Pinata Cupcakes (Best Sprinkles Cupcakes)

❤️Why you will love this recipe

• You can use this pinata cupcakes idea to make homemade funfetti cupcakes as a sweet treat or for any special occasion like baby showers, birthday parties and weddings by choosing sprinkles in the theme color of your party.
• You can use this pinata cupcakes idea with cupcakes in any other flavors such as chocolate flavored cupcakes, coconut flavor, lemon flavor and seasonal cupcake flavors like strawberry, pumpkin and others.
• The cupcakes are easy to make and require only simple ingredients. 
• You can use this sprinkles inside cupcakes idea not only for cupcakes, but also for cakes and in many flavors like vanilla cake, banana cake, red velvet cake, carrot cake, chocolate cake or any other flavors you like.  
• The recipe makes a great colorful cupcake idea by using colorful sprinkles.

The cupcakes are made using my butter pound cake recipe, baked in muffin casings. The ingredients are :

• Butter - I used salted butter. If you are using unsalted butter, add a small extra pinch of salt in the recipe.
• Granulated sugar (caster sugar) - fine sugar is best for baking cakes and cupcakes as coarse sugar will not dissolve well when creaming.
• Self-raising flour + baking powder + salt - mix these and sift them together.
• Eggs - use large eggs.
• Milk - use whole milk for best results.
• Vanilla extract - adds a lovely flavor to the cupcakes.

The topping and filling on the other hand consists of:

• Buttercream
• Sprinkles – I used a combination of dark blue, light blue and gold for these cupcakes. I colored the blue ones myself, out of white (click here to learn how I colored my sprinkles). The gold ones are store-bought. I mixed all the colors together in a small bowl. 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 rosettes on top of each cupcake.
• Disposable piping bags

🧾Substitution and variations

• Vanilla buttercream frosting can be replaced with other types of pipeable frosting like chocolate ganache, chocolate frosting and cream cheese frosting.
• Vanilla cupcakes base can be replaced with other cupcakes like moist vanilla cupcakes, dark chocolate cupcake in this triple chocolate cupcakes recipe or coffee cupcakes recipe.
• Sprinkles can be replaced with any other colors, shapes or type of sprinkles that you like. You can choose simple colorful rainbow sprinkles in rainbow colors (rainbow jimmies) to make fun and colorful sprinkle cupcakes.
• You can use sprinkles in the theme color of your party (be it a birthday party or a baby shower party) or any other of your favorite sprinkles combination.
• You can also choose to use small candies in making these pinata cupcakes. Simply add some mini M&M or even chocolate chips into the cored cupcake centers, either with a sprinkle mix or own their own.

Mixing the 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 large bowl.
• Add butter and cream both until they turn light and fluffy on medium speed with an electric mixer. 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 dry ingredients in three batches. Alternate them with milk.
• Finally, add vanilla and mix well.
• Scoop the cupcake batter into prepared cupcake liners. 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 powdered sugar and cream until the buttercream turns light and fluffy.
• Add vanilla and mix until well combined. If the icing is too stiff, add some milk and beat well.

Assembling and decorating the cupcakes

• Core the center of each cupcake. Use a corer if you have one, or simply use a butter knife or a paring knife to cut out a small hole in the center of the cupcake. You don't need a very sharp knife. 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 butter knife right to the bottom (taking care not to rip the bottom of the cupcake liner with the knife – and this is also why I am using a butter 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 (top of the sprinkle filling) 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 the cupcakes with the same sprinkles (extra sprinkle) mix used to fill them. You don’t have to add too much or else the pretty rosette underneath will be covered. Suffice if they are sparsely dropped on the pinata cupcakes.

🍽️Serving & storage

• These pinata cupcakes (without the filling and frosting) 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 the frosting.
• 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.

💡Expert tips

• 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.
• I used muffin cups to bake my cupcakes, but you can certainly use cupcake liners. Do take note, however, that depending on the size of your cupcakes, you would need to adjust the baking time accordingly.

💭FAQs