Taking a break from the healthy recipes to show you a really fun dessert I made this week! A friend asked if I could replicate some desserts I did for her daughter’s birthday a few years ago. This little girl loves pandas, and wanted something similar to what she had in the past. These sprinkle cupcakes topped with panda sugar cookies were SO fun to make! I don’t mention it much these days, but I used to have a custom baking business. I made sweet treats, such as these, for local birthday parties, weddings, and other celebrations. Making these panda cookie sprinkle cupcakes was a nice was to do some of that again. 🙂 And I mean, how can you not be happy while you’re making such cute treats?!
I wanted to share the resources and recipes I used to create these, along with some tips and tricks I’ve learned along the way.
Cupcake and Buttercream Recipes
(for the buttercream, add 1 extra stick of butter)
| Prep Time | 20 minutes |
| Cook Time | 10-15 minutes |
| Servings |
cupcakes
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Ingredients
- 2 cup sugar
- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (Ghirardelli is preferred)
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup boiling water
Ingredients
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Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees. Add cupcake liners to 2, 12-count muffin pans. If you're making a cake, use 3 9" round cake pans. Grease and flour the pans, and line the bottom with parchment paper circles.
- Sift the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together into a bowl of a stand mixer.
- In another bowl (I use a large glass measuring cup), whisk the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, and oil together.
- Using a stand mixer if possible, mix the dry ingredients, then slowly add the wet ingredients. Once incorporated, mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. While the mixer is going, heat the water to boiling. (I use another glass measuring cup and heat the water in the microwave).
- Slowly add the boiling water to the batter. Mix it completely, very carefully. The batter will be runny.
- Fill cupcake liners just over 1/2 full. Place in the oven, then reduce the temperature slightly. (I turn mine down to 325 degrees, but it gets hotter than most. 340 degrees is great). Bake for 10-12 minutes, then check. If your oven does not cook evenly, rotate the pans. Continue cooking until a cake tester comes out clean. They typically take around 15-18 minutes total.
- Allow cupcakes to cool in the pan for no longer than 5 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack and let cool completely. Frost with Vanilla Cream Cheese Buttercream
Recipe Notes
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Buttercream is far better with the addition of cream cheese! This is the basic recipe that I use for every cake or cupcake. Flavorings and extracts can be added to change it up a bit. This can be made ahead and refrigerated for up to one week! Allow it to soften before icing a cupcake or cake.
| Prep Time | 20 minutes |
| Servings |
cupcakes
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Ingredients
- 8 oz cream cheese softened
- 2 sticks unsalted butter softened
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 lbs confectioners sugar (powdered sugar)
- 3 Tbsp heavy cream cold
Ingredients
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Instructions
- Sift confectioner's sugar into a large bowl and set aside. Make sure the cream cheese and butter are properly softened.
- In a stand mixer (or with an electric handheld mixer), beat the cream cheese. Then add the butter, and mix on medium speed until incorporated and has a whipped appearance.
- Mix in the salt and vanilla.
- Gradually add the confectioner's sugar, and beat on medium speed until well incorporated and starts to be fluffy.
- Add the heavy cream, one tablespoon at a time. Beat until lighter, very fluffy, and smooth.
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Sprinkle Topping
- I posted a video on my instagram story and saved it in my “Desserts” highlight so you can see it there! But you’ll need to pipe the buttercream on (make sure it is slightly chilled) using a 1A piping tip. I use these bags when I decorate cupcakes.
- Place some of these dot sprinkles in a shallow bowl or small plate. Once the buttercream is piped onto the cupcake (and don’t be skimpy with the frosting!), gently roll them around in the sprinkles to evenly coat the buttercream. They ended up turning out SO cute and festive! I’m kind of obsessed with those dot sprinkles.
- Keep a little bit of the extra buttercream.
- Because of the cream cheese in the frosting, keep these refrigerated if you make them ahead of time.
- I made the cupcakes the night before the party.
- The day of the party, I spread just a little bit of the buttercream on the back of each cookie, then place the cookies on top of the cupcakes. The buttercream acts as a glue to attach the cookie. This step is unnecessary if you make the cupcakes the day of the event.
I’ve listed the steps and resources below for how to make and decorate the sugar cookies.
How to make the panda sugar cookies
- First, you’ll need a cookie cutter. Finding a bear face is tricky, but I found a couple options: one | two. All you need is the outline of the head, not the little face outline that comes with the first option.
- To make the sugar cookies, use Sweet Sugarbelle’s recipe, and be sure to only roll the dough out to 1/4″ thin. I used to roll my cookies too thin, but this thickness is better.
- Make sure to follow her instructions for chilling the dough. I made my dough on a Saturday night, rolled it out, chilled it (covered), then baked the cookies the next day.
- To make the royal icing, I used Sweet Sugarbelle’s recipe. She also has recipes and videos for all of the types of royal icing.
- For piping icing, it needs to not be too stiff, but not runny at all. The 20 second icing is a little more runny, but it will set in place. The fill icing is slightly runnier than the 20 second icing.
- I did A LOT of reading when I was first learning how to decorate sugar cookies.
- I used this tutorial from Sweet Sugarbelle about how to ice the panda cookies.
- Do yourself a favor and buy these squirt bottles, which are also by Sweet Sugarbelle. They are honestly so helpful and MUCH easier to use than piping bags for cookies.
- I did the white outline and the snout/nose area the same day that I baked the cookies, but you could also wait until the next day.
- Then once the white outline and snout have fully dried, I did the black eye area around the eyes and the ears.
- Later that day I finished it with the details and filling in the white.
- I drew the mouth on with one of these cake decorating markers.
- Decorated cookies stay fresh for much longer than other types of cookies, so give yourself plenty of time to make these.
- Store finished cookies in a sealed container, like a tupperware container, not refrigerated. I do not stack my cookies on top of each other if I can help it.
- This seems like a sponsored post, but I promise it is not. I have just learned a lot from her blog.
You just can’t go wrong with sprinkles. 😉 If you do make any of these, I would LOVE to know about it! Send me a picture on instagram! Or if you post a picture, tag me so that I can see it.
You are beyond talented!! These are almost too cute to eat!