Easy Mini Football Cupcakes
If you're looking for an elevated game day dessert, then you need to make these mini football cupcakes! They have team sprinkles, lots of vanilla, and super fluffy chocolate buttercream for a simple and classic dessert. And since they're mini, you get 60 servings in under 1 hour!
Ingredients
Sprinkle Cupcakes
- 210 grams all-purpose flour (1 3/4 cups)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 114 grams unsalted butter, softened (1/2 cup)
- 200 grams granulated sugar (1 cup)
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 60 grams full-fat sour cream (1/4 cup)
- 60 grams neutral oil (1/4 cup)
- 15 milliliters pure vanilla extract (1 Tablespoon)
- 120 milliliters whole milk (1/2 cup)
- 80 grams rod sprinkles (1/2 cup - 40 grams or 1/4 cup per team)
Chocolate Buttercream
- 228 grams unsalted butter, softened (1 cup)
- 480 grams powdered sugar, sifted (4 cups)
- Pinch of Kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 30 milliliters whole milk, plus more as needed (2 Tablespoons)
- 64 grams Dutch process cocoa powder (2/3 cup)
Equipment
- Stand mixer or hand mixer
- Mini cupcake pan
- Mini cupcake liners
- 2 piping bags
- 1 small star tip (I use Wilton #21)
- 1 Small round tip (I use Wilton #2)
Instructions
Sprinkle Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a mini cupcake pan with paper liners. In a small bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together until well-combined. Set aside.
- Using a hand mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until the mixture is very light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time until well-mixed. Then, stir in the sour cream, oil, and vanilla extract.
- Pour half the flour mixture into the wet ingredients, followed by half of the milk. Mix on low just until combined. Repeat with remaining flour mixture and milk, stirring just until the batter comes together.
- Evenly divide the batter into two small mixing bowls. Add the sprinkles from Team #1 into one bowl and the sprinkles from Team #2 in the second bowl. Stir each bowl of batter just a few times until the sprinkles are well-distributed. Don't over-mix or the sprinkles will bleed!
- Using a #60 scoop, divide the batter evenly between 60 cupcake liners. They'll be about 2/3-3/4 of the way full. (You will need to work in batches if you only have 1 mini cupcake pan). Bake the cupcakes for 11-12 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. The cupcakes are ready when an inserted toothpick has just a few moist crumbs on it.
- Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for about 5 minutes. Then, transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely. Let the pan cool completely before you bake the rest of the cupcakes.
Chocolate Buttercream
- Add the butter and half of the powdered sugar to a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer with a whip attachment, beat the butter and powdered sugar until it's smooth. Add the rest of the powdered sugar, beating the mixture until it's well-combined. The frosting will be thick.
- Add the salt, vanilla extract, and whole milk. Whip the frosting on medium-high speed until it's very fluffy, 3-4 minutes. If the frosting is too thick, add more milk 1 teaspoon at a time, as needed. Then, reserve about 100 grams (1/2 cup) of vanilla buttercream for later.
- Add the cocoa powder to the remaining buttercream and beat the frosting until well-combined. Add more milk 1 teaspoon at a time to thin the frosting as needed. Turn the mixer to high and beat 2-3 minutes until the chocolate buttercream is super fluffy.
- Fit one piping bag with a small star tip and one piping bag with a small round tip. Spoon the chocolate buttercream in the bag with the star tip and the vanilla buttercream into the bag with the round tip.
- Using the chocolate buttercream, pipe zigzag shapes over the tops of the cooled cupcakes. You want the centers to be wider and the ends to be tapered to make football shapes. The first few might feel awkward, but once you get the hang of it, it's super easy!
- Then, use the vanilla frosting to pipe a horizontal line over the chocolate footballs. Make sure to apply even pressure, you want one consistent line! Lastly, pipe three vertical lines evenly across each horizontal line to mimic the laces. Enjoy the cupcakes immediately or store them in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Enjoy!
Notes
For amazing cupcakes every time, measure your ingredients with a kitchen scale! If you don't have one, you can use measuring cups, but make sure you're measuring the flour the right way. First, fluff the flour with a whisk. Spoon the fluffed flour into the measuring cup until it's overflowing and level it off without packing the flour in.
You will need 2 Tablespoons (20 grams) of each color of sprinkles. That's 1/4 cup (40 grams) per team or 1/2 cup (80 grams) of sprinkles total. If you're looking for specific team colors, you can usually find them online or at a craft store. I just bought teal, orange, red, and gold sprinkles from Michael's and mixed them myself!
Don't over-mix or the sprinkles will muddy the batter! You want to stir just until the sprinkles are well-combined and there are no more streaks of flour.
If you want the decorating to be even easier, you can just pipe one horizontal line across the footballs and skip the three vertical lines. They'll still look super cute!
Serving: 1mini cupcake, Calories: 121kcal, Carbohydrates: 16g, Protein: 0.9g, Fat: 6g, Saturated Fat: 3g, Cholesterol: 19mg, Sodium: 44mg, Fiber: 0.5g, Sugar: 12g, Calcium: 14mg, Iron: 0.4mg
Did you make this recipe?Tag @sundaytable.co on Instagram!