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Cotton Candy Cupcakes With Cotton Candy Frosting

I told you guys awhile back that I had some major blog catching up to do right? Well, guess what!!! I still haven’t done it, whomp whomp whomp. No worries though it’s happening right now! So let me go ahead and apologize for the crazy amount of catching up I’m about to do. For those of you that are signed up for email notifications, so sorry about the inbox flooding this week as I double down on posts. For those of you not signed up why aren’t you signed up?!?! Clearly, you’re missing out on all the fun. See that little SUBSCRIBE sprinkle to the right, you can get signed up super quick right now so you won’t miss any more future sweets. Because do you really want to miss a single sprinkle? Like these Cotton Candy Cupcakes, the remix version!

Why are they a remix? Other than the fact that I just like to use that word to feel ya know, trendy (ha!). I’ve already made cotton candy cupcakes in the past, as a matter of fact, they are in my book Cupcakery. But really can you ever have too much cotton candy? No, No you can’t.

cotton candy cupcakes in white tray with cotton candy frosting

Recently I did a project with Sweets & Treats, this Cotton Candy Sweetscape. It was SO much fun, and so insanely cute. Since Sweets & Treats is known for their amazing Bake Bright cupcake liners, this party obviously had to have some cupcakes, and they obviously had to be cotton candy. Obviously. I kept with a simple vanilla cupcake and let the cotton candy flavor come out in the cotton candy frosting. But this time around I wanted to really change up the way I frosted them, I’m always trying new creative ways to frost a cupcake also, I wanted to try them with swiss meringue buttercream, something I’ve been working on perfecting. As I got to frosting and swirling and sprinkling these cupcakes took on a crazy carnival look of there own. And I totally dig it. Speaking of sprinkles, the Sweets & Treats sprinkle mix I used on these was the ever popular Cotton Candy mix which has REAL chunks of cotton candy in it, gahhh! I love it so much, I just can’t even.

So for a recap. Fluffy white cake, cotton candy frosting swirls, cotton candy sprinkles, + real cotton candy to top = the best ever cotton candy cupcakes.

How To Make Cotton Candy Cupcakes

SUPPLIES

BAKE  CUPCAKES + MAKE & COLOR COTTON CANDY FROSTING

For these cupcakes I used a standard vanilla cupcake recipe then I made the Cotton Candy Swiss Meringue buttercream – which turned out SO awesome. The full recipe is below.

DECORATE

The frosting technique was really a combination of two of my signature swirls. The flat cinnamon swirl using a Wilton 2A tip and the swirly frosting technique. Then I took the same Wilton 2A tip and simply piped some little spots of frosting on one side and add a few sprinkles. When I was finished I added little poofs of blue cotton candy. But don’t add the cotton candy until your just about to serve these. Or you’ll end up with evaporated blue crystal cotton candy leftovers – just ask me how I know!

DECORATOR’S NOTE: How about a little trick for coloring these cupcakes. To make sure the colors flowed well together instead of splitting the frosting in three and coloring each alone I split it in two and colored only the blue and pink. Then I removed about a 1/3 of each color and mixed them together to get purple! If your purple isn’t as deep as you would like it you can then add extra blue or pink coloring to help it darken.

Check out my cotton candy cake inspired by these cupcakes!

  • 9 large egg whites at room temp
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 4 sticks / 1 cup unsalted butter softened but still cool, cut into small chunks
  • 1 tbs good quality vanilla
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1-2 drams cotton candy flavor (amount will depend on how strong you would like the flavor)

Step 1: Combined the egg whites and the sugar in a metal or glass bowl of an electric mixer. Whisk together until combined. Note: make sure there is NO egg yolk in the egg whites. The fat content in the yolk could possibly ruin the frosting.

Step 2: You’ll need to set up a water bath to now heat the egg white/sugar. Add about 1 inch of water to a small pot or saucepan that allows you to place the mixing bowl on top of it without touching the water. Heat the water to a simmer and place the mixing bowl on top. Continue slowly whisking the egg whites to be sure the eggs don’t begin to cook. After a few moments, you’ll see the sugar has begun to melt making the mixture smooth. When the mixture is hot to the touch test it by putting a little between your index finger and thumb. If you can no longer feel the grit of the sugar it’s done heating. Be careful! Don’t let the mixture get TOO hot before testing, ouch!

