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Superbowl Cupcakes

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Serve Superbowl Cupcakes are your party! These tender, moist, and decadent chocolate cupcakes are filled with a rich caramel sauce and topped with a fudgy chocolate frosting, easily decorated to look like a football for the ultimate game day snack.

chocolate cupcakes on wooden board with football design

Super Bowl Parties have all the good treats – potato skins, pizza, nachos, chicken wings, stuffed mushrooms, and anything buffalo chicken flavored. After all those tasty apps, these super easy football cupcakes will be the perfect sweetness to top off the night.

chocolate cupcake with football design

If the football fan in your life loves these, try my other cake recipes!

What do I need to get started?

ingredients for chocolate cupcakes
  • Vegetable oil and melted butter. Butter for the flavor, oil for the moist factor.
  • Sugar and brown sugar. Just a bit of brown sugar will make these super soft and tender.
  • 2 eggs, and 1 egg yolk. Adding that little bit of extra fat with the egg yolk makes these cupcakes so rich!
  • Buttermilk. I always use buttermilk in my chocolate cake for and extra moist crumb.
  • Sour cream, again for moistness.
  • Flour.
  • Cocoa powder.
  • Baking powder and baking soda.
  • Salt. ALWAYS add a bit of salt to your desserts!
  • Hot coffee. I promise you will not taste it – it’s just there to complement the chocolate flavor.
  • Caramel sauce for filling. You can make this yourself and cool completely before using (try my recipe I used for my Coffee Chocolate Chip cookies)
  • Frosting ingredients. You can use any chocolate frosting of your choice (I tend to prefer a Swiss Meringue Buttercream) but this is a super easy frosting recipe that anyone can make – you just need butter, powdered sugar, half & half, vanilla, salt, and cocoa powder. I recommend a stand mixer for frosting.

How do you make cupcakes super moist?

chocolate cupcake with bite taken out and caramel pouring out the side
  • Vegetable oil is a big moist-maker in cupcakes. I paired it with some melted butter in this recipe because I didn’t want to lose the big butter flavor. You can replace the butter with more oil if you choose.
  • Sour cream, mayonnaise, or plain yogurt are all good additions for the rich and tender crumb of a perfectly moist cupcake. I chose sour cream this time around, but both of those are fine substitutions.
  • Brown sugar. Brown sugar is made by simply adding molasses to white sugar, which gives it a heavier and moister texture, making cakes with brown sugar extra moist.
  • Be very careful not to overbake. Watch the cupcakes carefully (with the oven light, do not open the oven door until you’re sure the cupcakes are mostly baked) so as not to overbake. An over baked cake is always dried out and crumbly.
  • A filling! These cupcakes have a lovely caramel sauce that will keep them moist all day.
football design cupcakes with a "go team" sign for superbowl cupcakes

Superbowl Cupcakes Tips and Tricks

one cupcake tipped against another with a football design
  • Do not overmix the batter once you have added the dry ingredients. This will overdevelop the gluten and cause crumbly cupcakes.
  • Add half and half slowly to your frosting. Just 1 tbsp at a time, until you’ve reached your desired consistency.

Making the football design for Superbowl Cupcakes

I promise that the football design is not difficult – believe me, if I can do it, you can do it!

chocolate cupcakes being decorated with football design

Start by piping the chocolate frosting in 2 lines in the shape of a football. This should not cover the entire surface of the cupcake but will reach two opposing ends of the cupcake. Fill the football shape in with frosting; this will take about 2 more lines of frosting to fill. Use a spoon or knife to smooth the frosting lines out. You may want to go back in and gently clean up the outside edges of the football shape. Use the white frosting to pipe a line down the center of the football from one pointed end to the other. Pipe small horizontal lines across the white center line to create the football grips. Be sure to leave ½ cm of space between each line for differentiation. You can vary the amount of small lines you pipe onto each football. 

Storage and Make Ahead

chocolate cupcakes with football design

I doubt there will be many of these crowd pleasing football cupcakes leftover! If there are, store in an airtight container for up to 2 days at room temperature.

superbowl cupcakes for pinterest
football cupcakes

Superbowl Cupcakes

Yield: 20 cupcakes
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Tender, moist, decadent chocolate cupcakes filled with thick, sweet, sticky caramel sauce. They are decorated with vanilla and chocolate frosting in the shape of footballs.

Ingredients

  • 3 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 3 tbsp melted butter
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs, plus 1 egg yolk
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 1 tbsp sour cream
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder
  • 3/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup hot coffee
  • Caramel sauce, for filling

Frosting

  • 1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 2-4 tbsp half and half
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 3 tbsp cocoa powder

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 and line cupcake pans with cupcake liners.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, brown sugar, vegetable oil and melted butter until combined. Next, add in the eggs one at a time, then buttermilk and sour cream and mix until incorporated. Add in the flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Mix just until combined. Lastly, add in the hot coffee and mix. The batter will be very runny at this point.
  3. Fill cupcake liners ¾ full with cupcake batter. Place into the preheated oven to bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with moist crumbs. Once baked, remove from the oven and place onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
  4. To make the frosting, add all of the ingredients except the cocoa to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment. Beat together on high-speed for 5 minutes or until smooth and fluffy frosting has formed. Spoon ¾ cup of the frosting into a piping bag fitted with a small round piping tip. Add the cocoa to the rest of the frosting in the mixing bowl and beat together for 30 - 45 seconds to fully incorporate. Spoon the chocolate frosting into a piping bag fitted with a large round tip.
  5. Press the large end of a piping tip into the center of the cupcake about ¾ deep. Pull the piping tip up out of the cupcake and use a toothpick to remove the cupcake piece that is in the piping tip. Save the removed cupcake piece in a bowl for later. Repeat this process with all 20 cupcakes. Once the cupcakes are holed out, spoon enough caramel to fill the holes. Press the removed cupcake piece back into the hole on top of the caramel.
  6. To frost the cupcakes, start by piping the chocolate frosting in 2 lines in the shape of a football. This should not cover the entire surface of the cupcake but will reach two opposing ends of the cupcake. Fill the football shape in with frosting; this will take about 2 more lines of frosting to fill. Use a spoon or knife to smooth the frosting lines out. You may want to go back in and gently clean up the outside edges of the football shape. Use the white frosting to pipe a line down the center of the football from one pointed end to the other. Pipe small horizontal lines across the white center line to create the football grips. Be sure to leave ½ cm of space between each line for differentiation. You can vary the amount of small lines you pipe onto each football.
  7. Serve and enjoy!
Nutrition Information
Yield 20 Serving Size 1 cupcake
Amount Per Serving Calories 338Total Fat 19gSaturated Fat 11gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 8gCholesterol 72mgSodium 242mgCarbohydrates 40gFiber 1gSugar 33gProtein 3g

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