Princess Cupcake Dress
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs we earn a small commission from qualifying purchases through our affiliate link. For more information read our Entire Affiliate Disclosure.
This is fun take on the Princess cake. Meet the princess cupcake dress! Make your little princess feel like royalty with their very own Princess cake!
No complex decorating skills required! Every princess cupcake is a special foodie gift to the party goers.
This princess cupcake cake is the one I made for our precious daughter Ellie’s first birthday. It was photographed in real time during a very busy party. On the fly. It was just SO good I had to share it with you.
The kids LOVED these dress cupcakes. Each cupcake has its own rose. So cute!
For Ellie’s special day a girls cupcake dress had to happen. I don’t often make fancy cakes. But I DO love making cupcakes.
A One year old birthday princess cake. I caught the idea. Now to create my princess cake idea.
I went searching for cupcake cake ideas. Princess cupcake ideas are popular. I came away with several cupcake birthday ideas. Ellie’s cupcake princess dress cake was getting closer.
Ellie’s Princess Cake is a Princess Dress:
No Castle this time. No Fondant. This cupcake princess dress is very simple in design and easy to accomplish.
- 30 filled cupcakes are decorated in a simple buttercream rose design and laid out like a dress.
- Add Princess bling and some edible pearls. Finished!
I like simple. Birthday parties for one year olds are a lot of work. I made my own cake board but you can find extra large cake boards here.
Using a boxed cake mix will cut the time of this project considerably. I never recommend box mixes. They have WAY too many chemicals. But in the interest of time. A cake mix will work.
Do whatever works for your timeline. But the homemade recipes I used are very good. 🙂
- I used a combination of two of my favorite recipes for the cupcakes. I used my basic vanilla cupcake recipe and I filled them with homemade custard.
- The custard filling recipe came from my Chocolate Eclair Cupcakes recipe. To save more time make the custard recipe the day before and store it covered in the fridge.
- I used a classic buttercream frosting and substituted the vanilla extract for raspberry extract to make a raspberry buttercream frosting for decorating the cupcake princess cake.
- I used this buttercream frosting recipe from my Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough cupcake recipe.
Making The Princess Cupcake Dress:
What’s fun about this Princess cupcake dress is:
- Kids LOVE it! All of Ellie’s cousins adored the look of this cupcake dress and they all actually ate the cupcakes!
- This recipe for the cupcakes and frosting is SO GOOD! Adults and kids will be all over this cake.
- You will be a ROCKSTAR for making your girl a cupcake dress decorated like your child’s favorite princess.
- You can use any flavor combination, any frosting colors you would like, and theme it different ways!
We went with pink for one year old Ellie. This princess cupcake dress could be colored for Frozen, Sophia, or any disney Princess. Go your own way and create a unique princess cupcake dress.
Let me know in the Homemade Food Junkie comments section at the bottom of this page what you do!
All the recipes you need to make and assemble the Cupcake Princess Dress from scratch are in the Printable recipe for you.
This video Demonstrates the Buttercream Rose Swirl design on the cupcakes:
The rose design on the princess cupcakes is very simple to do. All you need is a piping bag and a Wilton 2D tip! It’s just a simple swirl.
HINT: Start in the middle of the cupcake and swirl in a circle to the outside
The frosting decoration technique is simple. Watch the Video to learn.
I recommend practicing on a sheet of parchment paper before testing out your newfound skill on the cupcakes! This recipe makes 36 cupcakes so you will have a few extra to practice the rose swirl on.
Once you are a master at the rose swirl design (this will happen quickly)
- Pipe all 30 cupcakes with the rose swirl design (video demonstration)
- Arrange the cupcakes on your cupcake board in the dress design
- Fill in the holes between the cupcakes with little star dots of frosting. (See the picture below)
- Place white pearl candies on top of the stars to give them a little extra pop if desired.
Finishing the Cupcake Dress:
The Princess cupcake Dress is a really simple layout. Follow the plan I laid out for you IN THE RECIPE CARD.
Decorate the dress as desired. Helpful Affiliate links for you below. Every little princess needs a bit of bling on her dress. The dress add on also make cute dress ups!
If you purchase from our affiliate links we may receive a small commission at no extra charge to you. Thank you for supporting Homemade Food Junkie.
Princess Cupcake Dress
Adorable and fun! Princess cupcake dress is an easy way for you to make your little princess feel like royalty with their very own Princess cake! No complex decorating skills required! Filled with custard for a creamy, tasty party treat
Ingredients
- CUPCAKES:
- 2 1/2 cups cake flour
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 lg eggs
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 3 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup light olive oil (or canola oil)
- 1 cup buttermilk
- CUSTARD FILLING:
- 3 cups milk
- 3 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup corn starch
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 tsp vanilla
- FROSTING
- 2 sticks unsalted softened butter
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3-4 tbsp milk
Instructions
CUPCAKES
- Preheat oven to 350 F
- Whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a small bowl and set aside.
- In a bowl with an electric beater, beat eggs until they are thoroughly mixed, add in sugar and continue mixing.
- Add in oil and vanilla until they are thoroughly mixed in as well.
- Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix until it is incorporated
- Add 1/3 of the buttermilk and mix thoroughly.
- Continue alternating adding in ingredients until they are all mixed in.
- Fill cupcake liners 1/2 full.
- Bake 12-14 minutes checking often to ensure doneness.
- Cool on a wire baking rack.
CUSTARD FILLING:
- Beat egg yolks in a small bowl, add in milk and whisk together until thoroughly mixed.
