In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
With a mixer, cream the butter and sugar together for approximately 1 minute, or until light and fluffy. Add in the honey and mix until fully incorporated.
Add in the eggs one at a time, then turn the mixer off and scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl to make sure there isn't any unmixed butter and sugar.
With the mixer on low speed, add the buttermilk and flour mixture a little at a time, alternating between each. Mix until evenly distributed.
Add in the lemon zest and dandelion petals, making sure they are evenly incorporated and aren't clumped together.
Fill each lined muffin tin with ¼ cup of the batter and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then they can be placed carefully on a wire rack to cool for another 30 minutes.
While the cupcakes cool, prepare the frosting.
Lemon Buttercream Frosting
In a medium mixing bowl, combine the butter, lemon juice, lemon zest, and salt.
Using an electric mixer on medium speed, mix thoroughly until smooth and creamy. Add in the confectioner's sugar ½ cup at a time, mixing in between until the desired consistency is reached.
Spread the frosting evenly over the top of the cupcakes. Garnish the cupcakes with dandelion petals or flowers if desired.
Notes
Dandelions are very common and very easy to spot. Foraging for dandelions can be tricky since you need to find some that aren’t sprayed with harmful chemicals. Be sure to forage from clean area away from roadsides and heavy foot or pet traffic.
For this recipe you’ll only need the petals of the dandelion flower, so you can pick just enough flowers to make up 3/4 cups of picked petals. The yellow petals will need to be picked from the green parts, which are bitter.