Here’s What Happened When I Tried Recreating Sprinkles’ Signature Cupcakes

I have a slight obsession with cupcakes—Sprinkles Cupcakes in particular.

So you can imagine my excitement when I got my hands on The Sprinkles Baking Book, full of their beloved signature recipes as well as some all-American classics.

I'm no baker, but I love these sweet treats so much that I decided to take a whack at creating two of my absolute favorite Sprinkles flavors—their signature Red Velvet Cupcake and their seasonal Chocolate Peppermint Cupcake.

Want to see what happened when I (not a culinary genius, mind you), tried to recreate the iconic recipes that put Sprinkles on the map? Scroll below to find out!

My journey began with a long trip to the grocery store.

Seeing as I don't bake on a regular basis, my kitchen isn't equipped with some of the very basic ingredients the recipes required (i.e., flour, sugar, baking soda). I had to load up my car with all of it.

I spent a solid twenty minutes roaming the store collecting all of the items I needed, and at the end of it all, racked up a whopping bill of $49.12. I started wondering if it would have just been easier (and tastier) to pick up actual Sprinkles Cupcakes.

I shrugged off the thought and hurried home to lay out my haul.

I decided that I would begin by making Sprinkles Red Velvet Cupcakes. Surprisingly, only 12 basic ingredients are needed.

I could have made my own frosting, but because I'm a baking novice, I confess I cheated a bit by using store-bought cream cheese frosting.

Making the batter was really quite simple—it only required three steps.

After preheating the oven, I combined my dry ingredients in a medium bowl, my wet ingredients in a small bowl and my basic butter and sugar in a mixing bowl.

After mixing the wet and dry ingredients individually, I slowly added them into the sugar and butter mix.

Although the baking book suggests you use a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, I mixed the ingredients the old fashioned way with a wooden spoon. Let's just say I got quite the arm work out.

The batter was surprisingly fluffy and smelled amazing. I was quite proud of myself, even though I had no clue if these babies would actually bake properly.

I popped them in the oven, set my timer for 18 minutes and hoped for the best.

Because I was feeling quite optimistic, I immediately began making my second batch of cupcakes—Chocolate Peppermint.

I was very pleased that most of the ingredients were the same except for the addition of peppermint extract and mint toppings.

Again, because I'm no baking pro (and just lazy) I opted for a store-bought frosting. I chose a rich and creamy dark chocolate flavor.

I followed the same three-step process to create this batter and then loaded up the mixture into my second cupcake tray.

As soon as the first batch was complete, I pulled them out to cool off and placed in my Chocolate Peppermint batch.

The aroma wafting around in my kitchen at this point was pretty spectacular as you can imagine.

To my surprise, the Red Velvet Cupcakes came out of the oven just as fluffy and moist as they do in the actual Sprinkles store. I gave myself a pat on the back.

When the second batch was complete, I decided to let the two flavors cool overnight and frost them at work the next morning so that my coworkers could taste-test these bad boys when they were as fresh as can be.

In the morning I slathered on a thick layer of the cream cheese frosting to the Red Velvet Cupcakes and an even thicker layer of dark chocolate frosting to the Peppermint cupcakes. I also decided to garnish the Peppermint treat with some finely chopped bits of Mint Hershey's Kisses.

The final result? Well, just take a peek for yourself:

Although they looked great, I knew I wouldn't feel my baking experience was truly successful until it was confirmed that they tasted great.

I gave one of each type of cupcakes to my coworkers and waited to see if their faces either lit up or turned to disgust when they took their first bite.

From their smiling faces and chocolate-stained teeth, I'd say the treat was a hit.

Overall, baking these signature sweets from scratch was a truly enjoyable experience. Even though I have no baking skills whatsoever, I found that the recipes were super easy to follow and not crazily time-consuming.

Even though I spent a pretty penny getting all the ingredients, I know I have them for future recipes I plan to make.

Baker or not, I highly recommend snagging a copy of The Sprinkles Baking Book yourself and testing your culinary skills in the kitchen—your taste buds, tummies and sweet-toothed friends will thank you.

 

Want to hear advice that the founder and pastry chef of Sprinkles Cupcakes has for aspiring bakers? Read our exclusive interview with her HERE!