• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Decorated Treats

  • Home
  • Recipes
    • Cake Recipes
    • Cookies Recipes
    • Brownies & Bars
    • Bread & Pastry Recipes
    • Sweets & Candies Recipes
    • Jellies, Mousses and Puddings
    • Frosting and Icing Recipes
  • Designs & Tutorials
  • Tips & Techniques
    • Preparing Cakes for Decoration
    • Fondant Decorating
    • Piping Techniques for Cake Decorating
    • Gum Paste Flowers - How to Make
    • Decorating with Chocolate
    • Other Techniques
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Recipes
  • Tutorials
  • Techniques
  • About Me
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube
  • search icon
    Homepage link
    • Recipes
    • Tutorials
    • Techniques
    • About Me
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • YouTube
  • ×
    Decorated Treats » Recipes » Cupcakes Recipes

    Layered Cupcakes with Sprinkles

    Published: Sep 6, 2020 · Modified: Mar 8, 2024 by Priya Maha

    Jump to Recipe

    These layered cupcakes recipe makes cupcakes that are on a whole new level. They are moist and fluffy, horizontally layered and generously filled with velvety sprinkles buttercream frosting. With each bite, you'll experience a lovely combination of textures, from the tender cake to the creamy frosting and the playful crunch of sprinkles.

    A cupcake with its casing peeled off, and topped with buttercream and sprinkles.

    From the outside, these cupcakes look like any other typical cupcakes, with buttercream swirls on top and a touch of colorful sprinkles.

    But wait until you take a bite into the cupcakes, and then you will feel the difference with the sprinkles buttercream that is in layers in the cupcake!

    These layered cupcakes are literally cupcakes that are layered horizontally and filled with buttercream and sprinkles. Each cupcake is individually sliced into 3 layers and filled with sprinkles-mixed buttercream. 

    There are 2 types of sprinkles in these cupcakes. The first ones are the slightly long ones (made out of chocolate) which I mixed into the buttercream to fill the cupcake layers.

    The second type is called nonpareils. These are tiny round sugar balls in a myriad of colors. These are for decoration on top of the cupcakes after the buttercream swirls. Both types of sprinkles are store-bought.

    Like these cupcakes? You should also check out these pinata cupcakes, mini funfetti cupcakes, Christmas sprinkle cookies and easy Christmas cupcakes for more sprinkles fun.

    Jump to:
    • ❤️Why You Will Love This Recipe
    • 📋Ingredients
    • 🧾Substitution and Variations
    • 👩‍🍳How to Make
    • 💡Expert Tips
    • 💭FAQs
    • ❤️More Recipes You Will Love ❤️
    • 📖Recipe

    ❤️Why You Will Love This Recipe

    • It's an easy recipe with simple ingredients and easy to follow, simple steps.
    • You can customize the color of the sprinkles and also the frosting layers for special occasion like baby shower parties.
    • The horizontal layers create lovely fun patterns in cupcakes.
    • This is a unique cupcake recipe with frosting layers within the cupcake unlike a traditional cupcake where frosting is always on the top.

    📋Ingredients

    For the Cupcakes:

    Butter, vanilla extract, salt, sugar, eggs, milk, self raising flour and baking powder against a marble background.
    • Granulated sugar (caster sugar) - fine sugar works best. Coarse sugar tend to leave the top of the cupcakes with sugar specks after baking.
    • Butter - I use salted butter. If you use unsalted butter, add a small pinch of extra salt in the recipe.
    • Eggs - use large eggs (whole eggs).
    • Self-raising flour + baking powder + salt - mix these and sift them together.
    • Vanilla extract - adds a lovely flavor to the cupcakes.
    • Milk - use whole milk.

    For the Frosting & Filling:

    • Buttercream - used to fill the cupcakes layers as well as the topping.
    • Sprinkles - to decorate the cupcakes.

    *Refer to the recipe card below for full list of ingredients and exact quantities. For best results, use a digital kitchen scale where applicable*

    🧾Substitution and Variations

    • Self raising flour can be substituted with all purpose flour and baking powder. For every 225g of all purpose flour, add one and half teaspoons of baking powder. Mix well and sift together at least 3 times before using. To make 100g of self raising flour (as indicated in the recipe card below), add two thirds of a teaspoon of baking powder to 100g of all purpose flour.
    • Milk can be substituted with skim milk (low-fat milk) or others like almond milk or oat milk. Use exact same quantity as the whole milk.
    • Buttercream can be substituted with any other pipeable frostings like cream cheese frosting or chocolate ganache.
    • For almond flavored cupcakes, replace the vanilla extract with pure almond extract.
    • You can slice the cupcake into more layers for a four or five-layered cupcake, but do note if you bake your cupcakes in regular-size muffin cups, that it might result in very thin layer slices that can possibly break.
    • To make Neapolitan cupcakes, divide the buttercream into 4 portions. Add some pink food coloring or strawberry powder to the first portion in a small bowl, and cocoa powder to the second portion in a separate bowl. Leave the 3rd and 4th portions plain. Frost the bottom layer of the cupcake with chocolate frosting, the middle layer with strawberry frosting and the top, with plain vanilla frosting. You can omit the sprinkles.

