36 Cupcake Recipes for Your Next Party

Cupcakes are a blast. They’re easy to make, easy to transport and serve, and they’re delicious. They make awesome gifts and great last minute treats for a kid’s homeroom or the office. These cupcake recipes are great to have on hand the next time you need something cute and creative.

Cupcake Recipes

Chocolatey Cupcakes

1. Molten Chocolate Cakes With Sugar-Coated Raspberries. Very chocolatey little treats with raspberries and a sprinkling of sugar, and that mouth-watering molten effect.
2. Red Velvet Cupcakes. For a rich, authentic Southern treat, use our Red Velvet Cake recipe and simply pour your batter into cupcake pans instead of a cake pan, and voila.
3. Pomegranate Chocolate. Chocolate with pomegranate curd filling and a marscarpone icing flavored with pomegranate juice.
4. Chocolate with Coffee Cream Filling. Paula Deen’s recipe for chocolate cupcakes with coffee flavored cream in the middle and coffee butter icing on top.
5. Hi Hat Cupcakes. These beautiful cupcakes look like they’re wearing tall chocolate hats.
6. Death by Chocolate Cupcakes. Because there’s no such thing as too much chocolate.
7. Cinnamon Mocha. Cinnamon, cocoa and brewed coffee flavor this one, while chocolate frosting gets mixed with instant coffee grounds and hot water to make a delicious mocha frosting.
8. Brownie Cupcake. Makes a dense, chewy, moist chocolatey cupcake with frosting.
9. Chocolate Vodka Raspberry Rock Star. Some cupcake recipes aren’t strictly for kids. The cake and icing are chocolate, and the filling is a mix of raspberry preserves and vodka. And no, the vodka isn’t going to cook off, because you shoot it into the cupcake after the cooking is done.
10. Cream filled Cupcakes. Chocolate frosted chocolate cupcakes with white cream piped into the middle – the homemade version of a Ding-Dong.
11. Mini-Oreo Surprise. A bite size Oreo and cream cheese awaits you in the center of each of these treats.
12. Chocolate Orange. Orange rind, orange juice and milk chocolate flavor this one, topped with dark chocolate ganache frosting.
13. Chocolate and Peanut Butter. A chocolate and peanut-butter batter, iced with whatever you like. Kind of like a Reese’s cup in cake form!

Fruity Cupcakes

1. Sangria Cupcakes. Cupcakes and wine. Together. Does it get any better than that?
2. Iced Tea Cupcakes with Lemon Frosting. Tastes like sweet iced tea with lemon.
3. Key Lime Cupcake. One of my favorite cupcake recipes – both cupcake and icing are flavored with key lime, and colored bright green.
4. Apple Cupcake. A white cake flavored and sweetened with applesauce.
5. Raspberry Trifle. Crumbly cake topped with custard topped with fruit.
6. Pink Meringue cupcakes with raspberry curd. There’s actually no cake in this one – it’s pink meringue, split in half, with raspberries and creme fraiche in the middle.
7. Lemon Meringue. Delicious golden cake topped with lemon curd, topped with meringue.
8. Orange and Poppy Seed Cupcakes. Iced with a cream cheese frosting.
9. Banana Cupcakes. A banana-flavored cake with lemon frosting. This recipe uses ripe bananas, which makes it great for using up bananas that are on the verge of spoiling.

Delicious cupcakes

1. Root Beer Float Cupcakes. With actual root beer.
2. Almond Cupcakes with Whipped Almond Buttercream Frosting. Because almond=yum.
3. Brown Sugar Pecan Cupcakes. A light golden cake with pecans and a salted caramel frosting.
4. Coconut Macaroon. Designed to taste like a little individual coconut macaroon.
5. Honey Cupcakes. A honey flavored cake with a lemony frosting. Awesome with tea. This recipe uses less refined sugar than most.
6. Ice Cream Sundae Cupcakes. They look and taste like ice cream sundaes.
7. Individual Cheese Cakes. Individual little cheesecakes with graham cracker crust and the toppings of your choice – all in less than twenty minutes’ baking time. Try that the next time you want a cheesecake, but can’t face the labor and time it takes to make a good one.
8. Boston Cream Pie. A golden cupcake split in half, with vanilla cream in the middle and chocolate glaze on top.
9. Crunch a Bunch. Cupcakes made out of Rice Krispies! Very easy to make, just like the squares – only topped with the frosting of your choice.
10. Vanilla Bean Coconut with coconut frosting. Reduced coconut milk makes them super moist.
11. Burnt Brown Sugar. A golden fluffy vanilla cupcake flavored with caramelized brown sugar.
12. Butter Cupcakes. A strong butter flavor with hints of vanilla and almond. Very light and moist!
13. Pumpkin Cupcakes. Canned or fresh pumpkin and traditional spices make this cupcake come out a lot like pumpkin bread.
14. Carrot Cupcakes. Little individual carrot cakes.

For more decorating inspiration for these little beauties, check out 8 Cake Decorating Ideas!