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Colorful spring piped cupcake set, featuring peach jam filled Magnolia bakery-style cupcakes, topped with gold luster dust and Brandy buttercream flowers!
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Peach-Filled Spring Cupcakes with Brandy Buttercream Flowers

These light and velvety white cupcakes are filled with a delicious peach jam and topped with the most flavorful Brandy buttercream!
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword American buttercream, brandy, Brandy buttercream, buttercream, cupcake, cupcakes, peach
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Decorating Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings 24 cupcakes

Ingredients

White Cupcakes

  • 1½ cups self-rising flour
  • 1¼ cups cake flour
  • 1 cup softened, room-temp butter
  • 2 cups white sugar
  • 4 large room-temp eggs
  • 1 cup room-temp whole milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • ⅛ tsp nutmeg

Peach Jam

  • 2 large peaches
  • 2 tsp lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract

Brandy American Buttercream

  • 1½ cup softened, room-temp butter
  • 6 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2-4 tsp Brandy (to taste)
  • 2-4 tsp whole milk (to thin, if necessary)

Instructions

White Cupcakes

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F, and prepare the muffin tins with cupcake liners.
  • Add the flours, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg to your mixer bowl, and mix for a minute to thoroughly combine.
  • Cut the softened butter into inch-sized pieces. As the mixer is running on low, add the butter pieces one at a time, mixing until the consistency resembles wet sand.
  • To the mixer bowl, add the vanilla and half of the milk, combining for a minute. Then, pour in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the remainder of the milk. Let the mixture continue beating for 1-2 minutes until fluffy and smooth.
  • Portion the cupcake batter into the prepared cupcake tins, and bake for 20-25 minutes. At the 20-minute mark, check the cupcakes with a toothpick for doneness. Bake just until no crumbs remain on the toothpick. Use caution not to overbake the cupcakes.
  • Quickly but carefully remove the cupcakes from the pan and let them cool fully on a wire rack before filling and frosting.

Peach Jam (optional)

  • Peel and dice the peaches.
  • Combine all of the ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Use a spoon to mash the peaches gently, if they aren't very ripe. Let it simmer until it starts to bubble - at that point, let it bubble for another minute or so until thickened.
  • Pour the peach jam into a shallow dish to allow it to cool fully, before coring the cupcakes with a narrow spoon. Then, add some jam inside of each. Press the removed cupcake core pieces back on top of the cupcake over the hole to seal the jam inside.

Brandy American Buttercream

  • In the bowl of your mixer, beat the softened butter, adding the powdered sugar one cup at a time, scraping the sides down in between each addition.
  • Flavor the buttercream with salt and a few teaspoons of Brandy. Mix to combine, taste, and add more Brandy if you'd like. I like adding all 4 teaspoons.
  • If your buttercream is too thick, thin it out with a few teaspoons of whole milk.
  • Separate the buttercream into as many bowls as colors with which you'd like to decorate. Dip a toothpick into the gel colors and transfer that color to the buttercream. Mix, and repeat the process until the desired color is achieved. Remember, you can always add more color - but it's very difficult to correct buttercream that's gone too dark.
    Here's the breakdown of colors I used:
    Sage Green: One part Royal Blue + Two parts Ivory
    Light Blue: Two parts Royal Blue + One part Plum
    Lavender: Soft Pink + Plum
    Orange: Soft Pink + Electric Yellow + Super Red
    Red: Two parts Super Red + One part Plum
  • Fit your piping bags with the couplers by screwing off the top piece, inserting the base into the bag, cutting off the tip of the bag, and screwing the top back on. Fill the piping bags with your buttercream colors.
    To create a multi-colored swirl, add multiple colors to the same piping bag with a very thin offset spatula.
  • Choose your first piping tips, and attach them to the bags by unscrewing the top of the coupler, placing the base of the tip on the piping bag, and screwing the top of the coupler back over the tip.
  • Then, begin to pipe your decorations on top of the cupcakes. Check out my diagram below for a better understanding of which tip pipes what.
    Rosettes: To create the swirly-looking roses (called rosettes) use a drop flower tip, like Wilton's 2D. Start the piping in the center and move in a circular direction, releasing pressure to stop once you've completed a full rotation.
    Stars: For the ridge-filled stars, use an open star tip, like Wilton's 4B (large) or 32 (small). Simply apply a small amount of pressure, push the bag down slightly, and release pressure while pulling up.
    Small Petal Flowers: The small, five-petaled flowers are created using a drop-flower tip, like Wilton's 107. Utilize the same, quick piping method as the stars to simply "drop" a flower on the cupcake.
    Waves/Ribbon Design: To create a back-and-forth ribbon shape, use a petal tip, like Wilton's 104. With the narrow end of the tip pointed up, and the fat end on the cupcake, start piping at the farther end of the cupcake. Slowly pull the tip towards you, "snaking" the tip back and forth to create a soft zig-zag design.
  • To add some gold sparkle to the cupcakes, place them in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes, until the buttercream starts to harden. In the meantime, add a small splash of clear, food-grade alcohol to a small cup, and add a pinch of the gold luster dust to it. Use a paintbrush to "paint" gold onto the chosen areas of your cupcakes. Let dry. Add sprinkles, if you like.
  • The cupcakes can sit at room temperature for two days, covered. After that, pop them into the refrigerator for another two, or freeze them for up to three months.