Three Easy Football Cupcakes Recipe (2024)

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Three different football cupcakes that are so easy to make and perfect for a party or tailgating!

Three Easy Football Cupcakes Recipe (1)

I’ve been really intoeasy cupcakes lately. In fact, I have three easy HALLOWEEN cupcakes coming your way soon! But for now, let’s make cupcakes for football season. Do you like football? I used to. Until I got married ????.

I think I’m loving cupcakes right now because they are just SO rewarding to make. With relatively little effort, cute cupcakes can be a total statement piece for events and get-togethers.

And seriously, they don’t even have to begood, if you know what I mean. You don’t have to be a professional cake decorator or a whiz with a piping tip or anything like that! You could do a haphazard piping job, and these cupcakes will still basically turn out right.

More or less ????.

Three Easy Football Cupcakes Recipe (2)

These simple chocolate frosted footballs are my favorite of the three. Use a Wilton Open Star Tip to squigle a football shape on top of the cupcake, and then use a round tip to pipe on the seams– it’s just 4 straight lines, you can do that!

Three Easy Football Cupcakes Recipe (3)

Normally I would use Wilton’s Grass Tip for the green frosting. But I had some sort of tip malfunction today and had to switch things up to use the open star tip (see? you can’t mess these up!). I just did a sloppy pipe job with the green frosting and added a chocolate covered almost for the football.

I used Wilton’s smallest round tip to pipe the football seams on the almond. Easy.

Three Easy Football Cupcakes Recipe (4)

Again, I would have preferred to use the Grass Tip on this one, but rolling with the punches, I used the open star tip for the grass again. It’s fine.

And how cute is this simple idea? The rainbow nonpareils are the fans in the stands behind the goal post (which is just piped on with a round tip). Too fun!

Three Easy Football Cupcakes Recipe (5)

I’m putting my favorite chocolate cupcake and chocolate frosting recipe below. If you’d rather make a vanilla cupcake, click here for my favorite recipe.

And FYI– I just used Pillsbury Vibrant Vanilla frosting in green (bought at Target) for the grass. It’s theperfect color. But feel free to color your own buttercream if you feel like being an overachiever ????.

Three Easy Football Cupcakes Recipe (6)

Yield: 2 dozen

Three different football cupcakes that are so easy to make and perfect for a party or tailgating!

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

  • 18.25 ounce devil’s food cake mix
  • 3 oz pkg instant chocolate pudding mix
  • 1 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt (fat free or regular for both works fine)
  • 1 cup vegetable oil
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • pinch of sea salt
  • 2 cups semi-sweet mini chocolate chips (optional)

Chocolate Frosting:

  • 12 ounce package semisweet (or any mixture of) chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup salted butter
  • 8 ounces sour cream or Greek yogurt
  • 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract.

Toppings:

  • white frosting for piping football seams and goal post
  • green frosting for piping the grass
  • chocolate covered almonds for the footballs
  • rainbow nonpareils

Instructions

Cupcakes:

  1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
  2. Beat together all of ingredients until smooth batter forms, reserving the chocolate chips if using.
  3. Mix in the chocolate chips with a rubber spatula.
  4. Divide batter evenly in two (12-count) cupcake tins. Bake for 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool completely.

Frosting:

  1. Place the butter in a large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave for 60 seconds, or until butter is melted completely.
  2. Add the chocolate chips to the bowl and stir until chocolate chips are very melted. When you feel like the chocolate chips won't melt any more just from being in the warm butter, place the bowl back in the microwave and heat for 30 seconds. Remove and stir until chocolate chips are completely melted and smooth (nuke an additional 30 seconds if necessary).
  3. Use an electric mixer to mix in the sour cream.
  4. Add the powdered sugar a cup at a time and the vanilla extract, mixing well in between each addition.

Decorating the Football Cupcake:

  1. Use the wilton open star tip to "squigle" a football shape using the chocolate frosting on top of the cupcakes (see photo).
  2. Use a small wilton round tip to pipe white frosting seams over the chocolate frosting.

Decorating the Football Field Cupcake:

  1. Use the Wilton grass or open star tip to pipe green frosting "grass" all over the top of the cupcake.
  2. Place a chocolate covered almond in the center of the "grass."
  3. Use the smallest Wilton round tip to pipe seams on the almond.

Decorating the Goal Post Cupcake:

  1. Spread chocolate frosting in a thin layer over the top of the cupcake.
  2. Pour nonpareils onto a plate. Dip the top half of frosted cupcake in the nonpareils.
  3. Use the grass tip or the open star tip to pipe "grass" on the bottom half of the cupcake.
  4. Use the small round tip to pipe white frosting in the shape of a goal post.
Three Easy Football Cupcakes Recipe (7)
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Three Easy Football Cupcakes Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What to put on cupcakes instead of frosting? ›

Whipped cream is a light, refreshing alternative to frosting. Once your cupcakes cool off, spoon a bit of whipped cream on top.

How do you make a football cake in shape? ›

With one easy tip, you can make a football cake to serve at your next game day bash. Simply bake your favorite chocolate cake in a round cake pan. Once it is cooled, cut a strip from the center of the cake. When you remove the strip and press the two sides together the cake has formed the shape of a football.

What is the secret to good cupcakes? ›

Top Tips for Baking Better Cupcakes
  • Read the Recipe. Read the recipe all the way through first. ...
  • Check Oven Temperature. ...
  • Check the Dates. ...
  • Substitute with Caution. ...
  • Use the Right Temperature. ...
  • Take Time to Sift. ...
  • Measure with Care. ...
  • Cream the Ingredients.

How do you keep cupcakes moist and fluffy? ›

"Baking fluffy, moist cupcakes is all about creating air bubbles in your batter that expand in the oven," she says. "If you overmix your batter, you collapse those bubbles and end up with a brick-like cake." Always mix at a low speed to avoid this, stopping just as all ingredients blend.

What not to do when making cupcakes? ›

Cold ingredients can negatively affect cupcakes and other baked goods. Let refrigerated ingredients come to room temperature so that they will blend easily and thoroughly with the other ingredients without having to overmix the batter. Overmixing the wet and dry ingredients can result in tough cupcakes.

What can I put on top of cupcakes? ›

Other great candy toppers include M&Ms, Jelly Beans, or pieces of larger chocolate bars. Tags are my new favorite way to top a cupcake! They're cute and easy.

What makes cupcakes gummy? ›

Cupcakes can get sticky on top due to the reaction of the sugar with the air. Sugar is hygroscopic, which means it attracts water. So, if the air is particularly humid, the sugar on the top of the cupcakes will attract water particles from the air, making the cupcakes wet, or sticky.

What is a cupcake without frosting called? ›

Muffins never have frosting on them, so it's the quickest way to tell them apart from cupcakes. Then there's our red velvet cupcake, made with a cocoa and buttermilk sponge and topped with our signature cream cheese and lime juice frosting.

What is a cake without frosting called? ›

Naked cakes are layer cakes that are unadorned (or nearly bare) on the sides. That's right: no swoops of frosting or colorful iced patterns.

What does cupcake mean in football? ›

The smaller, easier teams “your” team plays during the season are “cupcakes”. Meant to be an easy win for your team.

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