How to make ombre mini vanilla cupcakes!
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When it comes to making stunning homemade sweets, I do like to challenge myself from time to time. But one of my top favorite things to do is to find the more simple ways to make my treats stand out. While making fancy homemade treats does sometimes turn out to be complicated or intricate, it doesn’t always have to be!
One of my favorite examples of this is my simple recipe for my Mini Vanilla Cupcakes with Ombre Buttercream Frosting! These adorable little cuties are scrumptious, charming, and perfect for beginner bakers who want to work their way up to more fancy recipes.
Thanks to their tiny size, these are an easy way to celebrate a kid’s birthday party, a birthday party at school, or a small snack for after-school activities or sports. To travel with these little delights, I just put them in some of these adorable individual containers and I’m good to go!
This simple mini cupcake recipe has it all! Delicious flavors, a stunning frosting display, perfect packaging, and all the magical charm a kid’s birthday party could ask for! These are also a wonderful way to treat your coworkers and friends to a sweet little surprise!
Ready for a treat that packs big flavor into such a tiny package? Let’s get this ombre cupcake party started! Here’s how to make my Mini Vanilla Cupcakes with Ombre Buttercream Frosting totally from scratch!
Mini Ombre Cupcake Equipment
First, I will go over all of my cupcake equipment and tools that I used for these ombre mini cupcakes. There’s nothing special needed here, even to create the ombre effect. This is a simple ombre method that just requires multiple piping bags and tips to create the effect. Here’s my equipment list for my mini ombre cupcakes:
- Measuring Cup
- Measuring spoons
- KitchenAid mixer
- Hand mixer
- Mixing bowls
- Blending whisk
- 2 Mini Muffin Pans
- 36 Mini foil liners
- 1 Batter scoop small
- 3 Piping bags
- 3 Piping bag ties
- 3 Jumbo piping tips
- Spatulas
Ombre Cupcake Ingredients
Now let’s go over my ombre mini cupcake ingredient list. So there’s actually not a lot needed here either. Just typical vanilla cupcake and buttercream frosting ingredients. The key to making the ombre effect is to use a few food colorings. Here are the ingredients for my ombre mini cupcakes:
Mini Vanilla Cupcakes:
- 1 ½ Cups All-purpose flour
- 1 Tsp Baking Powder
- ½ Tsp Salt
- 2 Eggs
- ½ cup plain yogurt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ Cup unsalted butter– room temperature
- ¾ Cup Sugar
Buttercream Frosting:
- 1 Cup unsalted butter– room temperature
- 3 tbsp Milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 Cups Powdered Sugar
- Food Coloring: pink and purple
How to Make Mini Vanilla Cupcakes with Ombre Buttercream Frosting
And now for a little bit of ombre magic! This whole mini cupcake process is really easy to follow along with, but they will take about an hour to make from start to finish. Just keep that in mind for any party time crunches you may run into! I recommend making them a day before so they’re ready to go on the day they’re needed. Here’s how to make ombre frosted mini vanilla cupcakes:
Making Mini Cupcakes:
- First, measure out all of the cupcake ingredients with the measuring cup and spoons. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Then, add the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium mixing bowl.
- Combine the dry ingredients together with a blending whisk.
- Next, in a small mixing bowl, combine the eggs, milk, yogurt, and vanilla extract.
- Whisk the ingredients together until they’re mixed together well.
- Then, in a large mixing bowl, add the room temp butter and sugar.
- Beat the 2 ingredients together with a hand mixer until they’re completely combined.
- Next, pour the egg mixture into the butter mixture.
- Beat the ingredients again until everything is completely combined.
- Then, carefully pour all of the flour mixture into the big bowl of cupcake batter.
- Beat the batter again starting at a low speed and gradually increasing the speed.
- Next, grab the vanilla cupcake batter, the dough scoop, the mini cupcake pans, and the foil liners.
- Line the mini cupcake pans with the foil cupcake liners. Then, if desired, spray them very lightly with cooking oil spray.