    This recipe has not been tested with other substitutions or variations. If you do try, please let me know in the comments section below!

    👩‍🍳How to Make

    Step 1: Bake the cupcakes. Pre heat oven. Start by creaming the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. This should take about 2 minutes on medium to high speed with an electric mixer (hand mixer or stand mixer). Scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure there is no butter on the sides of the bowl.

    Add the eggs and beat well. Sift in the flour, baking powder, and salt in three batches into the creamed mixture. Alternate these flour mixture (dry ingredients) with milk mixture.

    Finally, fold in the vanilla extract. Scoop the cup cake batter into prepared muffin casings. Bake the cupcakes at 170 degrees Celsius for 15 to 20 minutes until done.

    A baked cupcake in white casing.

    Remove cupcakes from the oven and let them cool completely on a wire rack before frosting (image 1).

    Step 2: Make the buttercream. Add butter into a mixing bowl. Cream it until light and fluffy on medium speed.

    Sift in powdered sugar and continue beating on low speed until the sugar is all incorporated. Increase to high speed and continue beating until the mixture turns creamy. Add some milk if the consistency is too stiff. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl half way through with a rubber spatula.

    A bowl of sprinkles buttercream.

    Stir in the sprinkles until they are well combined (image 2).

    Step 3: Layer the cupcakes. Once the cupcakes are baked and have completely cooled down, peel of the casings.

    A cupcake with peeled casing and a cupcake layered into 3.

    To do this, start pulling the casings from the sides (image 3). And then, carefully layer each cupcake into 3, horizontally (image 4).

    A layer of cupcake with buttercream frosting and a cupcake layered and filled with buttercream.

    Step 4: Assemble the cupcakes. Starting from the bottom layer (the cupcake base), spread some buttercream onto each layer (image 5). Each cupcake would have 2 layers of buttercream filling. When the filling is complete, re-stack the cupcakes all the way until the top layer (image 6). 

    An empty muffin casing and a cupcake in an muffin casing.

    Transfer the layered cupcakes into new cupcake casings. It may not be very easy to transfer the cupcakes back into casings because of the layers of buttercream (images 7 & 8).

    An easier way to do this would be to turn the cupcakes upside down and then cover them with the cupcake casings. Then, hold the casing (with the cupcake inside in an upside-down position) and quickly turn it over.

    Step 5: Pipe buttercream rosettes on top and decorate with sprinkles. Fill the frosting into a piping bag fitted with star piping tip 2D.

    A cupcake with white frosting and a cupcake with white frosting and sprinkles.

    Pipe frosting into simple swirls on the cupcakes (image 9).

    And finally, add a touch of the lively bright-colored sprinkles (nonpareils) on top of the swirls (image 10). I used these sparsely, they look pretty that way on the buttercream swirls.

    You can leave the sprinkles out if you wish, or replace them with any other kind of sprinkles.

    And that's pretty much how you make layered cupcakes.

    A layered cupcake, filled and topped with buttercream, cut into half.

    💡Expert Tips

    • When filling the cupcakes casings, make sure not to fill until the top. Suffice if you fill each casing 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.
    • The reason I used muffin cups for my cupcakes is because these are stiffer. And they are able to hold the cupcake layers and not show any signs of layering.
    • Cupcake liners might not be able to do that. If you still need to use cupcake liners to bake your cupcakes, you have an option not to place the cupcakes into any casings after the layering.
    A cupcake with its casing peeled off, and topped with buttercream and sprinkles.

    💭FAQs

    How to keep the cupcakes moist?

    Do not overbake the cakes. Overbaking can cause your cupcakes to become dry.

    Test the cupcakes for doneness at least a few minutes before the baking time is up by inserting a skewer in the center of the cupcakes. So long as there is no wet batter sticking to it, the cakes are done.

    Another tip is to cover the cupcakes with a kitchen towel while cooling down. This will help to keep them moist too, provided off course, that they are not overbaked.

    How do I get the sprinkles to stick to the cupcakes?

    Add the sprinkles on right away after piping the buttercream. Once the buttercream starts to crust, it will not stick as well as when it is not crusted.

    How to store the cupcakes?

    These cupcakes last for a good 4 to 5 days at room temperature. Keep them in an airtight container to ensure they remain moist.

    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.

