Galaxy Cupcakes – With a Trick!

Galaxy Cupcakes are made easy with no colored buttercream trick. No more mess and fuss, these Galaxy Cupcakes are super delicious and very easy to make.

These Galaxy Cupcakes are so pretty and tasty, that is perfect for themed parties, and is a hit with kids and adults alike! I am obsessed with color purple, and I love making Unicorn Cupcakes, Magic Purple Cake and Purple Muffins.

Galaxy Cupcakes

Galaxy Cupcakes are pretty and mesmerizing, but usually making them can be a long process with many messy bowls, which is not the case here. Introducing you to Galaxy Cupcakes that are a breeze to make and you don’t have to color the buttercream. You read that right, this buttercream hasn’t been colored at all! I am going to show you an easy trick, that will help you make gorgeous Galaxy Cupcakes mess free, hassle free and they will be a hit with kids.

Why You Will Love These Galaxy Cupcake Recipe:

• Very easy to make with minimal bowls to clean.
• Great recipe to make with kids.
• Delicious and gorgeous, these cupcakes will be the highlight of any party!
• You can make them in your favorite flavors and colors!

If you love gorgeous and delicious cupcakes, check these recipes too:

• Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes – a peanut butter lover dream come true
• Rainbow Cheesecake Cupcakes – these are almost too pretty to eat, almost…
• Best German Chocolate Cupcakes – fully loaded with deliciousness, worth every single calorie!

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Tips & Tricks To Make The Best Galaxy Cupcakes :

• I used my go-to recipe for the cupcake batter, but you can use any recipe that you like. I really like this one, as the cupcakes are moist and soft. You can also use a store bought cupcake mix and add the gel food color to it.
• You can add different flavors to the batter, almond extract, vanilla extract, cherry extract or even lemon are delicious options.
• For the best cupcakes and for them to rise nicely in the oven, do NOT over-mix the batter.
• After you put the cupcakes in the oven, do NOT open the oven door for 15 minutes.
• When making the buttercream, it has a lot of sugar so it can hold its shape when piped. I do not like the taste of shortening, so I only use butter in my frosting. If you want to use shortening, to create even a stiffer buttercream, replace half of the butter with shortening. Sugar amount stays the same in both cases.
• When working with gel food color be extra careful, it can easily stain your hands, counter or carpet. Cover the surfaces accordingly. The stain will wash of your hands in about 24 hours, if you want to keep your hands clean, you can wear silicone gloves.
• When coloring the inside of the bag keep in mind that the thinner the gel, the lighter the color of the frosting will be. I like to pile colors on top of each other, like pink on top of purple, and where it meets and its more concentrated it creates black.
• You can also play with other colors that you like, there is no right or wrong. I like using Violet, Pink and Metallic Silver, but can use shades of dark blue, grey, black, even mix in some edible silver dust.
• I always recommend that you color a bag, add a little frosting and do a test, this way you will learn first hand if you need to add more color, if it should be more concentrated, so a test run is always good when trying a new technique.
• Do NOT eat the cupcakes right away, the gel food coloring is very fresh and in some spots more concentrated, so it will easily stain the hands and mouth and if you serve these to kids since the frosting is not settled there is a higher chance to end up with a mess. Best, refrigerate the cupcakes for one hour before serving and serve them at the table, don’t let kids walk around the house with them.

Tools/Ingredients I used to make the Galaxy Cupcakes Recipe:

• Violet Gel Food Color – I LOVE purple desserts, I have so many on the blog. This is such a gorgeous shade of purple and you can add more or less to desserts to create different shades.
• Rose Pink Gel Food Color – this color is so bright and beautiful, I like having the larger container, it will last you forever.
• Americolor Soft Gel Food Color – a set of 12 in gorgeous shades, a must have if you love colorful desserts!
• Metallic Silver Gel Food Color – I used this in the frosting
• Midnight Gel Food Color – I used this in the frosting
• Stars Cupcake Topper – pretty star toppers, great on cakes and cupcakes
• Gold Star Cupcake Wrappers – these are so pretty, would be an amazing addition to your cupcakes to take them to another level
• Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Confetti Table Set – perfect table set for a Galaxy party or baby shower
• Silver Stars Edible Glitter – add the sky to your cupcakes with edible glitter!
• Gold Stars Paper Straws – if you are throwing a galaxy party these are so cute!

