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.
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.
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❤️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:
- 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.
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.
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.
To do this, start pulling the casings from the sides (image 3). And then, carefully layer each cupcake into 3, horizontally (image 4).
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).
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
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.
💡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.
💭FAQs
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.
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.
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.
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📖Recipe
Layered Cupcakes with Sprinkles
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
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
- 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.
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