Cotton Candy Cupcakes Recipe

Course: cupcakes, Dessert

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 15

Cook Time: 18

Total Time: 33

Servings: cupcakes

Calories: 329kcal

Author: Becky Hardin

Cotton Candy Cupcakes are made with cotton candy extract, swirled with blue and pink color, and topped with buttercream for a fun dessert!

Print Recipe

US Customary - Metric

Equipment

Kitchen Scale (optional)
2 Cupcake Tin
Hand Mixer

Ingredients

For the Cupcakes

15.25 ounces vanilla cake mix (1 box)
¾ cup water
½ cup unsalted butter slightly melted (1 stick)
3 large eggs room temperature
1 teaspoon cotton candy extract *
Gel food coloring pink and blue**

For the Buttercream Frosting

3 cups powdered sugar
¾ cup unsalted butter room temperature (1½ sticks)
¼ teaspoon cotton candy extract
Gel food coloring pink and blue
Cotton candy optional, for topping

Instructions

For the Cupcakes

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 16 wells of two 12-count cupcake tins with paper liners. Set aside.
Mix the cake mix, water, butter, eggs, and cotton candy extract in a large bowl.
15.25 ounces vanilla cake mix, ¾ cup water, ½ cup unsalted butter, 3 large eggs, 1 teaspoon cotton candy extract
Separate the batter equally between two separate bowls. This works out to be about 435 grams of batter per bowl.
Color one bowl of batter a light pink and color the second bowl of batter a light blue. Stir in the color gently but don’t over mix the batter.
Gel food coloring
Layer the cupcake batter in each cupcake wrapper but be careful not to overfill the cupcake wrappers. The cupcake wrappers should not be more than ¾ of the way filled or the cupcakes won’t bake up properly. For half of the cupcakes, start with blue batter on the bottom, then pink batter in the middle, then blue batter on top. For the other half of the cupcakes, start with pink batter on the bottom, blue batter in the middle, then pink batter on top.
Place cupcakes in the oven. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in middle of cupcakes comes out clean.
Let cupcakes cool completely before frosting.

For the Buttercream Frosting

In a large bowl, using a hand mixer, beat the powdered sugar, softened butter, and cotton candy extract together on high until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
3 cups powdered sugar, ¾ cup unsalted butter, ¼ teaspoon cotton candy extract
Separate buttercream frosting equally between two bowls. Color one bowl of frosting pink and the other bowl of frosting blue.
Gel food coloring
Place frostings in tipless icing bags and frost cooled cupcakes.
Cotton candy

Notes

*The type of extract used makes a big difference in this recipe. The cotton candy flavoring I use is LorAnn Cotton Candy Super Strength Flavor. It is a super strength concentrated flavoring so 1 teaspoon in this recipe is enough to give a nice, but not overpowering, cotton candy flavor. If the flavoring you’re using isn’t super strength like this one, you may need to add a bit more than what the recipe calls for.

**For food coloring, I used Chefmaster Liqua-gel in the colors Neon Brite Pink and Royal Blue.

Tips:

Take care not to overmix the batter; otherwise, your cupcakes will be dense and chewy.
Wait to frost the cupcakes until they have fully cooled, or else the frosting will melt off!
If topping cupcakes with cotton candy, note that cotton candy dissolves quickly once taken out of the packaging. If you’d like to serve cotton candy on top of the cupcakes, only place the cotton candy on the tops of cupcakes right before serving or you’ll end up with a dissolved cotton candy mess on the top of the cupcakes. It only takes cotton candy about 10 minutes to start dissolving once exposed to the air.
Nutritional information does not include optional ingredients.

Storage: Store cotton candy cupcakes at room temperature for up to 2 days, in the refrigerator for up to 4 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Nutrition