Mardi Gras Cupcakes
It’s carnival time again and I am counting the days till Fat Tuesday when I get to celebrate with fried gator tail and plenty of drinks. Until that time I plan on cooking everything Cajun in my book of secrets. Hence the Mardi Gras cupcakes recipe.
Mardi Gras
Last year, I bought some doubloons from the dollar store to decorate my cupcakes with. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to use them. Though I am glad because I did not know my way around my new camera then. Now my abilities have grown and well I hope you can see that in the pictures below.
One of the many questions I get asked is how do you swirl icing. It’s pretty simple! I just add a tad of each color to different spots in the pastry piping bag and then squeeze. I only add a little at a time of each or the colors tend to blend too much. You can see my bag below 🙂
The tip I used is 1M by Wilton. I like this shape a lot for cupcakes as it gives a nice ice cream swirl effect. The Mardi Gras beads are a part of the collection of beads I have started to get ready for all the Fat Tuesday fun. I picked them up at the local Dollar Tree if you are interested in getting some of your own.
Now, I cannot take full credit on this recipe as my daughter, whom is 12, took the fun of baking these cupcakes. With a recipe from me she had fun with the colors and the endless licking of all the bowls. That is her favorite part of baking sweets.
In fact, I generally have to continue to tell her the licking belongs at the end of baking not while we are trying to mix everything. She’s hilarious!
Mardi Gras Cupcakes
Ingredients
- For Cupcakes
- 1¼ cups cake flour
- 1¼ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon Malibu coconut rum
- ½ cup oil olive oil
- ½ cup buttermilk
- Yellow gel food coloring
- Purple gel food coloring
- Green gel food coloring
- For Frosting
- 2 cups unsalted butter at room temperature
- 5 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a medium bowl, add cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir together with whisk, and set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, add eggs, sugar, vanilla, rum, and oil; beat on medium speed for about 30 seconds. Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add about half of the flour mixture. Add half of the buttermilk, then the rest of the flour and the rest of the buttermilk; beat until combined.
- Separate batter into bowls and color with gel food coloring in yellow, purple, and green. Pour a little of each batter into lined cupcake. Fill liners a little over half full. Bake cupcakes 12-14 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before frosting.
- Using the paddle attachment of your stand mixer, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 2 minutes till butter is soft and fluffy. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the powdered sugar. Once all of the powdered sugar is incorporated, increase the speed to medium-high and add the vanilla, mix well. Whip at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping the bowl as needed. To color frosting just whip with purple, yellow, and green gel food coloring individually.
- To swirl the frosting, simply put each color of frosting on each side of bag and pipe. I used a 1M tip from Wilton.
Pin Mardi Gras Cupcakes:
How much does this make
15 to 18 cupcakes depending on how much you put in each cup and the size of the pan.
It’s not Mardi Gras without a little alcohol. Nice touch with the Malibu rum.
such pretty cupcakes! AND licking the frosting is one of my favorite parts of baking too 🙂
Every year I forgot about Marti Gras and then tell myself after the fact that I need to remember the next year… you’ve inspired me!
I hope you feel better soon! We should definitely party!
When I can breathe again, let’s partay!