Step 3: Set the bowl on the mixer, using the whisk attachment, and turn it to medium-high. Set the timer to 15 minutes and let it do its thing! At 15 minutes check to see if the bowl is now cool and the egg whites have turned into a fluffy stiff meringue. When you pull the whisk out it should have a shiny peak of frosting standing off the top. If it’s not quite there yet turn then mixture on for another 5 minutes and check again. Sometimes my meringue will become stiff before my bowl cools. What I do in this case is place it in the fridge for up to 10 minutes before continuing. You want to pay attention to the cooling part because if it’s not cool it will wreck havoc on your butter in the next step.

Step 4: Turn the mixture on medium and begin slowly adding in the butter. Whip it on medium-high again until it has turned into the smooth beautiful buttercream. Sometimes the butter can turn the frosting into a runny mess. After whipping for a few minutes if it doesn’t turn back into beautiful fluffy buttercream place it in the fridge for 10-15 minutes until cool then whip again until it’s beautiful fluffy meringue buttercream.

Step 5: Beat in the vanilla, cotton candy flavoring, and salt. Color as needed.

COTTON CANDY SWISS MERINGUE BUTTERCREAM

This cotton candy frosting is a dream! Light, fluffy, sweet, and beautiful to work with.

  • 9 large egg whites at room temp
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 4 sticks / 1 cup unsalted butter softened but still cool (cut into small chunks)
  • 1 tbs good quality vanilla
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1-2 drams cotton candy flavor (amount will depend on how strong you would like the flavor)
  1. Combined the egg whites and the sugar in a metal or glass bowl of an electric mixer. Whisk together until combined. Note: make sure there is NO egg yolk in the egg whites. The fat content in the yolk could possibly ruin the frosting.

  2. You’ll need to set up a water bath to now heat the egg white/sugar. Add about 1 inch of water to a small pot or saucepan that allows you to place the mixing bowl on top of it without touching the water. Heat the water to a simmer and place the mixing bowl on top. Continue slowly whisking the egg whites to be sure the eggs don’t begin to cook. After a few moments, you’ll see the sugar has begun to melt making the mixture smooth. When the mixture is hot to the touch test it by putting a little between your index finger and thumb. If you can no longer feel the grit of the sugar it’s done heating. Be careful! Don’t let the mixture get TOO hot before testing, ouch!

  3. Set the bowl on the mixer, using the whisk attachment, and turn it to medium-high. Set the timer to 15 minutes and let it do its thing! At 15 minutes check to see if the bowl is now cool and the egg whites have turned into a fluffy stiff meringue. When you pull the whisk out it should have a shiny peak of frosting standing off the top. If it’s not quite there yet turn then mixture on for another 5 minutes and check again. Sometimes my meringue will become stiff before my bowl cools. What I do in this case is place it in the fridge for up to 10 minutes before continuing. You want to pay attention to the cooling part because if it’s not cool it will wreck havoc on your butter in the next step.

  4. Turn the mixture on medium and begin slowly adding in the butter. Whip it on medium-high again until it has turned into the smooth beautiful buttercream. Sometimes the butter can turn the frosting into a runny mess. After whipping for a few minutes if it doesn’t turn back into beautiful fluffy buttercream place it in the fridge for 10-15 minutes until cool then whip again until it’s beautiful fluffy meringue buttercream.

  5. Beat in the vanilla, cotton candy flavoring, and salt. Color as needed.

 

Heads up! To keep those legal gurus of the world happy, I need to inform you that some of the links in this post are affiliate links. In short – I may earn a small commission from the use of said link with no cost to you! But don’t worry I only link to stuff I use, love, and know you will too!

Image of Toni Miller in front of a sprinkle shelf.

COOKIE DESIGNER

 I’m Toni, the baker, the blogger,  and cookie cutter maker  behind The Sprinkle Factory and I hope you find a sprinkle of inspiration here at The Factory.

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