These honey-sweetened blackberry cupcakes are made without refined sugar and packed with real blackberry flavor in both the cupcake and frosting. A naturally purple, berry-filled dessert that’s perfect for spring, summer, or anytime you want a healthier sweet treat.
I love fruit desserts and baking with fruit. Fruit gives a cake such wonderful flavors and colors naturally, going beyond the sugar tasting cakes we seem to find in mass marketed cakes.
With blackberries in season, they are bursting with flavor. And they were calling my name to feature them in a delicious and moist blackberry cupcake!
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Recipe highlights
- Fun-Sized or Full-Sized: Bake them as mini cupcakes for little hands or full-sized for big celebrations, this recipe fits any party plan.
- Sweetened with Honey: These cupcakes skip the white sugar and use honey instead. Bonus: local honey might even help with seasonal sniffles!
- Naturally Purple: Thanks to juicy blackberries, these cupcakes and the frosting are a gorgeous purple—no food coloring required!
- Mild and Fruity: Not too sweet and bursting with real blackberry flavor, they are a hit with kids and parents who prefer a lighter dessert.
Ingredients you need
- Blackberries: Blackberries are used both in the cupcake and in the frosting. I also add a fresh blackberry on top of each cupcake. For the cupcake and frosting, you can use frozen blackberries. But if you are going to top the cupcakes with blackberries, use fresh.
- Cream cheese: The frosting is made with a combination of cream cheese and butter. If you do not like cream cheese, you can substitute with just butter.
- Honey: Be picky about your honey! There are a lot of brands selling honey, but it has been mixed with corn syrup. Read labels and try to use local honey. Honey comes in flavors, too, depending on the flowers they pollinated. So if you are lucky and can use blackberry honey, even better!
- Eggs: Large eggs are the standard in baking.
- Kitchen staples: Butter, all purpose flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and vanilla extract.
Step-by-step directions
- Purée blackberries. Add blackberries to a food processor and pulse until are puréed and smooth. Press through a strainer to separate seeds, collect the juice and reserve.
- Whip the cream cheese. Whip the butter and cream cheese until fluffy. Mix in the honey and vanilla.
- Add blackberries. Whisk in the strained blackberry purée. Transfer frosting to a pastry bag and refrigerate at least 4 hours.
- Heat the honey. Simmer honey and blackberries until honey is softened. Remove from heat and purée blackberry mixture using an immersion blender.
- Whip the butter. Whisk the butter until light and fluffy. Whisk the vanilla and eggs until incorporated.
- Finish batter. In another bowl combine dry ingredients. Alternate adding the flour mixture with the blackberry mixture, until just combined.
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- Bake. This recipe makes 28 MINI cupcakes or 17-18 regular cupcakes. Divide batter into desired muffin pans and bake until done.
- Frost. Cool cupcakes completely before you frost them. Top each cupcake with a blackberry and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Recipe tips and FAQs
Honey is a fabulous cough suppressant and a great energy booster. Honey also has an infinite shelf-life. Just because the forgotten honey in the cupboard has crystalized, it is still edible. You just need to melt it to bring it back to liquid form.
Honey is also humectant and keeps your baked goods moist, but it also reduces sourness and bitterness. Did you know you can easily swap out regular granulated sugar in a recipe and bake with honey instead? Just follow this simple rule, thanks to the National Honey Board.
Substitute with honey
For every cup of honey you add to replace a cup of sugar, reduce the liquid in your recipe by ¼ cup, add ½ teaspoon baking soda (to neutralize the acid in honey) and reduce the baking temperature by 25ºF.
I have swapped out sugar for honey in many other ways. For more honey recipes, you should check out my blueberry honey jam, banana oat muffins and honey lemonade.
And for another decadent blackberry recipe, try these gorgeous blackberry custard bars!
Storing/Freezing Instructions
TO STORE: If your cupcakes are frosted, I suggest storing any leftovers in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 5 days. If unfrosted, you can keep it covered on the counter for up to 3 days or refrigerate for longer.
TO FREEZE: You can also freeze leftovers. Wrap in foil, parchment paper or plastic wrap and freeze for up to 4 months.
Yes! The cupcakes can be baked and frozen (unfrosted) for up to a month. Just thaw and frost when ready to serve.
You can swap out regular sugar in a cake recipe and bake with honey instead. For every cup of honey you add to replace a cup of sugar, reduce the liquid in your recipe by ¼ cup, add ½ teaspoon baking soda (to neutralize the acid in honey) and reduce the baking temperature by 25ºF.
Definitely! They’re mildly sweet, naturally colored, and have no refined sugar—perfect for little ones and picky eaters!
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Blackberry and Honey Cupcakes
Ingredients
Frosting Ingredients
- 8 oz blackberries frozen and thawed
- 14 oz cream cheese softened
- 4 oz butter softened
- ⅓ cup honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cupcake Ingredients
- 8 oz blackberries frozen and thawed
- 4 oz butter softened
- ¾ cup honey
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 3 eggs large
- 28 whole blackberries fresh, for topping cupcakes
Instructions
Frosting Directions
- Prepare the frosting first to allow to chill at least 2-4 hours until ready to use.
- Place 8 oz blackberries in a food processor with a metal blade. Pulse until blackberries are puréed and smooth.
