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Make these fun summer watermelon cupcakes! Bright green cupcakes with buttercream frosting that tastes like watermelon! Add mini chocolate chips for the watermelon seeds! Serve these cupcakes at a one in a melon themed party!
Kool aid has just revolutionized my buttercream frosting!
You can take any flavor of powdered kool aid and add it to buttercream and voila – now you have buttercream frosting that tastes like watermelon, mango, pink lemonade, kiwi-lime! The flavors seem endless!
Plus it’s such a fun way to jazz up cupcakes for a birthday party. These Watermelon Cupcakes would be so fun to serve at a summer birthday party or a “one in a melon” themed party!
How To Make Moist Vanilla Cupcakes
Our recipe calls for a lot of moist ingredients. We use egg whites instead of whole eggs, sour cream and milk. Using egg whites only gives the batter a nice white look. The sour cream and milk are where the fat, flavor, and moistness come into play.
Watermelon Cupcake Ingredients
- unsalted butter: makes the cake tender and helps with leavening
- granulated sugar: adds sweetness and flavor
- egg whites: binds the cake together by providing structure
- sour cream: adds moisture and creaminess
- milk: adds moisture
- vanilla extract: adds flavor
- all purpose flour: flour is necessary to build structure
- baking powder: helps to leaven and lift the batter, reacts with the sour cream
- salt: just a pinch to balance the sweetness and enhances the other flavors of the cake
- leaf green gel food coloring: important for getting that vibrant green color
How to Make Watermelon Cupcakes
- In a mixing bowl combine the butter and sugar, beat using an electric mixer, 1-2 minutes until fluffy.
- Add in the egg whites, sour cream, milk, and vanilla extract. Beat lightly with the electric mixer.
- In a separate mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients a few spoonfuls at a time. Mix until just incorporated. Add in a small amount of Wilton’s “leaf green” gel food coloring until you get your desired green color.
- Fill the muffin liners 1/2-3/4 full. Bake for 17-19 minutes at 350º F or until a few moist crumbs remain on a toothpick when inserted into the center. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before adding the frosting.
Watermelon Frosting Ingredients
- unsalted butter
- powdered sugar
- watermelon kool aid powder mix
- red gel food coloring
- mini chocolate chips
How to Make Watermelon Frosting
The watermelon kool aid actually doesn’t add much color to the buttercream (adds a lot of flavor though!) so you’ll need some red food coloring to help create a watermelon pink color.
I used the no taste red gel food coloring from Wilton, adding a little at a time, but it actually takes a lot to even just get the buttercream this color. I have not tried using pink food coloring so I don’t know if it would create the same color.
Don’t forget to add the mini chocolate chips! They complete the look of these Watermelon Cupcakes!
Total Time Required
- 10 minutes to prep the batter
- 15 minutes to bake the cupcakes
- 1 hour, at least, to cool the cupcakes
- 15 minutes to make the frosting and frost the cupcakes
Recommended Piping Supplies
Piping bags – I love these bulk piping bags
Piping tips – Larger piping tips are better for frosting cupcakes. My go-to tips are the Wilton 1M, 2D, 12 and 199.
How to Pipe Frosting onto Cupcakes
I used a wilton 2D piping tip to pipe the frosting on these cupcakes. A wilton 1M and an Ateco 844 are both very similar to the 2D.
Start in the center of the cupcake, applying pressure to the frosting bag, going in a swirling motion until you reach the edge of the cupcake then lift the tip up and tip more frosting onto that base layer you just made, stacking the frosting and continuing in a swirling motion until you reach the center of the cupcake.
How to Freeze Unfrosted Cupcakes
Allow the cupcakes to cool completely. Wrap each cupcake in plastic wrap, then place inside a freezer ziplock bag or freezer storage container.
To thaw: place the bag or container of cupcakes on the counter overnight. Frost once fully thawed.
How to Make Gluten Free Cupcakes
This recipe turned out great using gluten free flour! We love King Arthur Gluten Free Measure for Measure Flour. Follow the directions as stated, but substitute gluten free flour for all purpose flour.
Tips
- Properly measure the all purpose flour using the spoon and sweep method.
- Combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients just until they are combined. Over mixing could lead to dry, dense cake.
