Mermaid cupcakes recipe

Ingredients

• ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 1½ cups all-purpose flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• ¾ cup buttermilk
• Pink, blue, and purple food coloring

• 2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 5 cups confectioner’s sugar
• Blue food coloring
• Chocolate Mermaid Tails
• Pink, gold, and silver sprinkles
• Silver star sprinkles

Bake the Cupcakes
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare a muffin pan with liners.
2. Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract, then add the eggs one a time, mixing with each addition.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add this to the batter in 2 additions, alternating with the buttermilk. Divide the batter into 3 bowls and dye one each pink, blue, and purple.
4. Pour a bit of each shade of batter into your prepared muffin tin. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cupcakes comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.
Make the Buttercream
5. Beat the butter with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add the confectioner’s sugar one cup at a time, then beat for 3 to 5 minutes, until fluffy. Dye the buttercream pale blue.
6. Divide the buttercream in half. Place half in a piping bag fitted with a large, round piping tip. Place the other half in a piping bag fitted with a large, star-shaped piping tip.
Assembly
7. Combine the pink, gold, and silver sprinkles in a bowl.
8. Pipe a ring of buttercream on top of each cupcake with the round piping tip. Dunk the cupcakes into the sprinkles, fully coating the buttercream. Pipe another swirl of buttercream with the star-shaped piping tip and top with silver star sprinkles. Top with a Chocolate Mermaid Fin. Enjoy!