Types of Fillings & Toppings for Cupcakes

Baking yields many sweet pastries and goods, and quality cooks like to experiment with recipes and ingredients. Cupcakes are pretty standard as long as you have a cupcake pan to bake with and some cake mix. However, the toppings and fillings are completely up to the baker, and with so many ways to customize the traditional cupcake, taste buds never have to fear a boring dessert again. Add this to my Recipe Box.

Fruit Fillings

Fruit preserves and jellies create sweet fillings for cupcakes. From strawberries to apricots, options for fruit fillings are endless if you want to mix a few fruits together inside a cupcake. When filling a cupcake with fruit, start by pouring only half of the cake mix into the cupcake pan, then make an indent in each cup of batter for the fruit filling. Once you fill with a 1/2 tsp. of fruit filling, cover with the remaining cupcake mix and bake.

Cream Fillings

Cream-filled cupcakes attract sweet, tart and cheese lovers. With rich, creamy centers, filling cupcakes requires a small pastry tip and an icing bag. Cream cheese filling goes well with carrot cupcakes or pumpkin cupcakes. Chocolate mousse or plain milk chocolate create a fluffy, light center.

Sprinkles and Shavings

Every holiday presents an opportunity to decorate cupcakes with colorful and festive sprinkles. Beyond funny shapes, sprinkles also have several varieties, like confetti, nonpareils or sparkles. Some are circular while others are thin and long. Extra-fine sugar sprinkles take on a crystalline look when topped on a cupcake. Like sprinkles, shavings are just as delicate. Chocolate shavings often top a heath or coffee-flavored cupcake.

Nutty Toppings

Muffins and cupcakes are very similar, and when you add nut toppings, the only difference resides in the best part of a cupcake: the icing. Red velvet cupcake recipes often call for a topping of walnuts to finish off a delicious crimson-colored fluffy cupcake. Crushed or pieced nut toppings go well with other cupcake varieties, too, such as banana cream cupcakes or chocolate cupcakes with hazelnuts.