I have a fun idea for those of you that are Starbucks fans. These cupcakes are really simple to make and I think they are very cute and whimsical!
My 6 year old has made incredible progress with her sight words at school and once the children reach a certain goal, the teacher rewards them with a Starbucks hot chocolate they get to drink in class.
Now my girls love Starbucks hot chocolate (we have a homemade recipe for Starbucks hot chocolate that I make all the time) and I thought it would be fun to make a second treat to celebrate her accomplishments.
So I made these little Starbucks cupcakes and really these can be made into any flavor. Since she already had the chocolate, I thought I would do a caramel cupcake. For the adults I added just a little bit of sea salt and for the kiddos I skipped that step.
Here is a really yummy recipe for the cupcake, frosting and caramel sauce.
I was a little short on time so I made the cupcake batter and the frosting and then just used a jar caramel sauce to drizzle on top.
I used white cupcake liners which I wasn’t thrilled with but I couldn’t find really dark espresso colored ones. I think if you do find them, they might look better.
After I made the cupcakes and let them cool and frosted them, I drizzled a tiny bit of caramel over the top and then sprinkled with Himalayan Pink Sea Salt.
Once that was finished, I pulled a Starbucks™ logo off the internet and just put it into a Word doc. I made several logos per page in the right size to fit the cupcakes and then cut them out by hand.
Also I grabbed a few extra straws while I was in a Starbucks recently and cut those down (you get about about 4 mini straws per regular size Starbucks straw.)
And that was it!
I think these would have turned out a lot better if I had the right size frosting tip on hand. The larger Wilton tip would have looked much nicer, but well… I have had 4 of them and each has come to an untimely demise. (Mental note: add large Wilton tip to shopping list.)
I packaged up a few extras to take for the teachers and for those I just put the plain cupcake in a plastic cup and tied with a bag and ribbon. Then I just used a bit of glue to adhere the Starbucks logo on.
To get the logo to adhere to the cupcakes, I used just a tiny dab of hot glue- pretty much where the two stars are located- and they stayed in place.
If you decide to try this out please come back and let me know what you thought! I can tell you I was really happy with the results and everyone loved these.
NOTE: Starbucks is a registered Trademark and is not affiliated with this blog in any way. Normally I would not have taken their image to use (the cupcakes are still really cute without it) but this idea actually came from Starbucks directly! A very long time I saw these on the Starbucks Facebook page. I believe this idea may have originated from Kim’s Kitchen and she has a recipe to actually use Starbucks Via in the cupcakes.
Oh and one other note– originally I was planning to use a cuff sleeve around the cupcake similar to what you see on your Starbucks cup. I found that even a tiny bit of caramel sauce, frosting etc.. that dripped down made the sleeve look messy and not as appealing. I thought the cut out shape of the logo just glued onto the cupcake liner resulted in a nicer presentation. The cupcake liner is much more forgiving of any little drips or spills then a piece of white paper cut as a sleeve.
So cute! Next time you’re at Starbucks, ask for some logo stickers instead!
Jessica,
I did actually and the two stores I checked did not have any. It was a thought though!
Girl! You own a cameo. Print and Cut and save yourself some time:D. They look great!
Ha! I could have done that– next time 🙂
I have to contribute to a bake sale at the end of February, and I WILL be making these. Thank you so much!!
So cute! So glad you enjoyed my Salted Caramel Cupcakes recipe, and that it worked great for your adorable project!!
Tracey @ The Kitchen is My Playground
Will be making these!!!
I’m thinking you can use the cardboard hot sleeves to wrap around the cupcake as well instead of printing and gluing the logos on.
Maria- I did think about that too but they were a little too big for me. The logo was actually really fast to do but you might try the sleeves and see how that works for you :). You might trim them or just make bigger cupcakes 🙂
Adorable! I will have to try this! Question .. and I know it is a silly one… but we were at a bake sale and did cupcakes in cups like that and gave spoons becauseI ccouldn’t figure out how someone could get the cupcake out without a giant mess… has anyone figured that out? Or am I the only one who doesn’t get it? 😉 the ks again for sharing the recipe!!!
Renee,
I saw the most clever idea on pinterest. You turn the cups the other direction so they are like a dome and pull off instead. If you don’t have lids to form a base at the bottom of the cupcake you might be able to use cling wrap.
When I put the cupcake in, it usually takes some shimmy-ing to get it to slide out so I can eat it.
Here is the pin:
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/7599893095772764/
I feel like you’re being too hard on yourself by saying that you could have done things differently to make them look better! I think the white liners resemble the plastic cups really well. And the whipped cream looks like the whipped cream you would actually get on your drink at Starbucks! I don’t know about you, but I’ve never really had a pretty dalop of whipped cream on my coffee from there. I know I’m not a food blogger or anything, but these are too cute and perfect the way you made them! 🙂
Lol- what a nice comment Stephanie! Thanks so much 🙂
love these – have you ever made this recipe into “cake pops” – Starbucks sells “salted carmel cake pops” and they are delish………..
Hi Dawnie- my kids love those cake pops 🙂 We had a cake pop disaster once upon a time and I sort of gave up on making them :P.
This is such an’AWESOME idea, GREAT job i cant wait to try to make these, hope they come out as good as yours!
In the recipe for the frosting…did you really mean 1.5 cups of butter or 1.5 sticks of butter?
Hi Annie- it is a ton of butter right? I guess that is why it is called Buttercream 🙂 No the recipe is right with cups. If you prefer to start with less butter you certainly can and then just increase it if needed.
Very cute idea, and they sound delicious, but isn’t printing and using the Starbucks logo a copyright infringement?!?! I’d hate to see all you frugal moms get sued by millionaires!
Hi Allie- yes that is for sure a concern. I actually mentioned that in the post- here is what I said:
NOTE: Starbucks is a registered Trademark and is not affiliated with this blog in any way. Normally I would not have taken their image to use (the cupcakes are still really cute without it) but this idea actually came from Starbucks directly! A very long time I saw these on the Starbucks Facebook page. I believe this idea may have originated from Kim’s Kitchen and she has a recipe to actually use Starbucks Via in the cupcakes.
Okay, I’m sorry! I missed that part! Just didn’t want anyone to get into trouble! Thanks for the reply!
I just made these today! The frosting is great! I decided to go cheap and just buy a vanilla cake mix since I was out of certain ingredients and it worked just the same!! They look adorable and people love them! Super easy!
These are so cute! I can’t wait to try making them
Hi Charlene!
These cupcakes look so cute, I’ve decided to make them for my work bake sale in two days 🙂 Quick question though – what size of muffin tray did you use for these? Are they the regular size or the mini? I can’t quite tell in the picture. Thanks!
Jenna- I used regular muffin pans. I think mini would be cute but those would be tiny little labels to cut. You could do chocolate ones too (mocha of course) with this buttercream which is my favorite thing in the history of baked goods:
http://myfrugaladventures.com/2013/12/perfect-chocolate-buttercream-frosting-recipe/
The salted caramel is a tiny messy and won’t appeal to everyone so for a bake sale you might do both. If kids are there it could be a hot chocolate cupcake 🙂 They will love that chocolate buttercream.
Delicious!!!! Just made these for my son’s baptism party and these are my favorite cupcakes now! So moist and flavorful! I don’t even want to put icing on them! (And I usually only eat cupcakes for the icing). Thank you!!!
Oh so glad you liked them Alicia 🙂
I made these for work and they turned out FABULOUS!! EVERYONE loved them and were asking for the recipe!
Yeah! So thrilled to hear that 🙂