Decorated with a swirl of lemon frosting and fresh flowers these dandelion cupcakes are delicious. In addition, these sunflower seed muffins make of the rare opportunities to eat dandelions when in season!
I woke up the other day, the sun was up and I saw beautiful yellow cropping of dandelions in the back of my garden. They had sprouted overnight, and I knew right away how to use them in the kitchen.
My daughter helped me to collect the dandelion flowers and leaves and we ended up with a full basket in ten minutes. Since it was early morning we used dandelion greens to make this smoothie for breakfast. A few dandelion petals we put on aside to make a dandelion oil and there was still one cup of dandelion petals left. So we decided to experiment and try something new.
As my daughter has sweet tooth, the idea of dandelion cupcakes popped up. I have to be honest this was the first time we tried something like this. But they turned out to be so delicious that I decided to share the recipe with you.
Dandelion flower recipes
The dandelion blossoms have a mildly sweet and floral taste that gives sunflower seed muffins a unique flavor.
However, there are other reasons than just dandelion flavor, that make people want to eat dandelions.
Dandelion blossoms are rich in polyphenols that are important in preventing cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Heads possess antioxidant and anti-inflamatory properties that play an essential role in cancer prevention. If you are looking for more dandelion desserts, you will like these dandelion fritters or try this tasty dandelion & honey ice cream.
Moreover, dandelion flowers are emollient and moisturizing, thus, making infused oil and salve for sore and chapped hands.
Sunflower seed muffins
Sunflower seeds are high in proteins and low in carbohydrates, thus ideal to eat as often as you can. Immune system boosters, and sunflower seeds are a rich source of Vitamin B complex ( helping to keep your stress under the control). They are also rich in magnesium, iron, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, selenium (the best ways to improve thyroid function naturally) and vitamin E (reduce chronic inflammation). According to the study published in ISRN Nutrition sunflower seeds lower your cholesterol levels and protects against heart disease.
Cupcakes or muffins?
When writing this post, I hesitated to call them dandelion muffins or dandelion cupcakes. While muffins are considered relatively healthy with healthier ingredients and rather to eat for breakfast, DIY sunflower cupcakes are served more as a dessert. Our recipe uses sunflower seeds, dandelions, and coconut oil to make them tasty, light, and full of nutrients. On the other hand, we decorated sunflower seed muffins with frostings, defining cupcakes’ real feature. Once you put frosting on the top it distinguishes our sunflower seed muffins in the dessert category rather than an everyday breakfast item.
dandelion cupcakes recipe
First step
Preheat the oven to 180C (350 F) and place paper-lined muffin pan cups into a muffin tin.
Second step
Beat eggs, sugar, vanilla sugar, butter, and coconut oil together. Add sour cream.
Third step
Dump flour, and sprinkle baking powder over. Use a fork and blend them into a mixture
Fourth step
Fold in sunflower seeds, adding the dandelion flowers last.
Fifth step
Mix quickly and lightly until moist, but do not beat or the batter will get lumpy.
Sixth step
Pour the batter into paper-lined muffin pan cups.
Seventh step
Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.
Now it is time to make a lemon glaze.
Eighth step
In a medium bowl, combine the powdered sugar and lemon juice and mix it well
Ninth step
stir until the mixture is smooth; eventually, add more sugar or lemon juice to achieve a thick yet pourable lemon glaze.
Tenth step
Drizzle over the dandelion muffins and enjoy
Tip: Let your sunflower seed muffins cool completely before you drizzle frosting over them. You want the frosting to stay smooth and velvety.
Other desserts with sunflower seeds: Energy bar with calendula
Other desserts with herbs
Lavender &Lemon Crunchy biscuits
Pancakes with red clover and banana
These delicious dandelion cupcakes with sunflower seeds are simple to make. Decorated with a swirl of delicious lemon frosting these sunflower seed muffins make a beautiful decoration on your dining table.
Simple Decorating Ideas
I used fresh edible flowers for decorating these DIY sunflower cupcakes. Still, there are tons of easy ways to dress your dandelion cupcakes up differently, such as
Fruits – strawberries, blueberries or any kind of berries will look and taste great on your dandelion cupcakes
Delicious Vanilla butter – it will melt served on warm cupcakes.
Nuts – walnuts or any nuts would taste great too
Shredded chocolate
Dandelion cupcakes with sunflower seeds
Decorated with a swirl of lemon frosting and fresh flowers these dandelion cupcakes are delicious. In addition, these sunflower seed muffins make of the rare opportunities to eat dandelions when in season!
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 60 g (2.1 oz) or (1/4 cup) butter
- 60 g (2.1 oz) or (1/4 cup) coconut oil
- 2 eggs
- 120 g (4.2.oz) or (1/2 cup) sugar
- salt
- 180 g (6.3 oz) or (3/4 cup) sour cream
- 20 g (0.7 oz) or (1/6 cup) vanilla sugar
- 200 g (7 oz) or (1 cup) of flour
- 20 g (0.7 oz) or (1/6 cup) baking powder
- 150 g (6 oz) or (1 cup) dandelion flowers
- 20 g (0.7 oz) or (1/6 cup) sunflower seeds
Lemon glace
- 65 g (2.4 oz) or (2/3 cup) powdered sugar
- table spoons of fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C (350 F) and place paper-lined muffin pan cups into a muffin tin.
- Beat eggs, sugar, vanilla sugar, butter, and coconut oil together. Add sour cream.
- Dump flour, and sprinkle baking powder over. Use a fork and blend them into a mixture
- Fold in sunflower seeds, adding the dandelion flowers last.
- Mix quickly and lightly until moist, but do not beat or the batter will get lumpy.
- Pour the batter into paper-lined muffin pan cups.
- Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown.
Now it is time to make a lemon glaze
- In a medium bowl, combine the powdered sugar and lemon juice and mix it well
- stir until the mixture is smooth; eventually, add more sugar or lemon juice to achieve a thick yet pourable lemon glaze.
- Drizzle over the dandelion muffins and enjoy
Notes
Let your sunflower seed muffins cool completely before you drizzle frosting over them. You want the frosting to stay smooth and velvety.
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
12Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 244Total Fat: 14gSaturated Fat: 9gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 51mgSodium: 375mgCarbohydrates: 28gFiber: 1gSugar: 13gProtein: 4g
What a marvelous idea! if my dad were still alive he would have gone nuts over these beautiful cupcakes they sure look fabulous I must make a tribute batch for him thank you for posting!
LOL, my husband hates the dandelions that spring up in our yard — I’ll bet this would change his mind.
I had no idea dandelions were edible. This is so fun!
Those are almost too beautiful to eat! Great use of a readily available resource. I love it!
Wow, I never thought about baking with Dandelion flowers! This sounds like a great Spring dessert!
This recipe looks fantastic and what a wonderful way to use this plant! Gorgeous little gems.
Oh my goodness this is so clever, I make Dandelion salad, but have never thought of using Dandelions for a sweet treat. These cupcakes look delicious and I bet the lemon glaze goes perfectly with all the flavors.
How fun! I love using real ingredients and this is perfect!
Wow what beautiful colorful and refreshing cupcakes. I’ve had a few petals of dandelion on a salad but baking with them is awesome.
Those cupcakes are amazing! I’ve never made one with dandelion before, they sound so good and I’m sure they smell amazing as well. It’s the perfect cupcakes for Spring!
Wow these sound really interesting and are so pretty! Almost too pretty to eat.
Thank you so much!
Wow! What a fun flavor combo in these cupcakes! I have actually never baked with dandelion before, but now I want to!
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a recipe for dandelion anything! These certainly do look yummy!
These sound so darn good and unique. Totally summer cupcakes. I need to try this recipe!
I adore this recipe. I love cooking with flowers it’s so fun. I love foraging for my own food.
maybe it’s just because I altered to the recipe a little but it took almost 3 times as long to bake as was posted, I just wanted to let you know in case anyone else had this problem.
Thank you for letting us know. The baking time depends on many factors such as type of oven, flour, the ratio of ingredients, etc. So any changes to the recipe will affect the baking time.
Is the oven temperature in Celsius or Fahrenheit? I assume the 200 is Celsius?
You are right, it is in celsius.
Is there any way to make this dairy free? I’m lactose intolerant and I’m trying to stay away from dairy as much as I can
Hi Sabrina, you can replace the sour cream with alternative yoghurt (soy, almond, coconut, or oat) and same for the butter. I think you can use vegan butter or vegetable shortening instead.
Greetings:
Is there a way to convert this recipe for ur Dandelion Cupcakes from Grams to USA measurements of Cups and Tbsp?
Done, thanks
I’d like to try this recipe but…Is there really 1.5 cups of fat plus sour cream and only 1 cup flour?
Hi Jayne,
thank you for spotting a mistake, I just recently converted all measurements which I made in grams into cups and made a mistake. I just fixed it. Let me know how did it go.
Hi! I love how informative and great your articles are. Can you recommend any other blogs that share recipes of Indian Curries or authentic Indian cuisine? Thanks a lot!
the taste of these muffins was really great. I found the recipe to make them very time consuming. I had to find a kitchen scale to measure some of the ingredients (1/6 of a cup is 20 grams!!) just the same, half cooked they were tasty.
I’ve made these twice now, following the recipe exactly (using the cups/tbsp/tsp measurements), but they do not rise well – they spread out flat on the tops and tend to sink in the middles. Also, the paper wrappers get super greasy. Nonetheless, they are really delicious and we gobble them up! As we’re at the end of dandelion season here now, I may have to wait until next year to try just with the weight measurements for ingredients and see if that makes a difference.
I looked this up, and it could be due to a couple of factors, such as undermixing the batter or overmixing the batter (more likely) or, one of the most likely causes could be using too much flour. I just learned that you are supposed to lightly spoon the flour into the measuring cup in order to preserve air pockets in the flour. If you just scoop it out from your flour bin with the measuring cup, you will actually end up with too much flour in your measuring cup! Below is the explanation regarding the flour issue. Also, check your expiration date on your leavening agents (baking soda/baking powder) and make sure you are using the proper number of eggs.
Too Much Flour
This is one of the most common reason why muffins do not rise.
When you add too much flour, you are changing the ratio of liquid to leavening ingredients to flour which means you are changing the texture, how long the muffins will bake, and how high they will rise.
Excess flour will naturally make the batter dense and stiff which makes it difficult for the muffins to rise as intended.
Tip: Unless the recipe states otherwise, measure the flour by spooning it into the measuring cup and leveling off the excess. Do not pack the flour into the measuring cup!
Can you use dried dandelion petals?
The medicinal benefits will be the same however the texture will differ and the cupcakes will not be as smooth and fluffy.
Just made theses and they came out amazing!! So lovely and soft and the flecks of yellow are so beautiful in the cupcakes! I couldn’t find enough dandelions so used some calendula petals as well and I’m so happy with the end result. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!!
Thank you for posting this! I am so excited to try this recipe out! I am going to try it out and report back here on my results. 1/6 of a cup (of the vanilla sugar) is equal to 2 2/3 tablespoons, in case anyone is wondering. A person could probably just use 3 scant tablespoons. Also, vanilla sugar is made by putting a vanilla bean (which is actually a seed pod of a particular orchid) in a container of sugar and letting it set for a certain length of time.