Pour batter into baking cups until they are about two thirds full.
Bake the chocolate cupcakes for 15 to 20 minutes (depending on the size of the casing you use) or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out without any wet batter sticking to it.
Remove the cupcakes from oven and let them cool completely before decorating.

Separate about one third of the buttercream and tint it green. Tint the rest in yellow.

Level the top of the cupcakes (if domed) with a serrated knife.
Apply a thin layer of green icing with a palette knife. Make sure the cupcakes are well covered with a smooth coat of green buttercream.
Fit the leaf tip number 352 into a piping bag and fill it with the yellow icing.
Use 2 round cookie cutters of different sizes (you can use drinking glass or bottle lids if you don’t have the cutters) and gently press them onto the frosted cupcake tops to mark the circle lines, making sure the circles are well centered on the cupcake.
These lines are to help guide the piping of the 2 layers of petals of the sunflowers.
Hold the piping bag with the narrow side of the leaf tip facing up. To pipe the petals, gently squeeze the icing in the piping bag and release as you pull the tip away from the cupcake.
Continue piping the petals, one by one, using the first marked circle as the guide for placing your piping tip before piping out each of the petals.
Once the outer layer of sunflower petals are completed, move to the next layer of the petals.
Pipe the petals one by one until the full circle ss completed.
Making the sunflower centers with chocolate sprinkles
Next, using a small spoon, add chocolate sprinkles in the center of each cupcake. Keep the sprinkles in the center and not drop any of them on the petals. To hold the sprinkles in place, press them lightly onto the cupcakes with the back of a spoon.

The leaf tip number 352 is in the shape of an inverted “v”. Though it may seem natural to hold the piping bag with the flat side of the tip facing you, remember that for this tip, it is the narrow side that should be facing you, meaning you should not be seeing the inverted ‘v’ shape as you are piping the petals.
Another option for the sunflower centers is to use cookies. Simply place an Oreo cookie in the center instead of the chocolate sprinkles. If you are going to use Oreo as the flower center, make sure the diameter of the flower center match the diameter of the cookies.