Ball Game Cupcakes Recipes

BALL GAME CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans). Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups. In small bowl, toss chocolate chips with 1 tablespoon of the cake mix. In large bowl, beat remaining cake mix, water, oil and eggs with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, then on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in coated chocolate chips. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups (about two-thirds full).
• Bake 20 to 26 minutes (23 to 30 minutes for dark or nonstick pans) or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes. Decorate as desired below. Store cupcakes loosely covered. Baseballs: Frost cupcakes with vanilla frosting. With black, red or blue icing, pipe 2 arches on opposite sides of cupcakes, curving lines slightly toward center. Pipe small lines from each arch to look like stitches on a baseball. Basketballs: Color frosting with yellow and red food colors to make orange; frost cupcakes. With black icing, pipe line across center of cupcake. On either side, pipe an arch that curves slightly toward center line. Soccer Balls: Frost cupcakes with vanilla frosting. With black icing, pipe a pentagon shape in the center of cupcake, piping a few rows of icing into center of pentagon. Pipe lines from pentagon to edge of cupcake to look like seams. With toothpick or spatula, spread black icing in center of pentagon to fill in the entire shape. Tennis Balls: Color frosting with yellow and green food colors to make tennis-ball yellow; frost cupcakes. With white icing, pipe curved design to look like tennis balls.

GOLF BALL CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Mix cream cheese and cookie crumbs until blended; shape into 24 (1-inch) balls. Freeze 10 min.
• Pour nonpareils into shallow dish. Dip cookie balls in melted chocolate, turning to evenly coat each ball; gently shake off excess chocolate. (Return balls to freezer if they become too soft to dip easily.) Roll balls, 1 at a time, in nonpareils until evenly coated; place in single layer in shallow waxed paper-lined pan. Refrigerate 1 hour or until firm.
• Place coconut in large resealable plastic bag. Add food coloring; seal bag. Shake bag to evenly tint coconut.
• Spread frosting onto cupcakes; top with coconut "grass" and cookie ball "golf balls."

TRUFFLE FOOTBALL CUPCAKES

Steps:

• In a microwave, melt white candy coating at 70% power for 1 minute; stir. Microwave at additional 10- to 20-second intervals, stirring until smooth. Stir in peanut butter until smooth. Add the confectioners' sugar, vanilla and cereal. Chill for 2-3 hours or until easy to handle. , Shape into 1-in. balls; form each ball into football shape and set aside. In a microwave, melt chocolate and shortening; stir until smooth. Dip footballs in chocolate; allow excess to drip off. Place on a wire rack over waxed paper; let stand until set, about 30 minutes., Pipe frosting laces onto footballs. Tint remaining frosting green. Using a #233 or #234 tip, pipe grass over cupcakes. Just before serving, insert a toothpick into each football. Insert toothpick into cupcake to position football.

HOW TO DECORATE SOCCER CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Frost each cupcake with a thin layer of vanilla frosting and refrigerate for 1 hour to make decorating easier.
• Add 1 or 2 drops blue food coloring to the chocolate frosting to make it darker. Fill a piping bag fitted with a small round tip with the darkened chocolate frosting and draw the outline of a small pentagon shape on the top of each cupcake. Fill in the pentagons with chocolate frosting. Starting at the points of the pentagon shapes, draw lines halfway toward the edges of each cupcake. Draw a triangle at the bottom of each line, connecting one of the corners to the line, to indicate partial pentagon shapes around the edges of each cupcake. Fill in triangles with chocolate frosting.

PULL APART TOUCHDOWN CUPCAKES

Steps:

• For the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two 12-cup standard muffin tins with cupcake liners. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Set aside. Combine the butter, granulated sugar, sour cream, vanilla and eggs in a large bowl and whisk until smooth. Stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling each about three-quarters full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 21 to 23 minutes, rotating the pans once about halfway through baking. Cool the cupcakes in the pans for 5 minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• For the frosting: Beat the butter, peanut butter, vanilla and salt using an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar and continue to beat until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes more.
• For the assembly and decorating: Put 1 cup of frosting in a piping bag fitted with a large round tip and set aside. Put the jimmies in a shallow bowl. Frost a cupcake, using about 2 tablespoons of the remaining frosting per cupcake, and then gently dipping the top into the jimmies, turning the cupcake until the top is coated. Repeat with the remaining cupcakes. Arrange the cupcakes in 4 rows on a large serving plate or cutting board. Fit a marshmallow between each cupcake, 5 marshmallows per row, to fill in the gaps between the cupcakes in the rows. Using the frosting in the piping bag, pipe thick cross shapes between where the cupcakes meet one another and over the marshmallows so there are no visible gaps between the cupcakes. Coat with sprinkles.
• To make goal posts for the cupcake "field," microwave the chocolate chips in a small microwave-safe bowl until just melted, 30 to 45 seconds. Keep 2 cookie sticks whole for the bases of the posts. Cut off and discard (or eat!) the bottom third of the remaining cookie sticks. Dip the top of one of the longest cookie sticks into the melted chocolate and adhere it to the middle of one of the cut cookie sticks so that they form a capital T shape. Next, dip the cut ends of two short sticks into chocolate and adhere them to either side of the cross on the T. Lay the goal post on a flat surface and repeat with the remaining 4 cookie sticks to make the second goal. Allow goals to fully harden, 15 to 20 minutes, or place in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
• Using the decorators' icing, pipe 10 lines across the cupcake field to represent yard lines. Pipe out the number 50 in the middle for the 50-yard line. Heat the Tootsie Rolls in the microwave on high in 5-second intervals until they are soft and pliable. Mash them together and form into a football. Use the icing to pipe the lacing on the football; use a toothpick if necessary to help define the lacing. Place the football on the field. Place the gummy candies on the field to represent players and then stick the goal posts into cupcakes at each end of the field.

DISCOBALL CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 (12-cup) muffin tins with cupcake wrappers.
• In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
• In a separate bowl, combine the sour cream, vanilla, and almond extract. Set aside.
• In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the butter and sugar and beat on medium speed until smooth. Set the mixer to low speed and add the eggs, 1 at a time, scraping thoroughly between each addition. Alternately add the flour and sour cream mixtures to the butter mixture in 2 batches, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Scrape down the bowl after each addition. Gradually pour in the coffee. Scrape down the bowl and beat until thoroughly combined.
• Divide the batter evenly between the muffin tins. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes or until they spring back after being touched. Allow the cupcakes to cool for 20 minutes.

BALL GAME CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350 degrees F (325 degrees F for dark or nonstick pans). Place paper baking cup in each of 24 muffin cups. Make cake batter as directed on box - except gently stir chocolate chips into batter. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups (about 2/3 full).
• Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes. Decorate as desired below. Store cupcakes loosely covered at room temperature.
• Baseballs: Frost cupcakes with vanilla frosting. With black, red or blue icing, pipe 2 arches on opposite sides of cupcakes, curving lines slightly toward center. Pipe small lines from each arch to resemble stitches on a baseball.
• Basketballs: Color frosting with yellow and red food colors to make orange; frost cupcakes. With black icing, pipe line across center of cupcake. On either side, pipe an arch that curves slightly toward center line.
• Soccer Balls: Frost cupcakes with vanilla frosting. With black icing, pipe a pentagon shape in the center of cupcake, piping a few rows of icing into center of pentagon. Pipe lines from pentagon to edge of cupcake to resemble seams. With toothpick or spatula, spread black icing in center of pentagon to fill in the entire shape.
• Tennis Balls: Color frosting with yellow and green food colors to make tennis-ball yellow; frost cupcakes. With white icing, pipe curved design to resemble tennis balls.