Unleash your creativity with this versatile ultimate cupcake recipe! Start with a basic batter and transform each cupcake into a unique flavour sensation. Each cupcake is a delightful surprise, from zesty lemon to gin and tonic to rich chocolate. Perfect for parties or just because you deserve a treat!
I do love a good cupcake. What’s better than a good cupcake? A selection of good cupcakes! Who has the time to make six or twelve dozen cupcakes to get a variety of flavours to serve at an afternoon tea party?
Why not make one batch with twelve different flavours?!
Okay, I admit, this probably takes just as long to make as a dozen different cupcake recipes, but it’s jolly good fun, and there are loads of different cakes to eat, too! Win!
One recipe – twelve different flavours – how?
One recipe, twelve different flavours. The batter itself is really simple to make—it’s a basic fairy cake recipe divided into half, and one half is flavoured with chocolate. When you start with this, the possibilities are endless—simply divide each half into sixths and flavour each sixth as you desire—I’ve gone with some of my personal favourites. Weighing out your batter in advance makes this job a lot easier and ensures all your cupcakes will be the same size.
You can even combine vanilla-flavoured batter with the chocolate batter for a swirl effect. Simply spoon the batter into the prepared case and swirl it together with a toothpick.
Decorating Tips for this Ultimate Cupcake Recipe
This recipe requires the most time for frosting and decorating. To make life easier, you could just frost with chocolate or vanilla frosting, but I’ve gone the extra step and flavoured several of the cupcake frostings individually to complement their cake base. For example, a wee splash of gin in the gin & tonic variety, a little dash of rose syrup in the vanilla rose, a swirl of peanut butter-flavoured frosting in the peanut butter chocolate swirl recipe, etc.
Or, don’t use a piping bag (as you’ve got to remove and wash the nozzle between each cupcake!). Spread on with a palette knife and decorate as desired.
So, what do you think of my cupcake ideas? They are perfect for afternoon tea or a birthday party, as long as you don’t mind spending an afternoon pottering about in the kitchen playing with flavourings.
What’s your favourite cupcake flavour? Let me know in the comments!
Recipe Difficulty Levels
Easy
Requires basic cooking skills and ingredients you most likely already have in your kitchen.
Moderate
Requires more experience, preparation and/or cooking time. You may have to source special ingredients.
Challenging
Recipes requiring more advanced skills and experience and maybe some special equipment.
One Batter, 12 Flavours: The Ultimate Cupcake Recipe
Ingredients
for the basic cupcake batter
- 125 grams butter room temperature
- 125 grams caster sugar
- 2 large free-range eggs
- 125 grams self-raising flour
- 0.5 tsp Madagascar bourbon vanilla bean paste
- 2 tbsp full fat milk
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder (for the chocolate batter)
for the flavourings in the cupcakes
- 1/2 tsp lime juice (gin & tonic flavour)
- 1 pinch lime zest (gin & tonic flavour)
- 1/2 tsp lemon juice (lemon flavour)
- 1 pinch lemon zest (lemon flavour)
- 0.5 tsp smooth peanut butter (chocolate peanut butter swirl flavour)
- 0.5 tsp rose syrup (vanilla rose flavour)
- 0.5 tsp toffee sauce (toffee chocolate flavour)
- 1 tsp fudge pieces (chocolate fudge flavour)
- 2 tsp desiccated cococnut (coconut flavours, divided)
- 1 pinch chilli powder (chilli chocolate flavour)
- 1 tsp milk chocolate chips (double chocolate flavour)
for the buttercream frosting
- 225 grams butter room temperature
- 600 grams icing sugar
- 1 tbsp Madagascar bourbon vanilla bean paste
- 5 tbsp double cream
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder (for the chocolate frosting)
icing flavourings & decorations
- 1 lime slice (gin & tonic decoration)
- 0.5 tsp gin (gin & tonic frosting)
- 1 pinch lemon zest (lemon decoration)
- 0.5 tsp lemon juice (lemon frosting)
- 1 tsp American peanut butter candies (choc peanut swirl decoration)
- 0.5 tsp smooth peanut butter (choc peanut swirl frosting)
- 1 tsp milk chocolate curls (chocolate decoration)
- 1 tsp pink white chocolate curls (vanilla rose decoration)
- 0.5 tsp rose syrup (vanilla rose frosting)
- 1 tsp white chocolate curls (vanilla decoration)
- 1.5 tsp toffee sauce (toffee chocolate, divided)
- 1 tsp fudge chunks (chocolate fudge decoration)
- 2 tsp coconut flakes (coconut decorations)
- 1 pinch chilli flakes (chilli chocolate decoration)
- 1 tsp white chocolate chips (double chocolate decoration)
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Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 200 °C/ 390 ℉ and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cupcake cases.