- Use the dough scoop to evenly distribute the cupcake batter among one of the lined cupcake pans.
- Repeat the process for another batch. Bake the mini cupcakes one batch at a time for 12-15 minutes.
- Start with 12 minutes and check the cupcakes with a toothpick every minute after that. Since these cupcakes are so small, they can easily be over-baked.
- Finally, after baking, transfer the cupcakes to a cooling rack to let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
- If you do not let the cupcakes cool completely first, then the frosting will just slide right off.
Making Ombre Buttercream Frosting:
- First, use the measuring cup and spoons to measure out all of the buttercream frosting ingredients.
- Then, in a stand mixer bowl with a beater attachment, beat the room temp butter by itself for 5 minutes, or until it is double in size and creamy.
- Add in the milk and vanilla, and beat all the ingredients together for 1 minute.
- Then, start adding in the powdered sugar ½ cup at a time.
- Mix the ingredients well between each addition.
- I prefer to keep my mixer on a low speed for this step, otherwise, the kitchen can get coated in powdered sugar.
- After adding in all the powdered sugar, run the mixer on high speed for 8 minutes to completely blend the ingredients together.
- Next, grab 3 metal piping tips and 3 piping bags.
- Carefully cut the tips of the 3 piping bags large enough for the piping tips to slide through.
- Then, prepare each of the bags with the piping tips by sliding the tips inside the bags and out through the holes.
- Grab the pink and purple food coloring.
- Next, add 1 drop of the pink food coloring into the frosting bowl. Beat the frosting until the color is thoroughly mixed in.
- Then, transfer ⅓ of the pink frosting into one of the piping bag. Close the bag with a piping bag tie.
- Next, add a drop of purple coloring into the pink frosting.
- Beat the frosting again until the purple is completely blended in.
- Transfer ½ of the light purple buttercream into another piping bag and secure it with a bag tie.
- Then, add another drop of purple coloring into the remaining buttercream frosting.
- Beat the frosting one more time until a deeper purple color is thoroughly mixed in.
- Finally, scoop the remaining deep purple buttercream into the last piping bag. Close and secure the bag with a bag tie.
Decorating Ombre Cupcakes:
- First, split the cooled mini vanilla cupcakes into 3 separate groups.
- Begin by piping the pink buttercream frosting on the first group of mini cupcakes.
- Next, grab the piping bag with the lighter purple colored frosting.
- Pipe the lighter purple frosting on the 2nd group of cupcakes.
- Then, grab the darker purple frosting.
- Frost the remaining cupcakes with the darker purple frosting.
- Finally, arrange the frosted cupcakes on a serving plate or tray ombre style. Start with the lightest colored frosted cupcakes on one side, the light purple frosted cupcakes in the middle, and the darkest frosted cupcakes to finish the other side.
How to Store Mini Cupcakes
To store mini cupcakes: store in individual containers, or move them into an airtight container and store at room temperature for 4-5 days. Alternatively, you can cover them tightly and store them in the fridge for up to 1 week. Always label the date on the outside of the container to keep up with freshness.
School Birthday Treats Ideas on Budget
Cupcakes for Days
Loved this mini cupcake recipe? Then check out some of my other adorable mini treats and more of my easy-to-follow, fancy cupcake recipes! I’ve got you covered for any holiday, party, event, or special occasion imaginable!
More mini treats for your mini:
More simple but fancy cupcakes:
- Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Filling
- Red Velvet Cupcakes with White Chocolate Ganache Frosting
- Raspberry Chocolate Cupcakes
- S’mores Cupcakes
- Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes
- Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting
- Gingerbread Cupcakes
- Peppermint Cupcakes
- Unicorn Rainbow Cupcakes
- Mardi Gras Cupcakes
- Easter Bunny Cupcakes
- July 4 Lemon Cupcakes
Mini Vanilla Cupcakes with Ombre Buttercream Frosting
Equipment
- 1 Batter scoop small
Ingredients
- 1 ½ Cups All-purpose flour
- 1 Tsp Baking Powder
- ½ Tsp Salt
- 2 Eggs
- ½ cup plain yogurt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ Cup unsalted butter Room Temperature
- ¾ Cup Sugar
Buttercream Frosting
- 1 Cup unsalted butter Room Temperature
- 3 tbsp Milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 Cups Powdered Sugar
- Food Coloring pink and purple
Instructions
Making Mini Cupcakes
- First, measure out all of the cupcake ingredients with the measuring cup and spoons. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Then, add the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium mixing bowl.