Print

5 from 1 vote

Servings: 20 cupcakes

Galaxy Cupcake

Prep Time:

30 mins

Cook Time:

15 mins

Total Time:

45 mins

Galaxy Cupcakes are made easy with no colored buttercream trick. No more mess and fuss, these Galaxy Cupcakes are super delicious and very easy to make.

Ingredients

Vanilla Cupcakes:

• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 teaspoon Metallic Silver Gel Food Color
• 1/2 teaspoon Midnight Gel Food Color

Frosting:

• 2 cups butter unsalted, room temperature
• 8 cups powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons milk
• Violet Gel Food Color
• Rose Pink Gel Food Color
• Metallic Silver Gel Food Color
• Edible glitter silver stars

Instructions

Cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F degrees and add cupcake liners to a cupcake/muffin pan.
2. To a large bowl add: flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, whisk to combine. Set aside.
3. Add milk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and eggs to a mixer bowl and whisk until fully combined, about 1 minute on medium speed.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat until well combined. Stop once to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
5. Slowly, with the mixer on low speed, add gel food color and the water to the batter and mix just until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to make sure everything is well combined.
6. The batter is thin, I find it easier to add it to a pancake dispenser, this makes filling the cupcakes liners much easier.
7. Fill the cupcake liners just a little over half and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs NOT raw batter. In my oven, the cupcakes were perfectly done at the 20 minutes mark. Do NOT open the oven until 15 minutes have passed. Start checking on the cupcakes at the 15 minutes mark. If you are baking mini cupcakes, they may be done in 9-12 minutes, start checking after 9 minutes.
8. Remove the cupcakes from oven and allow to cool for 3-5 minutes in the pan, then remove to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

Frosting:

1. Add butter to a large mixer bowl and mix until smooth.
2. Add 4 cups of powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
3. Add the vanilla extract and milk, mix until smooth.
4. Add the remaining 4 cups of powdered sugar and mix until smooth.

Assembling:

1. Start by preparing your work area, gel food color can easily stain your working surface so cover it with parchment paper or plastic wrap.
2. Fix a piping bag with a large star tip, or any other piping tip that you like. Place the bag inside of a tall glass, and slightly turn it inside out at the opening.
3. Add a few drops, about 1/2 teaspoon of gel food color to 3 small bowls, and using 3 different coloring brushes paint the gel food color on the inside of the pastry bag.
4. I recommend overlapping colors in some spots, leaving a few tiny uncolored spots, in some places to add a more concentrated layer. I recommend coloring 2/3 of the pastry bag.
5. Having the bag in a tall glass makes handling it much easier, and also any excess gel food color will drain to the bottom of the glass. Adding the buttercream is also much easier this way.
6. Fill the pastry bag 2/3 with buttercream and secure it with a pastry bag ring/elastic.
7. Pipe a little and dump, as the color will be very concentrated at the tip.
8. Pipe the buttercream onto the cupcakes and decorate with edible glitter silver stars.
9. Refrigerate cupcakes at least one hour before serving.
10. Store in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
11. Enjoy!

Recipe Notes

Here is a step-by-step video of how to make the Galaxy Cupcakes and Frosting Recipe:

Calories: 544, Fat: 25g, Saturated Fat: 16g, Cholesterol: 66mg, Sodium: 293mg, Potassium: 128mg, Carbohydrates: 79g, Sugar: 67g, Protein: 2g, Vitamin A: 12.9%, Calcium: 7%, Iron: 6.8%

Author: Catalina Castravet

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Galaxy Cupcake

All images and text © for Peas and Peonies, LLC.

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