Rose Petal Cupcakes

We went to a potluck picnic over Memorial Day weekend, and I decided to make rose petal cupcakes!

I followed a recipe I found in the Delicious Cupcakes book from a gift set that I’d received as a gift last Christmas. The cake portion is basically a vanilla cake, infused with a few drops of rose oil, and the frosting is vanilla buttercream — I just used some icing color to give it the pale pink color.

The unique part of these cupcakes were the candied rose petals on top! First, you pluck and rinse the rose petals very well to ensure that they are clean, and then you pat them dry with a paper towel. You then brush them with egg whites and coat them in super fine baker’s sugar and let them dry overnight… and voila! You have candied rose petals.

Here are the rose petals that I used, just after rinsing. (I had wanted cream ones with pink tips, but I couldn’t find them at the store… so I settled with orange ones.)

Here’s what the candied rose petals looked like when finished:

The rose petals tasted mostly like sugar (since they were coated in it), but you could sort of taste the rose petal flavor towards the end, as an aftertaste. I’d say that it’s a nice aesthetic touch and that the novelty of rose petals on your cupcakes is cool, but it doesn’t really add much in terms of flavor to the dessert. It was fun trying it, though! 🙂