- Combine the dry ingredients together with a blending whisk.
- Next, in a small mixing bowl, combine the eggs, milk, yogurt, and vanilla extract.
- Whisk the ingredients together until they’re mixed together well.
- Then, in a large mixing bowl, add the room temp butter and sugar.
- Beat the 2 ingredients together with a hand mixer until they’re completely combined.
- Next, pour the egg mixture into the butter mixture.
- Beat the ingredients again until everything is completely combined.
- Then, carefully pour all of the flour mixture into the big bowl of cupcake batter.
- Beat the batter again starting at a low speed and gradually increasing the speed.
- Next, grab the vanilla cupcake batter, the dough scoop, the mini cupcake pans, and the foil liners.
- Line the mini cupcake pans with the foil cupcake liners. Then, if desired, spray them very lightly with cooking oil spray.
- Use the dough scoop to evenly distribute the cupcake batter among one of the lined cupcake pans.
- Repeat the process for another batch. Bake the mini cupcakes one batch at a time for 12-15 minutes.Start with 12 minutes and check the cupcakes with a toothpick every minute after that. Since these cupcakes are so small, they can easily be over-baked.
- Finally, after baking, transfer the cupcakes to a cooling rack to let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.If you do not let the cupcakes cool completely first, then the frosting will just slide right off.
Making Ombre Buttercream Frosting
- First, use the measuring cup and spoons to measure out all of the buttercream frosting ingredients.
- Then, in a stand mixer bowl with a beater attachment, beat the room temp butter by itself for 5 minutes, or until it is double in size and creamy.
- Add in the milk and vanilla, and beat all the ingredients together for 1 minute.
- Then, start adding in the powdered sugar ½ cup at a time.
- Mix the ingredients well between each addition.I prefer to keep my mixer on a low speed for this step, otherwise, the kitchen can get coated in powdered sugar.
- After adding in all the powdered sugar, run the mixer on high speed for 8 minutes to completely blend the ingredients together.
- Next, grab 3 metal piping tips and 3 piping bags.
- Carefully cut the tips of the 3 piping bags large enough for the piping tips to slide through.
- Then, prepare each of the bags with the piping tips by sliding the tips inside the bags and out through the holes.
- Grab the pink and purple food coloring.
- Next, add 1 drop of the pink food coloring into the frosting bowl. Beat the frosting until the color is thoroughly mixed in.
- Then, transfer ⅓ of the pink frosting into one of the piping bag. Close the bag with a piping bag tie.
- Next, add a drop of purple coloring into the pink frosting.
- Beat the frosting again until the purple is completely blended in.
- Transfer ½ of the light purple buttercream into another piping bag and secure it with a bag tie.
- Then, add another drop of purple coloring into the remaining buttercream frosting.
- Beat the frosting one more time until a deeper purple color is thoroughly mixed in.
- Finally, scoop the remaining deep purple buttercream into the last piping bag. Close and secure the bag with a bag tie.
Decorating Ombre Cupcakes
- First, split the cooled mini vanilla cupcakes into 3 separate groups.
- Begin by piping the pink buttercream frosting on the first group of mini cupcakes.
- Next, grab the piping bag with the lighter purple colored frosting.
- Pipe the lighter purple frosting on the 2nd group of cupcakes.
- Then, grab the darker purple frosting.
- Frost the remaining cupcakes with the darker purple frosting.
- Finally, arrange the frosted cupcakes on a serving plate or tray ombre style. Start with the lightest colored frosted cupcakes on one side, the light purple frosted cupcakes in the middle, and the darkest frosted cupcakes to finish the other side.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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