- Weigh your mixing bowl and keep a note of the number.
- Cream together 125 grams butter and 125 grams caster sugar until light and fluffy. Add 2 large free-range eggs and 0.5 tsp Madagascar bourbon vanilla bean paste and beat well.
- Sift in 125 grams self-raising flour, add 2 tbsp full fat milk and beat until well combined.
- Weigh your mixing bowl with the batter in it, and divide the mixture equally in half. You should have two bowls with approximately 250 grams of batter in each one.
- Add 1 tbsp cocoa powder to one half to make the chocolate batter.
- For the chocolate, double chocolate, chilli chocolate, chocolate fudge and coconut chocolate flavours, measure out 1/6th of the final weight of your chocolate batter into a small bowl – approximately 40-42 grams of batter – one at a time, adding each of the flavourings before spooning into the prepared baking case. Take a note of where you’ve placed each flavour – jotting down a diagram helps.
- For the gin & tonic, lemon, vanilla rose, vanilla and vanilla coconut flavours measure out 1/6th of the vanilla batter and add each of the flavourings one at a time. Spoon into the prepared baking cases.1/2 tsp lime juice, 1 pinch lime zest, 1/2 tsp lemon juice, 1 pinch lemon zest, 2 tsp desiccated cococnut, 0.5 tsp rose syrup
- For the peanut butter chocolate swirl flavour, measure out 25 grams of vanilla batter and stir in the peanut butter. Drop in small spoonfuls, along with 20 grams of chocolate cupcake batter into the prepared cupcake case. Swirl using a toothpick. Repeat for the toffee chocolate flavour.0.5 tsp smooth peanut butter
- Bake for 15-20 minutes until light golden and well risen. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Prepare your frosting by beating together 225 grams butter, 600 grams icing sugar, 1 tbsp Madagascar bourbon vanilla bean paste and 4 tbsp of the 5 tbsp double cream together. Divide the mixture evenly in half (weighing it out makes this so much easier) and add 2 tbsp cocoa powder and another tbsp of double cream to one half.
- Measure out three 70-75 gram bowls of vanilla frosting. Add 0.5 tsp gin & 1 pinch lime zest to one, 1/2 tsp lemon juice to another and 0.5 tsp rose syrup to the third. Pipe over the top of their respective cupcakes and decorate with 1 lime slice, 1 pinch lemon zest and 1 tsp pink white chocolate curls. Frost the coconut vanilla and plain vanilla cupcakes with 70 grams of frosting and decorate.
- Measure out two small bowls of 40 grams of chocolate frosting and set aside. Frost the chocolate, double chocolate, chilli chocolate, chocolate fudge and coconut chocolate flavours with the remaining icing and decorate with their respective decorations.
- For the swirled frostings, add 1 tsp American peanut butter candies to 25 grams of vanilla frosting and swirl with one of the 40 gram bowls of chocolate frosting. Decorate with chopped 1 tsp American peanut butter candies. Repeat with the toffee swirl frosting, and topping with 1.5 tsp toffee sauce.
Elizabeth’s Classic Banana Bread Recipe
Hi from where you bought cake stand pink colour nice.
Thx
I bought it at a local village shop here in Shetland. No idea where you might find one online, I’m afraid!
Gin and tonic cupcake omg !! Marry me lool ! They look so perfect its unreal and the flavours are sooo unique !! Thank you so much for sharing this with us.. 🙂 Have a lovely day! Visit me whenever you have time kisses Dominica! xXx
oh wow, I love the idea of making different cupcakes at the same time. These all look amazing. I would want to try one of each at the same time! Beautiful cupcakes ..
