Easy Graduation Cap Cupcakes

These Easy Graduation Cap Cupcakes are perfect for celebrating a graduation! Customize with your favorite cupcake flavors and frosting flavors and decorate these graduation cupcakes to match your school colors easily!

Graduation Cupcakes

The school year is almost over and for some parents, you are starting to plan your child’s graduation party. Whether your child is graduating from kindergarten, high school, or college these Easy Graduation Cap Cupcakes will surely be a hit. They are very simple to make with the addition of some candy to the top of the cupcake flavor of your choice.

When you are having a graduation party having things easy peasy is important. A lot of planning goes into planning a graduation celebration so anytime things can be made easier it will save a lot of stress and time. These graduation cupcakes are super easy to make! 

All you need is cupcakes, frosting, and candy to make the cupcake toppers that look like graduation caps. 

Easy Party Recipes

• Garlic Parmesan Chicken Wings
• Chocolate Covered Oreos (in your school colors)
• Taco Cups
• Fruit Salad with Marshmallows

Variations of this recipe

The great thing about these easy graduation cupcakes is that you can use any flavor cupcake or frosting for them. If you are using a white frosting then you can color the frosting to match your school colors easily. If you want to have more fun you can color the vanilla cupcakes to be the color of your school too!

Change up the cupcake flavor. For graduation cupcakes, I normally use my favorite vanilla cupcake or my favorite chocolate cupcakes. You can also make these with any cupcake flavors. Here are some yummy cupcakes you could use to make your graduation cupcakes – These are some of our Favorites!

• Pink Lemonade Cupcakes
• Blackberry cupcakes
• Red Velvet Cupcakes
• Strawberry cupcakes
• Peanut butter cupcakes
• Angel Food Cupcakes
• Lemon Cupcakes
• Red Velvet Cupcakes
• Mocha Cupcakes
• Blueberry cupcakes
• Lemon Raspberry Cupcakes
• Lemon blueberry cupcakes

Change up the frosting flavor. If you want to make the frosting the same colors as your decorations and the school colors use a white frosting that you can dye. I suggest using vanilla buttercream frosting,  almond buttercream frosting, or Marshmallow Frosting. There are lots of other cupcake frosting recipes, including Caramel Buttercream, mint buttercream, that can be used as well if you are not worried about the cupcake frosting matching the colors. My one recommendation for choosing cake flavor combinations is to skip the Chocolate Buttercream Frosting, the graduation caps will blend into the frosting and not be as propionate as they would be on other color frostings.

Candy Tassels. For the tassels on the cap, I used Twizzlers Twisted Strawberry Blast Pull N Peels. Thankfully Twizzlers have different colored pull n peels so you can match the tassels to your school colors. You can also use sour string candy or other string candy to make the tassels.

Easy Graduation Cap Cupcakes Tips

Gel food coloring is best. Use gel food coloring when coloring the buttercream to match your school colors.

Use a light colored frosting. I prefer to use vanilla buttercream frosting if I want to color the frosting.

Bring ingredients to room temperature. Cupcakes will bake best when the ingredients are brought to room temperature before mixing the cupcake batter.

Allow cupcakes to cool completely. Before frosting the cupcakes let them cool completely. If you frost cupcakes while they are still warm then the frosting will melt.

Do not over mix. Over-mixing the batter will lead to having tough and flat cupcakes. When making cupcakes you have to be careful that you don’t over mix the batter when you are folding in the flour mixture. If you over-mix your angel food cake batter your cupcakes will turn out flat. You want to mix everything just until mixed, over mixing will cause you to have rough and tough cupcakes.

Fill the cupcake liners appropriately. You do not want to over fill the cupcake liners. Follow the directions for the specific cupcake recipe, if the recipe doesn’t tell you how full stick to the 2/3 full rule, which is roughly 3 tablespoons of cupcake batter per cupcake liner.

Use the best kitchen tool for filling liners. If you are working with a thick cupcake batter then you want to use a spoon or a cookie scoop to fill the cupcake liners. If it is a thin cupcake batter then use a bowl with a spout or a glass measuring cup to pour in the batter.

Use quality cupcake liners. While you might not think it matters a cupcake liner having a quality cupcake liner will make it so your cupcakes don’t stick to the wrapper and peel off nicely so you can see the perfect cupcake in it.

Graduation Cap Cupcakes Supplies

• Pastry bag
• large tip
• Glass mixing bowl

Graduation Cap Cupcakes Ingredients

• 24 cupcakes
• Buttercream
• 1 cup Chocolate candy melts 
• 24 Ghirardelli Chocolate Squares 
• 24 REESE’S Peanut Butter Cups Miniatures 
• 24 Twizzlers Twisted Strawberry Blast Pull N Peels

How to Make Graduation Cupcakes

Check out here to learn How to make a cupcake swirl, you will want to have an awesome cupcake swirl!

Bake the cupcakes and let them cool. Make the frosting you are using while you let the cupcakes cool.

Place a piping tip into your pastry bag and then fill the bag with your buttercream.

Pipe the buttercream frosting into a Swirl onto the top of each cupcake.

Melt your chocolate as per the directions on the packaging. You can use the microwave or you can use a double boiler.

Add a dot of the melted chocolate to the bottom of the unwrapped Reese’s miniature peanut butter chips and place it in the center of the chocolate square to form the cap.

Add another dot of chocolate to the top of the square and place two three-inch pieces of the peeled Twizzler into the chocolate dot to form the tassel. 

Place the chocolate graduation cap on the top of the buttercream frosting.

Easy Cupcake Recipes

• Boston Cream Cupcakes
• Samoa Cupcakes
• Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes
• Dirt Cupcakes
• Salted Caramel Cupcakes
• chocolate covered strawberry cupcakes
• Chocolate Caramel Turtle Cupcakes
• Salted Caramel Cupcakes
• Unicorn Poop Cupcakes

Recipe FAQ

Can I make them ahead of time?

You can make these cupcakes ahead of time. I would suggest sticking to 2 days beforehand so they are at their best for flavor. You can also make the cupcakes and freeze them and then on the day of the party decorate them. 

How to Freeze Cupcakes

You will want to freeze them without any frosting on them. Wrap them individually with plastic wrap and freeze them on a baking sheet. Then once they are solid store them in a zip close freezer bag. They will keep for up to 2 months when frozen.

To thaw, simply remove them from the freezer and defrost. Then frost as normal.

How to Store Cupcakes

It is best to store cupcakes in an airtight container on the counter. Cupcakes are best to be enjoyed within 48 hours of making them. They won’t be bad to eat after 40 hours but they will start to dry out and not be as fresh.

After frosting cupcakes, you are ok to store them on the counter for a day or 2 but after that, they should be stored in the fridge.

If you are storing them unfrosted you can store them in an airtight container or a plastic bag. If you are storing them with frosting on top I suggest using a cupcake storage container.

How to tell when cupcakes are done baking

I like to use the toothpick test when I am making cupcakes with the kids because it is easier for them to see and learn. But if you have been making cupcakes for a while you may not want to use that method.

If you want an even easier method, the cupcake bounce done method as we call it is even easier. Pull the tray of cupcakes out from the oven and lightly press on a cupcake in the middle of the baking pan. If if bounces right back and no fingerprint is left behind then your cupcakes are done. If there is a fingerprint you need to bake them for a few more minutes.

34 Weight Watchers Smart Point per cupcake