Best Graduation Cupcakes Recipes

SURPRISE GRADUATION 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. Make cake batter as directed on box. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups (about two-thirds full). Press 1 milk chocolate drop in center of each muffin cup.
• Bake and cool as directed on box for 24 cupcakes.
• In medium bowl, beat powdered sugar, butter, melted baking bar and vanilla with electric mixer on low speed until blended. Gradually beat in milk until smooth and creamy. Frost cupcakes; pipe year with melted dark chocolate onto each cupcake. Store loosely covered.

GRADUATION CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Cut fruit snack rolls into 12-inch pieces. Cut each piece lengthwise into 4 strips, using knife and straightedge. Roll each strip in a spiral around handle of wooden spoon. Store at room temperature at least 8 hours to set curl.
• Bake cake mix as directed on box for cupcakes, using water, oil and eggs. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
• Tint half of frosting with food color. Frost cupcakes with frosting. Write "Congratulations" or "Congrats" and the graduate's name on cupcakes with decorating gel. Decorate other cupcakes with candy sprinkles and colored sugar. Unwrap fruit snack streamers from spoon handles. Reshape into desired curl; place on cupcakes. Cut additional fruit snack into small pieces and flower petal shapes; arrange on some of the cupcakes.
• Top some of the cupcakes with candy graduation caps. To make, place small amount of frosting on bottom of peanut butter cup. Press graham cracker onto peanut butter cup. To make tassel, tightly roll up small square of chewy fruit snack; cut fringe in one end and press other end to center of graham cracker.

GRADUATION PENGUIN CUPCAKES

Steps:

• 1. Penguin Bodies: Select 24 marshmallows for your penguin bodies. Try to choose even, straight marshmallows. You are going to be dipping these in chocolate and then refrigerating to cool. Melt candy quick dark chocolate according to package directions (1 min in microwave, stir, then 15 second additional if needed). I found this better to do in a larger size ramekin rather than the candy quick package because you need enough depth to dip the marshmallows. Put a marshmallow on a toothpick. Then dip at an angle in the chocolate, then turn the other way and dip the other side so that you wind up with a V shape on the front of the marshmallow. Then dip the back to cover it. Stand the penguin body in styrofoam and keep adding more penguin bodies so they don't touch when standing on the toothpicks. When it is full, place it in the refrigerator to harden. I did not have styrofoam, so I "made do" with something I had in the house and had to do this in batches of 6. While you are doing this step, if the chocolate starts to stiffen up, just zap it for another 15 seconds and stir and it will be fine. You may need to top up the level a bit if the level of the chocolate gets too low. It's important to do the penguin bodies FIRST so you have more depth in the bowl for the dipping.
• 2. Set up candies in a series of bowls (or I have an over-sized 1/4 cup-sized ice cube tray that I found was ideal for this) and sort out your candies to be ready for easy assembly: candy corn, and then sort the Sour Patch Kids into separate containers by colors (It makes it easier to give your penguins matching feet), pull out the color of M&M's that you have chosen for your graduation cap buttons (if they don't have your school color then use a brown one to match the color of the cap). Open 24 of the Ghiradelli squares and place them in a stack to the side. Open your peanut butter cups (if you see peanut butter showing through you can dab some of your candy quick chocolate on it with a toothpick).
• 3. Graduation caps: On a large tray put the 24 of the peanut butter cups wide side down. With a butter knife dab a small bit of chocolate on the top, and then center one of the Ghiradelli squares on the top.
• 4. When all 24 are affixed, then you can pipe on the "tassle" with the icing of your choice. I liked putting the point of the "cap" to the front of the penguin, so I put the "tassle" on by dabbing at the middle and drawing a line just to the right of the point that would be in the front. I let it dangle a little over the edge so that a drip would go down and dry just a bit below the edge of the chocolate (ideally lol). While it is still wet, put your M&M (M side down) on the icing in the center to form your cap button. When you are done with these let them set to firm up and turn back to the penguin bodies.
• 5. Back to Penguin Bodies: Melt 1 square of the white chocolate according to package instructions in a small ramekin. Dip the fat end of a piece of your candy corn in the chocolate and affix it to the penguin face in the white area below the top of the inverted "V". I decided halfway through that it was better to angle the corn vertical rather than horizontal, it looks more penguin-like to me. :-) You will need to hold each one in place for just a moment while the chocolate sets. Using a toothpick, dip it in the white chocolate and put chocolate eyes on either side of the nose. Lay the penguin on its back with the nose up so the chocolate has time to set and the nose won't drop off. When you are at the end of the 24, then go back to your dark chocolate and dip the tip of a toothpick in the chocolate and do a small touch to the center of the white chocolate eyes to put a pupil on the eye.
• 6. Final assembly of the penguins: I laid out the Sour Patch kids in pairings of feet with the wide ends out. Zap your dark chocolate again if necessary. Slide the marshmallows off of the toothpicks at this point. Dip the bottom of the penguin body in the chocolate and then center it over the Sour Patch Kids candies so the wider ends stick out as the penguin's feet. When you have these all sitting on the feet, take a butter knife and spread a small dab of dark chocolate on top of the marshmallow to use as glue to affix the graduation caps (move back to the first one you did, as this chocolate will be more set). At this point I let these set up in the refrigerator overnight and made the cupcakes the next morning and continued from there. You can do these the same day, but I wanted to give these some good time to set in the refrigerator first so they firm up nicely before you put them on the cupcakes.
• 7. Bake the cake according to package directions, let cool and frost with white icing.
• 8. Roll the edges of the icing in the colored sugar sprinkles.
• 9. These will be top-heavy cupcakes, so I found that the best way to finalize these was to put a toothpick back into the penguin, threading it in between the two feet and then standing it on the cupcake with the help of the toothpick. A few of them still wanted to lean (I figured they were drinking before graduation), so I added an additional toothpick prop on the side they were leaning towards.

