Don’t they just scream fiesta?!  These little cupcakes are sure to bring smiles and fun to any party. (Cinco De Mayo or otherwise)  I know they make me happy just looking at them.  And guess what?  They aren’t called piñata cupcakes just because of their happy fringed toppers. They are piñata cupcakes because they have a surprise!  They are stuffed inside with sprinkles!  Yup!  How fun is that!

They are also a ton of fun to make.  I felt like a Mrs. Willy Wonka of sorts.  In addition, because these take a bit more prep time I opted not to doctor-up the box cake mix much to make it even more simple.  You can use any box of cake mix you want really.  I used Betty Crocker’s white cake mix.  The only thing I changed is I switched out the water for milk.  A simple switch really, but it makes a wonderful difference!

I started by making the cupcake toppers.  They are super easy to make.  I used tissue paper that coordinated with my cupcake liners because I wanted them to match and then have the rainbow frosting in the middle, but you can do them however you want.

 

Supplies for toppers: Tissue paper sheets, tooth picks, scissors, glue stick

Process:

-Cut out a strip of tissue paper about 1″ wide  and 10″ long (I just eye-balled it)

-Cut slits all along one side to create a fringe effect.

-Wrap the fringe strip around your toothpick (fringe side up) and as you wrap slide the top section of the tissue paper up off of the toothpick.  (it should hold its shape just fine)

-Initially you don’t want to wrap it up too tight or your fringe won’t stick out in a fun way.

-When you start nearing the end of the length you want wrap tighter so that it is snug on your toothpick.

-When you reach the end put a bit of glue on and finish wrapping.

-I then pinched the end where the glue was fastening it and rolled it in my fingers to press it nice and tight.

-You will want to leave a little bit of empty toothpick on the bottom for sticking in your frosting.

Now you are ready for the really exciting part: cupcakes! You bake them up following the instructions on the box and then once they are done  you wait for them to cool a bit before coring them.

I use a cupcake corer that I got from Michaels Craft Store.  However, you can use a piping tip, a small spoon, or even just cut the middles out.  You don’t need to worry about extracting the core beautifully because when you are done stuffing them you just place the frosting right on top over you hole!

(Here is my corer and the cupcake middles.  They make a wonderful snack to munch on while waiting for your cupcakes to be done!)

I used traditional rainbow rainbow sprinkles to stuff my cupcakes, but you could use any sprinkles you want.  You can even get super creative and do other small candies like M&M’s, skittles, and tic-tacs.  Okay, okay maybe not tic-tacs, but you get my point.  You will need a substantial bit of sprinkles though. To stuff them I used a baby spoon.  They are my favorite tool of choice for stuffing cupcakes because they are the perfect size for the hole and the amount you want to put in at a time.   However, you could just pinch your candies and stick them in.

They already look like a party!  Next you mix up the buttercream and prep your piping bag for the “rainbow frosting phenomena”.  To do this you place your piping bag in a tall glass for support, then using a new, or food only, paintbrush (I have one that I bought and use only for this purpose) you paint strips of food coloring on the inside of your piping bag.  I start down by the tip then bring out my strip to the edge of the bag (like a ray of sunshine).  I meant to take a picture of the inside of my piping bag all striped with its colorful rays, but I got so carried away I forgot.  It really is simple though.  I just used four colors of food coloring (to match the four colors of cupcake liners and topers) so I did four stripes in my bag.

You need to use gel food coloring for this process so that it stays in place on your piping bag in its strip.  I also find I like the color concentration better with the gel coloring.  When putting your white buttercream in your piping bag, just drop it in in large dollops so as not to mess up your food coloring lines.  Also, I would stuff your piping bag as much as you can the first time because refilling the bag with your food coloring already in can muddle your food coloring.  Then you just pipe and it comes out in a rainbow of beautiful color!

Top them with your tissue paper fringe toppers and you are ready to party!  I also sprinkled them with the sprinkles I used to stuff them, just for a little extra fun.