    ❤️More Recipes You Will Love ❤️

    • Round cookies with sprinkles on a white plate.
      Simple Peanut Butter Cookies with Sprinkles
    • A cupcake on a white plate, cut into half with sprinkles flowing out.
      How to Color Sprinkles (Easy Method)
    • A group of cornflake cookies decorated with red, green and gold sprinkles.
      Christmas Sprinkle Cookies (Easy Holiday Cookies)
    • A 2 tier mini confetti cake in buttercream and pink and purple flowers
      Mini Confetti Cake - A Cute Cake Decorating Idea

    Do you like this recipe? Please leave a 5-star ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐rating in the recipe card below and consider a review further down this page. I would love to hear from you. Thank you!

    📖Recipe

    A cupcake with its casing peeled off, and topped with buttercream and sprinkles.

    Layered Cupcakes with Sprinkles

    These sprinkles layered cupcakes are literally cupcakes layered with yummy sprinkles-filled buttercream. Read on to learn how to make these pretty treats!
    5 from 1 vote
    Print Pin Rate
    Course: Dessert
    Cuisine: American
    Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes
    Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes
    Decorating Time: 45 minutes minutes
    Total Time: 1 hour hour 20 minutes minutes
    Yield: 10 cupcakes
    Author: Priya Maha
    Prevent your screen from going dark
    Metric - US Customary

    For best results, use the metrics measurements. US customary measurements have not been tested and are only meant for guide.

    Ingredients

    Cupcakes

    • 100 g granulated sugar
    • 100 g butter
    • 2 eggs
    • 100 g self-raising flour
    • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
    • ¼ teaspoon baking powder
    • 4 tablespoon milk
    • a pinch salt

    Frosting & Filling

    • Buttercream
    • Sprinkles
    Metric - US Customary

    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 extract 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, peel them off their casings.
    • Layer each cupcake into 3.
    • Mix some sprinkles into buttercream and spread the buttercream onto the first layer of the cupcake. Top with the second layer of cupcake, spread more sprinkles buttercream onto the second layer and top with the final layer of the cupcake.
    • Lift the layered cupcake into a new cupcake casing.
    • Pipe simple buttercream swirls on each cupcake and top them with more sprinkles.

    Notes

    1. When filling the cupcakes casings, make sure not to fill until the top. Suffice if you fill each casing 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.
    2. The reason I used muffin cups for my cupcakes is because these are stiffer. And they are able to hold the cupcake layers and not show any signs of layering. Cupcake liners might not be able to do that. If you still need to use cupcake liners to bake your cupcakes, you have an option not to place the cupcakes into any casings after the layering.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 163.4kcal | Carbohydrates: 17.7g | Protein: 2.6g | Fat: 9.3g | Saturated Fat: 5.5g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 54.8mg | Sodium: 97.4mg | Potassium: 33mg | Fiber: 0.2g | Sugar: 10.4g | Vitamin A: 307.3IU | Calcium: 21.6mg | Iron: 0.3mg
    Tried this recipe?Mention @decorated_treats or tag #decoratedtreats!

    Reader Interactions

    5 from 1 vote (1 rating without comment)

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    Primary Sidebar

    Hi there!

    I'm Priya, and I'm so excited that you dropped by 🙂 Welcome to DECORATED TREATS, a place where I share all my cake decorating ideas & true and tried recipes for all things sweet.

    More about me →


    Currently Trending:

    • Light fruit cake cut into slices on a green plate.
      Moist Light Fruit Cake (the Best Ever)!
    • 3 dessert bowls of pink jelly with gold flake decoration.
      Agar Agar Jelly Recipe (How to Make)
    • Pink bars of coconut candy stacked on a plate.
      Coconut Candy Recipe (How to Make)
    • A stack of 4 green tea bars.
      Matcha Blondies (Perfectly Fudgy Green Tea Blondies)
    • A round cake on a cake board.
      Why is My Cake Wet In the Middle (and How to Avoid It)
    • A glass of milk on a brown tray with cookies on the side
      How to Make Milk with Milk Powder

    Footer

    ^ back to top

    SUBSCRIBE TO DECORATED TREATS

    Sign up for latest recipes and tutorials!


    Thank you for joining!

    Keep watch for my latest updates in your email.

    .

    About

    • Privacy Policy & Disclaimer

    Resources

    • Conversion Chart
    • Testimonials
    • Contact Me

    Decorated Treats is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. Decorated Treats also contains other affiliate links, which if you purchase from may earn me a small commission. The full disclosure policy can be found here.

    Copyright © 2024 Decorated Treats

    A cupcake with its casing peeled off, and topped with buttercream and sprinkles.

    Rate This Recipe

    Your vote:




    A rating is required
    A name is required
    An email is required

    Recipe Ratings without Comment

    Something went wrong. Please try again.