- Place a fine mesh strainer over a bowl and pour blackberry purée into the strainer. Using a rubber spatula, press the blackberry purée into the mesh. The juice will accumulate underneath the mesh, leaving the seeds on top. Use the rubber spatula to scrape the bottom of the mesh so the juice will fall into the bowl. Continue pressing the blackberries until all of the juice is collected into the bowl, leaving mostly the seeds behind.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with whisk attachment, whisk together cream cheese and butter until smooth and fluffy.
- Mix in honey until fully incorporated.
- Slowly whisk in the strained blackberry purée and whip until completely mixed in together. Transfer frosting to a pastry bag and refrigerate until ready to use.
Cupcake Directions
- Preheat oven to 325ºF and line a 24-cup MINI MUFFIN PAN with liners.
- In a small pot over low heat combine honey and blackberries. Heat until honey is softened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and using an immersion blender, purée blackberries with the honey.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- In a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, whisk together butter until fluffy. Mix in vanilla until.
- Whip eggs into the butter.
- Alternate adding in the flour mixture with the blackberry mixture, until just combined, scraping down sides of the bowl between mixes.
- Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin pan. Bake until edges of the cupcakes are lightly golden, 17-20 minutes.
- Cool cupcakes completely prior to frosting with chilled frosting. Top each cupcake with 1 blackberry.
- Refrigerate cupcakes until ready to serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclaimer
Nutritional information is an estimate provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the actual nutritional information with the products and brands you are using with your preferred nutritional calculator.
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Written by Laura Bashar
Hi, I’m Laura, a certified professional cook and cookbook author living in San Diego. I have been sharing my family’s favorite recipes inspired from all over the world since 2008. Let’s cook up something fun!
what can I substitute for the Amaretto?
Hi Susan,
For alcohol substitution, you can use brandy or any fruity liqueur. For non-alcohol substitution, try cherry, grape or cranberry juice.
Laura
Thank you, have a great day!!!
I will let you know how it turned out!
The cupcakes look great and are easy to make but for a recipe that promises 28 I only got 16 that is a very large difference and without anytime to go and buy double the ingredients i am reluctant to use this recipe again.
I am sorry to hear that. I made this several times and it made 24-30 cupcakes each time. How full did you fill up your cupcake pan? I fill it about 1/2-2/3 of the way full.
I love honey in every form, especially baked things! Your cupcakes look fantastic and the color is so nice!
These cupcakes are so pretty, I love there wonderful colour. I use honey often for as a better substitute than sugar. That is good advise as well, about reducing the liquid and temp on the oven. Thanks for sharing.
I stopped by from Daily Buzz Moms. These cupcakes are so precious! I would have never thought that a black cupcake could look so yummy!! 🙂
I don’t bake much so I’ve never replaced sugar with honey before, but for example, lemonade I do. The honey sugar replacement rule is a must keep. I love that someone experimented this to find out the perfect solution for substitution. I would be too lazy to experiment myself. I’ve also never seen that honey stick! My kids will love it… much better than candies! Your cupcakes are gorgeous! Didn’t you say you are not a baker? My level of “not a baker” and yours is far different! LOL. Beautiful job, Laura!!
Look at those shades of honey, love it. We prefer honey to sugar in my house. The cupcakes look so pretty and delicious. I’m sure your niece loved them. Great photos Laura:)
These are just so pretty! I love cooking with honey, although I don’t bake much. And your photos are lovely!
” . . . the basic formula for substituting honey in my baked goods. For every cup of honey you add to replace a cup of sugar, reduce the liquid in your recipe by 1/4 cup, add 1/2 tsp baking soda (to neutralize the acid in honey) and reduce the baking temperature by 25ºF.”
Thank you! I knew there was a formula for this out there somewhere, but never looked it up. I’ll definitely put this to use. And your cupcakes? Quite nice! Great photos.
I love your cupcakes…the photography is great, Laura! I add honey in whichever way possible to my diet. I love lavender honey the most. Wonderful post and nicely written!
Such pretty cupcakes. I love honey!
I love that there is a big ole’ blackberry perched on top of each one. Fruit on top lets me rationalize that I might be getting one of my five-a-day by indulging in a cupcake. I’m constantly experimenting with proportions so that I can substitute honey – thanks for the exact tips – I’ll definitely keep them in mind next time I bake something. {Which might be today after seeing these cupcakes}
These cupcakes are extremely beautiful!
I love the combination of flavors
I am trying to hold onto my ages-old catchcry ‘I am not a baker. I do not make cakes’! Ha! With apologies to all my fave Oz cupcake bakers: these must be the very prettiest I have ever seen – perhaps I’ll even get around to trying whether mine look and taste half as good 😉 ! Yes, I have and do substitute sugar with honey . . .
The old hippie in me still clings to honey – these photos belong in a food magazine!
Your cupcakes are so pretty, Laura! I’ve used honey a few times but not frequently – thanks to your tips, I’m inspired to experiment some more! The farm where I pick blueberries has several large beehives at the end of the rows so I hope blueberry honey is in my future :).
Oh, I’m jealous about that blueberry honey! It really is full of flavor and mildly fruity. Mmmmm….!!!!!