Looks gorgeous!
Yuumy yuumy in my tummy!!! They look great and I like how its more of frosting and fun thing son top then the cake part. I prefer that hahahhaa
Wow, 12 different flavours, that’s really impressive. And they all look absolutely delicious.
12 flavours from one mix? Amazing! Should the recipe include a pack of straws to decide who gets G&T??
I love all of your cupcakes and would eat them all but I’m afraid as a cookery teacher who teaches regular bake parties that involve me washing up buckets and bowls of buttercream i never ever make them as it is the hardest thing to wash up alongside melated bowls of chocolate. Can I just eat yours instead, they are so gorgeous!
This is so amazing! What a wonderful treat to get such a selection. Well done!!
Oh my god you are mad! I would never. It would be one flavour or nothing. Jeezy peeps. Look gorgeous though and I bet they taste great.
Oh wow, you must have the patience of a saint to make twelve different flavors 🙂 I have to admit, they all sound delicious and I will definitely be choosing one to try out with my daughter tomorrow (she has been asking me to make some with her for weeks, and baking is not my specialty)!
Elizabeth I am in awe!! This must have taken you hours and hours – not to mention all the separate bowls to wash up!! They all look incredible.
Beautiful photography and what a wonderful idea! I do the same with rainbow cakes so it seems common sense to do it with flavours too- just never thought to do it that way. Thanks for sharing 🙂
omg! I could eat all of them. They look so yummy! I’m curious about the gin & tonic one haha x
Oh this is so clever! Love this idea..and ambitious 🙂 Gorgeous cupcakes!
Well this is just the cutest! Darling cupcakes and so so cute for an afternoon tea!
First of all, LOVE the photography and wow, those cupcakes look bloody delicious! x
Gorgeous photography. I’m in love. They look too pretty to eat.
Great post! I skipped over here from Pinterest to investigate. Love this post, love the recipe, love the pictures!!! Thanks. : )
I love this idea… Esp since my kids have different taste buds.. One likes vanilla and the other prefers chocolate.. And my older one loves decorating the cupcakes… Will try these soon!!
Gosh, so impressed with the idea of making different flavour cupcakes using one base batter and adding flavourings to different portions! Very cool!
I am loving your cupcakes Elizabeth. Twelve different flavours is amazing, but I can imagine a fair amount of fighting going on as to who gets the G&T one. The piped swirl makes such a difference. I really ought to master piping, but I hate doing it. It always seems such a faff.
These cupcakes are so pretty! I love that you can easily change up the flavours too.
These look beautiful and delicious! I love all the garnishes as well.
Phew, you’re much more industrious than me when it comes to baking but would you mind if I come over for a bite … or two..or three?
Those cupcakes are beautiful and they are ALMOST too pretty to eat. I love the sound of a gin and tonic cupcake.
Yowsers, now that is a real labour of love, great selection of flavours though particularly the rosewater idea!
Hi Elizabeth,
Can never say no to a good cupcake!
Thanks for sharing the selection of lovely recipes 🙂
Amy
These cakes look just too pretty to eat, not that I wouldn’t be the first person to dive in x
Your cakes look amazing! Almost too good to eat! Almost! 🙂
oh my I would love to do this some afternoon that I have a bunch of bored teenagers along. I think they would love doing this and experimenting. Sounds fun 🙂 x
I want the gin & tonic vanilla cupcake! What a lovely idea and beautiful pics. Pretty in pink 🙂
I love the idea of 12 different cupcake flavours in a batch – its just the sort of crazy idea I’d have myself. At least you are honest in saying it might take just as long as 12 batches, but I love pottering around the kitchen and making umpteen different things, so this is right up my alley. Your combination of flavours is wonderful – I’ll take one of each please… do you ship to Australia?!
We just made them! Omg – its best thing we eat x
These look a great idea – the main problem I could foresee would be that if I made this for a group everyone would be arguing over it – but it would be brilliant for example if you had people with certain tastes that you could cater to (nut allergies, the odd friend who doesn’t like chocolate and that person who just wants a very plain cupcake while others don’t)