- mix together sugar, cornstarch and salt in large heavy saucepan. slowly stir in a small amount of milk and egg mixture, making a smooth paste. Gradually stir in remaining milk mixture until blended.
- cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and comes to a boil, 20 to 25 minutes. BOIL and stir 1 minute. Remove from heat immediately.
- cool quickly: Set pan in larger pan of ice water. stir occasionally and gently for a few minutes to hasten cooling. stir in vanilla. press piece of plastic wrap onto surface of pastry cream to prevent "skin" from forming. refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least 1 hour
- Tp place the custard in your cooled cupcakes use a melon scoop or sharp knife to cut a hole in the center of your cupcake.
- Fill the hole in with the custard and replace the cake on top. Now frost them.
FROSTING:
- Beat the butter alone for 2 minutes until it is light and fluffy.
- Add in the powdered sugar slowly beating until it is thoroughly mixed in.
- Add the vanilla and the milk next, start with 3 Tablespoons of milk and test the consistency. I ended up using 4 Tablespoons of milk.
TO CREATE AND ASSEMBLE THE CUPCAKE DRESS:
- You need 30 cupcakes.
- Place them in the prescribed design combination on a cookie sheet or other flat surface.
- I wrapped a poster board in wrapping paper to get the cute pink polka dot background.
- The cupcake design combination is as follows:
- Lay them out in rows, as pictured, like this: 6, 5, 5, 4, 3, 4, and 4.
TO DECORATE:
Use a Wilton 2 D tip and piping bag. Fill the piping bag with buttercream frosting and shake the bag till the frosting is down the the tip with no air pockets.
Watch the video for a demonstration of the Rose Swirl design I used on each cupcake.
I also place large edible pearls on each cupcake as shown to add a formal touch.
Add princess adornments to finish the cake
Notes
The only thing you need to know about this recipe is TRUST IT! Do NOT take shortcuts. Do not over think it. Just follow directions (let me know if you need clarification on anything) and it will turn out great! Enjoy!
Nutrition Information
Yield
36Serving Size
1 frosted cupcakeAmount Per Serving Calories 262Total Fat 13gSaturated Fat 5gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 7gCholesterol 54mgSodium 229mgCarbohydrates 34gFiber 0gSugar 24gProtein 3g
Pin it:
This is fabulous! Will make for 6 year old’s b’day. I’m so excited!! She is a girly girly who loves being a princess/dress up.
Question: I have to transport it – can you give me approximate dimensions of completed cake so I can be sure I have appropriate container/box.
Thank you!
Hi Sandra, It really is adorable and a very easy way to serve a birthday cake for a little girl. I’ll always remember how excited my granddaughter was about this cake. If you plan to transport the cake assembled. Tiara on top then you will need a pretty big box or board.You can always place the tiara on sight to reduce height needed. I know your girl will love this Dress! Have a fantastic day.
Recommended Box Size
To transport safely:
Minimum Internal Dimensions:
24 inches wide
20 inches tall (front to back)
10–12 inches deep
Safer Recommendation:
26″ x 22″ x 12″ cake box
That gives:
Side clearance
Room for cardboard base
Protection for frosting rosettes
Protection for tiara
Professional Transport Recommendation
Because this is wide and low, many bakers:
Place it on a ½-inch thick cake board
Then place inside a sheet cake bakery box
Or use a large catering tray box
Or even a clean wardrobe box modified for cake transport
Looks great! Going to try this for my daughter’s Sofia the First party this weekend! How large was the board you put them on? Thanks so much!
Fantastic! I used a 3 ft by 3 ft poster board! I just wrapped it in some cute wrapping paper and it worked great for a base!
So I’ve been trying these for 3 hours and it’s just not happening. The cupcake batter is very bubbly and my cupcakes have fallen every time. I’ve baked things from scratch For most of my cookie, muffin, breads and have never had this much trouble. I’ve remade the batter 3 times and followed every step precisely as listed. I’ve had 1 ok tray and have had to pick the best looking from the rest and throw out the remainder.
Hi Megan! I’m so sorry you are having so much trouble! I’ve never had a problem with this recipe before. I will try and remake it and see if I can come up with better suggestions!
There is not a little girl or big girl for that matter that wouldn’t turn a year older for this beautiful cupcake collection.
Beautiful!! My daughter would love this! I must try this for her birthday! Thanks for sharing this and explaining each and every step very clearly.
My pleasure, Divya. Thanks for stopping by!
I wish my daughter was younger so I could make this for her. It’s so pretty. You did a beautiful job on the decorating.
Thank you Sherry!
This is so cute for a princess party 🙂
It really was an adorable cake Celia! The one, three, five and nine year old girls present all adored this cake! It tasted great, which the grown up liked and the cupcakes made easily handle-able single servings. Very easy clean up!
Each of those cupcakes is so beautifully frosted and together, they’re amazing!
This decorating looks complex, but it’s really very easy, Justine! I love how it turned out!
My little Princess Sophie would so love me to make this for her so I am glad I have this yummy post of yours to return to when I get the chance! So totally gorgeous!!!
Thank you Abigail. I know your little Sophie will love it!
What an absolutely gorgeous cupcake cake. Your piping skills are perfect!
Thank you Cindy!
This is stunning! Such talent! Maybe she will make this for my niece! hee hee
Oh my gosh this looks so sweet! Your cupcakes look scrumptious!
Thanks for this tutorial! It’s not as complicated when broken down into simple steps like this 🙂
Wow! So lovely! This is such a great idea for my granddaughter. I’ve booked marked this for next year’s birthdays. Simply gorgeous.