Sorting Hat Cupcakes
"...but where to put you?" Add some magic and Hogwarts house rivalry to your next Harry Potter movie night with these Sorting Hat Cupcakes!
Equipment
- 2 Cupcake pans (24 cups total)
- 1 large cookie scoop (optional; but this makes transferring batter much easier!)
- 4 piping bags, disposable (optional; but these make filling cupcakes easier)
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 1 cup butter (melted and cooled)
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 5 large eggs
- 1 T pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup milk - I used whole milk
- 1/2 cup sour cream
Sorting Hat Fillings & Frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese (one package; softened)
- 1 cup butter (two sticks, softened)
- 5 ½ -6 cups powdered sugar
- 2-4 Tablespoons milk
- 1 Teaspoon clear vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter)
- 1-2 drops each red, blue, yellow, and green gel food coloring (Save and add later! I used Americolor gel colors)
- 1 cup cocoa powder (Save and add later!)
Decorations
- 8 ounces chocolate fondant (or you can make chocolate marshmallow fondant)
- 24 dark chocolate Hershey’s kisses
Instructions
Cupcakes
- First – melt your unsalted butter and set aside to cool. This ensures it won’t be too warm and cook your eggs when you add it!
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F, and prepare 24 muffin tins with cupcake liners.
- In a large bowl combine the all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- In a medium bowl, whisk sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, milk and sour cream until well combined. Add the cooled melted butter and whisk again until well combined.
- Add flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Don’t overmix! The batter will be a bit lumpy and quite thick.
- Divide the batter evenly between the cupcake liners, filling them about 2/3 full. (I like to use a large cookie scoop for this part – makes the process a little cleaner and my cupcake sizes a lot more consistent!) Bake for 14-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. Cool completely before decorating.
- Meanwhile, make your fillings, frosting, and decorations!
Sorting Hat Fillings & Frosting
- Beat together softened cream cheese and butter; slowly add in powdered sugar alternating with milk until frosting reaches a pipeable consistency. Add vanilla and salt if needed and beat until well combined.
- Remove about ½ cup of frosting into each of 4 small bowls, and stir in red, yellow, blue, and green gel food coloring until desired color is reached. Gel food coloring is pretty strong, so it only took about 1-2 large drops to get the bright colors I wanted.
- Add cocoa powder to the remainder of frosting and mix until well combined, adding additional milk to maintain consistency.
Assembly:
- Once the cupcakes have cooled, core them. (You can use a cupcake corer, the back end of a large piping tip, or....you can do what I do and cut the cores out with a plastic knife. Up to you!)
- Fill cupcakes with colored fillings using a piping bag or a spoon - I made six of each color.
Decorating
- I used brown fondant to cover the cupcakes and make the 'brims' of the hats – fondant can be purchased, or it’s fairly easy to make your own! I like Amy’s Confectionary Adventures recipe.
- Whichever type of fondant you decide to use, soften it slightly in the microwave and then roll it out into a large sheet on a cutting board or clean countertop. Use a biscuit cutter or a large glass roughly the size of your cupcakes, and cut out 24 fondant circles. Place these over the tops of your cupcakes.
- Transfer the chocolate frosting into a large piping bag fitted with a large round tip. Pipe in large swirls onto your cupcakes and top each one with a chocolate kiss. Add Harry Potter cupcake toppers – to be completely honest, I thought they helped a *lot* to keep the cupcakes from looking just like the poop emoji ><
- Done and done! Enjoy!
Video
Nutrition
Serving: 1cupcakeCalories: 464kcalCarbohydrates: 63gProtein: 5gFat: 22g
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