GRADUATION CAP CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350; line muffin tins with cupcake holders.
• Prepare the batter according to the directions on the box. (Duncan Hines' classic yellow cake mix calls for the measures of liquid and eggs I listed in the ingredients.).
• Pour batter into the muffin tins; be sure not to over-fill the cups, because you want the tops of the cupcakes to be somewhat flat.
• Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pans for 15 minutes; remove and let cool completely.
• Peel the paper liners from the cupcakes; invert cupcakes onto a foil-lined tray. Spread 1/4 teaspoon of chocolate spread on the bottom (now top) of each cupcake; top with a graham cracker square.
• Cut the Twizzlers rope into three equal pieces. Separate into individual strings. Dip the end of each string into chocolate spread, and gently press into the center of the graham cracker.

GRADUATION CAP CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350ºF.
• Prepare cake batter as directed on package. Blend in dry drink mix; spoon into 24 paper-lined muffin cups. Bake 20 to 25 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean; cool completely. Meanwhile, spread 1 tsp. melted chocolate onto each graham square to completely cover top of graham; place in single layer on baking sheet. Refrigerate until firm.
• Remove liners from cupcakes; place cupcakes upside-down on plate. Use wooden spoon handle to poke deep hole in center of each cupcake, being careful to not poke through to bottom of cupcake. Spoon COOL WHIP into resealable plastic bag. Cut small piece off one bottom corner of bag; use to pipe COOL WHIP into holes and onto tops of cupcakes, reserving small amount of COOL WHIP for later use. Top cupcakes with grahams, chocolate sides up, to resemble graduation caps.
• Use fruit rolls to make tassels for caps. (See tip.) Add 1 tassel and jelly bean to top of each graham square, securing each with dab of remaining COOL WHIP.

GRADUATION DAY CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Using an offset spatula, spread frosting on middle of cupcakes. Cupcakes can be refrigerated up to 3 days in airtight containers; just before serving, bring to room temperature and top each with a tuile scroll.
• Preheat oven to 375°F. Prepare template: Cut a 2-by-3-inch rectangle from the center of a piece of flexible plastic (discard cutout center). With electric mixer on medium speed, beat egg white and sugar until combined. Beat in flour and salt. Add butter, cream, and vanilla; beat until just combined.
• Place template on a Silpat-lined rimmed baking sheet. Spoon 1 teaspoon batter onto center; spread thinly with an offset spatula. Repeat to fit six on a sheet. Bake, rotating sheet halfway through, until pale golden around edges, about 6 minutes. Immediately loosen cookies with offset spatula; turn over, bottom side up. Starting at a short side, quickly roll one cookie halfway around a skewer, then roll up other side around another skewer until two sides meet. Transfer to a wire rack; let cool. Repeat with remaining tuiles. (If cookies become too cool to shape, briefly return to oven.) Repeat with remaining batter to make 24 tuiles.
• Cut candy belts into quarters lengthwise, then cut crosswise into 4-inch-long strips. Wrap a candy strip around each scroll, and tie to secure. Scrolls can be stored up to 1 week at room temperature in airtight containers.