7 Best Wedding Cupcakes + 3 Useful Tips

Diana Barkley (Senior Editor)

The traditional wedding cake has been a well-loved tradition for centuries. Wedding cupcakes can be just as stylish and show stopping as a wedding cake, and they come with a range of advantages. Find here the best wedding cupcakes and a tasty recipe.

For a start, wedding cupcakes tend to be more budget friendly than cake. It’s also much easier to cater to guests who have food intolerances or allergies — just have a few extra cupcakes for specific people.

Cupcakes are also a lot more manageable to make at home, and you can get really creative with your own designs. Convinced? Have a look at some of the best wedding cupcakes in this article.

What Wedding Cupcakes Are

What Wedding Cupcakes Are

Wedding cupcakes are essentially just cupcakes made to replace or complement a wedding cake. You may have a tiered stand set up with your cupcakes to look like a cake.

You could also have some cupcakes in a similar style to your cake set aside for guests with food intolerances or allergies.

Wedding cupcakes are more readily made at home as they’re easier to make and transport. You can also have a bit more fun with different flavors, making different kinds of sponge, varied fillings, and different kinds of buttercream.

You might even get creative with his and hers cupcakes with alternating cupcake toppers.

How Many Cupcakes You Should Bring for a Wedding

How Many Cupcakes You Should Bring for a Wedding

If you’re having standard-sized cupcakes, one per guest is appropriate. If you’re making mini cupcakes instead, two to three per guest is reasonable. Bear in mind that if you’d like to have a few extras aside to take home or gift to people, you’ll want to add them to the overall count.

Tasty Ingredients and Flavors in Wedding Cupcakes

There are some truly delicious cupcake flavors available today. From standard flavors such as vanilla and chocolate to extravagant ‘strawberry champagne’ or ‘peanut butter cup’, there’s no end to your creativity.

Some of our personal favorites include Vanilla, Red Velvet, Chocolate, Salted Caramel, Strawberry Champagne, Lemon, Peanut Butter Cup, Pumpkin Spice, Coffee Cake, Wildflowers and Matcha Tea

Best Wedding Cupcakes Ideas

Best Wedding Cupcakes Ideas

You can let your imagination run wild when it comes to wedding cupcake design ideas. If you need a bit of inspiration to get you started, below are our favorites. From pretty florals to unique ‘place cards’, we’re sure you’ll find something to add to your book of wedding ideas.

Elegant White Wedding Cupcakes

Elegant White Wedding Cupcakes

Not much beats a simple white wedding cupcake in terms of elegance and classiness. Start by baking our basic recipe below, lining your cupcake pans with white liners.

Once your cakes have cooled to room temperature, frost them with a pure white vanilla buttercream, taking care to add pretty, evenly-sized swirls. Top with just a sprinkling of white sprinkles.

Wedding Cake with Complementary Cupcakes

Wedding Cake with Complementary Cupcakes

One gorgeous new-ish trend is to have a wedding cake as well as cupcakes which complement it. Use a tiered stand for this, adding a small cake for just yourself and your husband or wife-to-be on the top tier.

Fill the other tiers with matching cupcakes that have been frosted with the same buttercream. This method is particularly effective if you’re catering to quite a few different dietary requirements.

Add different sprinkles or toppers to tell different types apart.

Rustic Herbal Wildflower Wedding Cupcakes

Rustic Herbal Wildflower Wedding Cupcakes

Rustic herbal or wildflower wedding cupcakes are very on trend. They’re at once whimsical yet elegant, and can easily be achieved at home. Simply whip up our basic recipe below.

While your cupcakes are cooling, make a few batches of buttercream, adding different floral essences (for example rose, lavender, and orange flower) as well as a few drops of food dye to each.

Frost the cupcakes with alternating buttercreams, topping each kind with a different edible flower. Decorate the cake stand with sprigs of herbs and more edible flowers.

Cupcake Roses for Your Wedding

Cupcake Roses for Your Wedding

Cupcake roses look a bit retro and oh so sweet. They’re great when made using our basic recipe below, but even better if you add a few drops of rose water to the batter as well as the buttercream.

Use a petal pipe nozzle (it looks slightly flattened) to pipe the roses on top of your cooled cupcakes. You can use any color, but matching your other wedding florals in color looks particularly pretty.

