Ballerina Cupcakes

Ballerina cupcakes for a ballerina birthday party!  My classic vanilla cupcakes, frosted with the most amazing vanilla buttercream and decorated with shimmer, sparkle and a ballerina cupcake topper!  I made these cupcakes for my nieces ballerina-themed birthday party recently and they were a hit!

My nieces were both born in July, so my sister usually throws one big joint birthday party for the girls.  This year the girls have been taking ballet classes, so my sister decided to do a ballerina themed party at the dance studio they take ballet lessons at!  And it was the cutest party EVER.  All the kids got a ballet lesson (which I was totally jealous of) and had fun dancing.

So when planning this ballerina party, I asked Wendy about making the girls a birthday cake or cupcakes, and Wendy said the dance studio was taking care of everything.  Normally we have the birthday parties at Wendy’s house (aka: out back in the pool), so I make the girls their own cake each, cupcakes for everyone else, plus a few trays of cookies and marshmallow cereal treats.  So now I wasn’t making anything?!  I just get to show up and party?!  Awesome.

And then two weeks before the party, Wendy called me and said she didn’t trust the quality of the cupcakes the dance studio was providing and asked if I could make three dozen vanilla cupcakes for the girls’ birthday party.  Well of course!  I can never say no to my sister, or my nieces!  I kept the decorations super easy for these cupcakes, because my time to make these were limited.  That’s why I wanted to share this post with you!  Super easy, from scratch cupcakes and buttercream frosting, simply decorated.

I used my Vanilla Cupcake Recipe, which makes one dozen, and tripled it to make 36 cupcakes.  I love the simplicity of this vanilla cupcake recipe!  And one batch of my Perfect Vanilla Buttercream Frosting recipe is enough frosting to cover all 36 cupcakes too.  Easy Peasy!

To decorate the cupcakes, I added a drop of red food coloring to the buttercream frosting at the last step of mixing, to get that light shade of pink.  I frosted the cupcakes with a simple swirl and used a sugar shaker to add the fuchsia pink luster dust on the frosting.  I sprinkled the candy stars on top and a ballerina topper was placed right in the middle.

I bought all of my supplies from my local baking supply shop, but the luster dust and candy stars can be found at Michael’s or online.  Similar ballerina cupcake toppers can be found on Etsy, if you can’t find any at a party store where you live.  It literally took me minutes to decorate these cupcakes!

The girls, and everyone else, loved the cupcakes!  I think next time I will just make buttercream frosting and hand it out in a cup.  All the kids licked all the frosting off the cupcakes first hahaha.

The dance studio provided some cupcakes too.  Miss A (my 2-year old niece) grabbed one after eating one of the cupcakes I made.  She licked the frosting and then immediately made a face, put it back and then grabbed another one of the cupcakes Auntie KK made hehehe.

If you need to make some cupcakes for a party…you can’t go wrong with my Vanilla Cupcake recipe!  And this buttercream recipe always gets rave reviews!  For even more cute cupcake ideas, check out The Best Dessert Recipes!  So many great recipes and cupcake ideas.

XOXO,

Kelly

The Vain vanilla extract I use in both the cupcakes and the buttercream is important.  You can just taste the superior quality of their extracts.  I used Vain Mexican Vanilla Extracted in Cane Rum for all of the cupcakes and the buttercream.  Click HERE to see why it’s good to be Vain 😉

PS- I have linked this recipe up at the following link parties: The Pin Junkie, The Pretty Pintastic Party, Sugar and Spice and Meal Plan Monday!

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