Here is a pinata cupcakes (sprinkles inside cupcakes) decorating idea for you to try as your next cupcake project.
Pinata Cupcakes
This is a fairly easy technique and the only skill that is needed for this cupcake decorating idea is piping skills, and even that, it’s the skill of piping simple buttercream rosette swirls.
As you can see, the sprinkles I have used on the pinata cupcakes are in 2 shades of blue plus some gold ones. This mix is one which I custom created, meaning, I colored the blue ones on my own (I purchased white sprinkles and colored them to the needs of my cupcake project. Click here to read how I colored them) while gold ones are store-bought. I mixed all three colors together for this combination of the blue-gold colors.
A note of caution with gold and silver dragees – most of these are often very hard to bite and can sometimes hurt your teeth, so choose your sprinkles wisely!
How to Make Pinata Cupcakes
Ingredients
The cupcakes are made using my butter pound cake recipe, baked in muffin casings. The ingredients are :
- Butter
- Sugar
- Self-raising flour + baking powder + salt
- Eggs
- Milk
- Vanilla Essence
The topping and filling on the other hand consists of:
- Buttercream
- Sprinkles – I used a combination of dark blue, light blue and gold sprinkles for these cupcakes. I colored the blue ones myself, out of white sprinkles (click here to learn how I colored my sprinkles). The gold ones are store-bought. I mixed all the colors together. The gold ones are in a lesser quantity while the blues were of equal quantity. I did not want the gold to overpower the blue color, hence I used them in a much lesser quantity.
You would also need the following tools to decorate these pinata cupcakes:
- Wilton star piping tip 2D
for the swirl flowers on top of each cupcake. - Disposable piping bags
for the swirl flowers on top of each cupcake.Mixing the pinata cupcakes batter:
These cupcakes are made using the creaming method, where the butter and sugar are creamed first before all the other ingredients are added in.
- To start with, place the sugar in a medium-sized bowl.
- Add butter and cream both until they turn light and fluffy. This should take a good 2 minutes of medium-high speed. Scrape the sides of the bowl to ensure the butter is all well creamed.
- Next, add the eggs. Add them one at a time, and beat them well.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into the creamed mixture. Fold these in three batches. Alternate them with milk.
- Finally, add vanilla and mix well.
- Scoop the cupcake batter into prepared casings. Fill each casing until about two thirds full.
- Bake the cupcakes at 170 degrees Celsius for 15 to 20 minutes.
- Let the cupcakes cool completely before assembling and frosting.
Making the buttercream
- Measure butter into a bowl. Cream well.
- Sift in the icing sugar and cream until the buttercream turns light and fluffy.
- Add vanilla mix until well combined. If the icing is too sift, add some milk and beat well.
Assembling and decorating the Pinata Cupcakes
- Core the center of each cupcake. Use a corer if you have one, or simply use a jam knife to cut out a small hole in the center. If you need guide in cutting the holes, use the back of a large piping tip to mark the holes.
- Once the marking is in place, remove the tip and cut out a hole using a jam knife right to the bottom (taking care not to rip the bottom of the cupcake casing with the jam knife – and this is also why I am using a jam knife instead of a kitchen knife).
- Next, fill the hole with a bit of buttercream.
- The idea is to just cover the bottom of the pinata cupcake, as such there is no need to pipe too much, suffice if it covers the hole at the bottom.
- Next, fill the hole up with the sprinkles mix all the way to the top of the cupcake.
- And then cover the hole with buttercream, along with the entire cupcake top. You can just cover the hole and not bother with the rest of the cupcake, but I prefer a flat surface to pipe my buttercream rosettes, so I covered the tops of the cupcakes with a flat layer of buttercream.
- Next is the rosette swirls. Using Wilton tip #2D, pipe one large rosette swirl on each of the pinata cupcake.
- And for the finishing touch, decorate the top of each cupcake with the same sprinkles mix used to fill them. You don’t have to add too much or else the pretty buttercream rosette underneath will be covered. Suffice if the sprinkles are sparsely dropped on the pinata cupcakes.
Notes
Why you should not fill the casings full with batter when baking?
- When filling the cupcakes casings, make sure not to fill them with batter until the top. Suffice if each casing is filled about two-thirds full. The cupcakes rise well during baking, so it is important that you leave some room for the batter to rise and to avoid it from overflowing.
Can you use normal cupcake casings to bake the pinata cupcakes?
- Yes, you certainly can.
- Do take note, however, that depending on the size of your cupcakes, you would need to adjust the baking time accordingly.
How to store the cupcakes?
- These pinata cupcakes (without the filling and buttercream decorating) last for a good 4 to 5 days at room temperature. Keep them in an airtight container to ensure they remain moist. Assemble and decorate them right before serving to ensure the sprinkles do not bleed from contact with buttercream.
- If you wish to keep the cupcakes longer, keep them refrigerated. Keep them covered to avoid them from becoming dry. Bring the cupcakes to room temperature before serving. The cupcakes are best eaten at room temperature.
Pinata Cupcakes Recipe
Here is the full printable version of my pinata cupcakes recipe.
Pinata Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 100 g castor sugar
- 100 g butter
- 2 eggs
- 100 g self-raising flour
- ½ tsp vanilla essence
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- 4 tbsp milk
- a pinch salt
Frosting & Filling
- Buttercream
- Sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 170 °Celsius.
- Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- In a separate bowl, sift flour, salt, and baking powder. Fold in the sifted ingredients into the creamed mixture alternately with milk, starting and ending with flour.
- Fold in the vanilla essence and give the batter a good mix.
- Pour batter into baking cups until they are about two thirds full.
- Bake the cupcakes for 15 to 20 minutes (depending on the size of the casing you use) or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcakes comes out without any wet batter sticking to it.
- Remove the cupcakes from oven and let them cool completely before decorating.
- To decorate the cupcakes, core the center of each cupcake. For uniformly-sized holes, you can use the back of a large piping tip to mark the circles. Use a jam knife to cut the hole out.
- Fill the hole with a little buttercream. Top with the sprinkles and cover the hole with more buttercream.
- Spread a layer of buttercream all over the top of the cupcakes and pipe a large rosette on top of each cupcake.
- Sprinkles the tops sparsely with more sprinkles.
Nutrition
And that’s pretty much my pinata cupcakes decorating idea. These pinata cupcakes are a great idea for gender reveals or even baby showers too!
Pinata Cupcakes
Here are my other posts you might want to check out:
- How to Color Sprinkles the Easy Way
- Sprinkles Cupcakes Decorating
- Funfetti Cupcakes – Cupcakes with Sprinkles Inside and Out
Happy baking 🙂
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