Serve as they are or add a few sugar pearls for extra sparkle.

Mr. and Mrs. Wedding Cupcakes

Mr. and Mrs. Wedding Cupcakes

These are incredibly easy to replicate, and you can really have fun with them. You’ll want to buy alternating Mr. and Mrs. cake toppers as well as black and white cupcake liners.

Fill alternating cupcake pans with each color liner and use to bake your favorite recipe. We like adding different flavorings to the ‘his’ and ‘hers’ cakes, for example rum flavoring and rose.

Get creative and add any flavors you really like or that represent you well as a couple. Frost the baked and cooled cupcakes with your choice(s) of buttercream(s) and top with the cake toppers. These are great for an engagement party, too.

'Place Card' Favor Wedding Cupcakes

'Place Card' Favor Wedding Cupcakes

You can use these as a placecard, a favor, or both. The idea is to add names to bespoke cake toppers, then put these on top of your beautiful cupcakes.

This is a great little trick if you have any guests with food intolerances too, as you’ll know just which cake each person is getting.

We recommend using a basic recipe such as ours below to start with, then playing with adding different flavors. You can add food dye to your favorite buttercream recipe to make them match your wedding colors, too.

Wedding Colors Cupcakes

Wedding Colors Cupcakes

On that note, wedding color cupcakes are always a hit. Play with flavors you like that might also suit your big day’s color palette. Matcha tea makes for a great-flavored cupcake and a beautiful shade of green.

Rosewater and a bit of pink food dye is beautiful for a pink-hued wedding.

Simple Recipe for Easy Wedding Cupcakes: A Guide

Simple Recipe for Easy Wedding Cupcakes: A Guide

The best wedding cupcakes are moist, fluffy, and baked to perfection. Once you’ve mastered the ideal recipe, the world is your oyster when it comes to decorations.

Our recipe is simple but will turn out the most delectable cupcakes for your wedding. You can even make separate batches for anyone with food intolerances.

Just swap the all-purpose flour for a gluten free variety, the eggs for aquafaba or yogurt, and the buttermilk for a vegan alternative.

You may also use coconut sugar or a fruit extract of your choice if you’re wanting an option with no refined sugar.

Ingredients for 24 cupcakes:

• 2 ½ cups of all-purpose flour
• 2 ½ tsps of baking powder
• 1 cup of salted butter (at room temperature)
• 1 ½ cups of sugar (or coconut sugar)
• 4 large eggs (at room temperature)
• 4 tsps of vanilla extract
• 1 cup of buttermilk (at room temperature)

And here’s how you do it:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F and prep two cupcake pans with liners.
2. Mix the dry ingredients together in one bowl, including the flour and baking powder.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the butter and sugar until fluffy and pale in color.
4. Add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until fully combined.
5. Mix everything together, gradually adding in the buttermilk as well. Take care not to over-whisk the batter.
6. Divide the batter into the prepared cupcake tins, filling each liner to about ⅔ to allow for them to rise.
7. Bake the cupcakes for 20-23 minutes until fluffy and lightly browned. Top tip: insert a toothpick into the sponge and if it comes out clean, your cakes are done.

Let your cupcakes cool, then frost and decorate them per one of our beautiful design ideas above.

Simple Wedding Cupcake Designs and Decoration Ideas

Simple Wedding Cupcake Designs and Decoration Ideas

If you’ve ever looked at the ‘Pinterest-worthy’ cupcakes, you’ll probably have found that many are simple yet executed perfectly. This is exactly the strategy you should have for yours.

If you bake your cupcakes according to recipe (our basic one above works well) and use good-quality ingredients, you’re half-way there.

Take the time to really prepare your ingredients before baking, making sure everything is at the temperature it needs to be. Allow your cupcakes to fully cool once baked before frosting.

This ensures that your buttercream won’t melt or run. Ideally, practice piping the buttercream beforehand, so you’ll have perfect swirls of delicious frosting on each cupcake.

Finally, less is more when it comes to decorations: well-flavored frosting decorated with a few simple sprinkles or a cute bespoke cake topper is more than enough.

