Honey Cupcakes Recipe

Enjoy a wholesome, sweet treat with these honey butter cupcakes. Made with simple ingredients and naturally sweetened with honey, this is a treat you can feel good about whipping up for your family. If you need a dairy free option, no worries! You can easily swap out the dairy ingredients in this recipe with non dairy alternatives.

Just a reminder, honey is not safe for children under the age of one.

What you need to make these naturally sweetened cupcakes

• Flour – use all purpose organic unbleached flour in this recipe. And, really why would you want to consume anything that’s been bleached? You can also experiment with whole wheat flour if you prefer.
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Salt – we use unrefined mineral salt from Redmond’s.
• Honey – support your local agriculture by buying only local, raw honey. You’ll also be able to enjoy the health benefits of honey that hasn’t been pasteurized.
• Butter – you can use salted or unsalted in this recipe. If you need a dairy free version, you can easily swap with coconut oil. It tastes just as amazing, if not better, with the coconut oil. I love unrefined coconut oil so that we can enjoy traces of coconut flavor.
• Yogurt – we use our whole fat, homemade yogurt for this recipe. You can also swap this out with a dairy free yogurt or a nut milk. This ingredient yields a very moist cupcake you’ll love. If you don’t have yogurt but can have dairy, sour cream is another great subsitute.
• Egg – pastured eggs are best, but eggs are expensive right now so use what you can afford.
• Vanilla extract – use the real thing. Don’t you dare use the imitation vanilla, please, for your sake don’t.

How to make cupcakes with honey instead of sugar

Honey can be used as a 1:1 replacement for sugar. You will need to add more leavening agents to the batter to help it rise though.

The first step in this recipe is to sift all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Whisk together to combine fully.

Then, in a separate bowl, mix together the wet ingredients. Mix until smooth and then slowly, while stirring constantly, add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. The cupcake batter will be thick.

Line a muffin tin with cupcake wrappers and fill each about 2/3 of the way full with the batter.

Bake at 350F for about 20 – 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

By the time this batch of cupcakes came out of the oven, my toddler was getting pretty cranky. So, we enjoyed a fresh, warm cupcake together before I got around to taking the above photo. He calmed down in no time 😀

You can easily adjust the sweetness of these cupcakes. If you like sweeter cupcakes, you can add up to 3/4 cup honey. In this case add 1/2 tsp salt.

If adding 2/3 cup honey, use 1/4 tsp salt.

And, if using 1/2 cup honey, as in the recipe, use only 1/8 tsp salt or simply omit the salt if you are using salted butter.

How to make a honey buttercream frosting

This is optional, you can always whip up your favorite frosting for these cupcakes, but if you’d like to enjoy some more honey, then this is a great way to make a naturally sweetened buttercream.

First, you’ll need some cold butter. When it comes to this kind of buttercream you really need a good quality butter. Cut the cold butter into cubes and add it to a mixing bowl.

If you have a hand held beater or stand mixer, that will make this process a lot easier. I made this butter cream with a fork and whisk. Let me tell you, that was an arm workout.

You’ll also need a thick honey. If you are located in the north central FL area, I got our honey from The Honey Girl located in Crystal River. Either way, get to know a local beekeeper, or local produce store in your area and they’ll set you up with a good quality honey.

A splash of vanilla and a pinch of salt can be added for a little extra flavor.

Whip the butter, honey, vanilla and salt together until it gets light and thick like any other kind of butter cream. You can allow it to chill in the fridge if it’s still a bit runny after whipping for a couple minutes before piping it.

This is a really strong frosting, you really only need a little bit of honey buttercream for a whole cupcake. For the sake of a nice photo I piled the frosting up high.

Let me know if you give this recipe a try and I hope you love it 😊

Happy baking!