- We got our super bright green cupcake liners at Party City – they really seem to match the Watermelon Cupcakes perfectly!
- Store these cupcakes covered on the counter.
If you’re looking for more summer recipes try rainbow popsicles, cherry dump cake, and 3 ingredient fruit dip!
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Watermelon Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature, 1/2 cup
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large egg whites
- ½ cup sour cream
- ¼ cup milk, I used skim
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- leaf green food coloring by wilton, or similar light green food coloring
Watermelon Frosting
- 3 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature, 1 1/2 cups
- 3-4 cups powdered sugar
- ½ tsp powdered watermelon kool aid mix
- small amount of red gel food coloring, to give the buttercream a pinkish color
- mini chocolate chips
Instructions
CUPCAKES
- Preheat the oven to 350º F. Line a muffin pan with muffin liners.
- In a mixing bowl combine the butter and sugar, beat using an electric mixer, 1-2 minutes until fluffy. Add in the egg whites, sour cream, milk, and vanilla extract. Beat lightly with the electric mixer. In a separate mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients a few spoonfuls at a time. Mix until just incorporated. Add in a small amount of Wilton’s “leaf green” gel food coloring until you get your desired green color. Fill the muffin liners 1/2-3/4 full.
- Bake for 17-19 minutes at 350º F or until a few moist crumbs remain on a toothpick when inserted into the center. Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before adding the frosting.
Watermelon Frosting
- In a mixing bowl beat the butter with an electric mixer until smooth, about 2 minutes.
- Add in 2 cups of powdered sugar and the watermelon kool aid powder, beat together.
- Add in more powdered sugar as you see fit, up to 2 more cups,
- A small amount of red food coloring (to give the frosting a pinkish color), mixing one last time with an electric mixer until it’s smooth and combined.
How to assemble
- Place the buttercream in a large piping bag fit with a 1m wilton piping tip. Push the buttercream down into the bag. Pipe the buttercream onto the cupcakes, starting in the center of the cupcake, swirling out, and then swirling back into the center, progressively stacking the frosting as you get to the center.
- Add mini chocolate chips on top of the buttercream.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition Disclosure
All nutritional values are approximate and provided to the reader as a courtesy. Changing ingredients and/or quantities will alter the estimated nutritional calculations.
What piping bag tip do you use? First time using a piping set. Thanks.
I used a Wilton 1M!
Hi what is Koolaid, is it powdered cordial! I live in Australia!
Oh gosh!! Koolaid is a powdered drink mix here in the US.
When using the boxed cake mix, do you include any of the other ingredients? Sour cream sounds good to me , so I was wondering if it could still be added to the box cake?
Hi Robin! If you want to use a box mix, we have a recipe for a doctored up white cake mix recipe. Follow that recipe and then add the food coloring at the end! https://thefirstyearblog.com/doctored-up-white-cake-mix/
I made these today for my baby’s first birthday party and they turned out perfect and we’re a big hit!! I cheated and used boxed cake mix but followed the instructions for everything else.
Thank you so much for posting this recipe! I made them for my daughter’s class birthday party (which is tomorrow) and they look amazing. Of course I need to perfect my piping skills as they don’t look like yours, but I don’t think 10/11 year old’s will care. The frosting is amazing! We couldn’t stop accidentally getting our fingers in it! :-)
These are so fun aren’t they?! Glad you guys were able to make them!
WHO DA THUNK IT????
Kool Aid??? Really????
I am so going to use this!!!! So many flavors to choose from.
Thank you for being an absolute GENIUS!!!!!
Haha, YES! Kool Aid is the best. Thank you!
These are the cutest cupcake I’ve ever seen. Thank you so much for posting this recipe.
If I don’t want to use shortening in the frosting, I would use 3 sticks of butter? Also, if I am doubling the cake recipe should I double the frosting?
Yes, that is correct. Simply replace the shortening with butter. And yes I would double the frosting too!
I tried these using a pink food coloring in the frosting instead of red it was lighter than yours but I actually liked the paler ones too. My niece is having a 1 in a melon party next month and these are perfect. I can’t wait to try more flavors and I’m thinking red, white, and blue for the 4th of July.
That is so fun! Yes, you have to make it your own!
Looks so cute! Looks so summery too… and delicious!
Thank you, Suzanne!