Tips and Ideas on How to Make Wedding Cupcakes Yourself

Tips and Ideas on How to Make Wedding Cupcakes Yourself

If the idea of making your wedding cupcakes at home intimidates you, it really doesn’t need to. Below are our top tips for making baking your own wedding treats a relaxing and fun experience that’ll yield great results, too.

Take Your Time and Follow the Recipe

It’s been said time and time again: take your time and make sure you understand the recipe. It’s tempting to rush baking, but you’ll likely not end up with quite the results you were hoping for.

Setting aside time to really read the recipe you’re using, trial it, and then bake it for your big day will ultimately yield better cupcakes. You’ll also find that you enjoy the process a lot more.

Wedding planning usually adds some stress to peoples’ lives, so making the baking process relaxing and fun is the least you can do.

Use a Complementary Color Scheme

Use a Complementary Color Scheme

If design and decoration aren’t your forte, the best way to get nice looking results is to stick with your color scheme.

You might go for the same colors as you’re already using elsewhere in your wedding (look at your stationery, flowers, and any bridesmaid dresses for inspiration), use contrasting colors, or use different shades within your color scheme.

Bear in mind that paler hues are usually more forgiving when it comes to buttercream and frosting.

Use the Best Ingredients You Can Afford

Use the Best Ingredients You Can Afford

It goes without saying that a pretty cupcake which tastes bad is worse than an ugly cupcake that tastes lovely. Ideally you’ll of course wind up with both, but you certainly have control of the flavors.

Use the best vanilla extract you can afford, as well as high quality chocolate, and any other ingredients on your list. Fresh, good quality ingredients that shine through will always be appreciated by guests.

Keep Decorations Simple and Refined

Keep Decorations Simple and Refined

You don’t need to add tons of glitter and florals to your cupcakes (unless you want to.) Simple cake toppers on top of well-piped buttercream are more than enough.

Go bespoke by having cake toppers with your new last names printed in advance or opt for ones that complement your wedding theme. The simplest decorations are frequently the best.

Cutting back on one less thing to do for your big day (elaborate cupcake decorations) will ultimately only make you enjoy the process more and relieve some stress.

Captions and Phrases You Can Write On Wedding Cupcakes

Captions and Phrases You Can Write On Wedding Cupcakes

Finding the right words to perfectly caption your wedding cupcakes on social media — or even add to the cakes themselves — can be tricky.

Fortunately, we’ve compiled some of the very best quotes and phrases you can use. Add these as they are or modify them to suit your cupcakes:

• "What makes life so sweet? Cupcakes to eat and marrying the one you love."
• "All you need is love & cupcakes"
• "Love, marriage & sweet, sweet cupcakes"
• "Mr. & Mrs."
• "Just Married"
• "Forever & Always"
• "Yay!"

Find here more charming wedding wishes.

Alternatives to Wedding Cupcakes

Alternatives to Wedding Cupcakes

You might still be in the early stages of planning and are wondering what else you could make besides cake and cupcakes. Or you’re having a full baked goodie table and need inspo on all the sweet stuff. Below are our top three alternatives.

Wedding Cookies

Wedding Cookies

Wedding cookies are great fun. In Western Pennsylvania, cookie tables are an actual thing that is expected at weddings.

Couples serve a variety of (frequently homebaked) cookies to their guests, which they can sample and enjoy at their leisure.

Wedding cookies also make great edible favors that guests will love. Cookies are a fantastic alternative to cupcakes and even cake, particularly if you’d like to showcase what baked goods taste like from different parts of the world.

Wedding Macarons

Wedding Macarons

Macarons are delectable little French morsels of perfection. Whether you make them yourself (good on you if you know how to) or buy them stacked perfectly on a tiered stand, macarons will always go down a treat.

Macarons are particularly lovely for when you’re wanting to showcase wedding colors, as they take well to being baked in different hues. You can also have tons of fun with different fillings, so guests will get to taste all kinds of flavors.

Wedding Profiteroles

Wedding Profiteroles

Profiteroles are great. Croquembouche ‘cakes’ are even better. Classic French croquembouches are essentially towers of profiteroles held together by spun caramel.

They make for a beautiful alternative to both wedding cupcakes and wedding cakes, as they’re a kind of perfect mix between the two. They’re also particularly impressive, since they almost appear to defy gravity in their construction.

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