Good news! We have easy Wicked cupcakes for you! These beautiful Wicked cupcakes are inspired by Elphaba and Glinda (or Galinda!) These Wicked cupcakes are made using a simple vanilla and chocolate cupcake recipes that use the same vanilla buttercream recipe, decorated to perfection!
It is safe to say that Wicked has taken over the world at this point and these Wicked themed cupcakes would be perfect to make with friends, kids, or for your Wicked gatherings and parties - so festivating!
Check out these other fun cupcake recipes if you're feeling inspired for more cupcake baking!
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Ingredients for Wicked Cupcakes
All the ingredients needed to make these cupcakes are listed below. The best part about this recipe is it makes exactly 12 cupcakes total - 6 Elphaba cupcakes and 6 Glinda cupcakes! The perfect dozen if you ask me!
Vanilla Glinda Cupcakes
- all purpose flour
- baking powder
- salt
- sour cream
- whole milk
- large egg
- unsalted butter
- vegetable or canola oil
- vanilla extract
- pink/gold/silver edible glitter
- star confetti sprinkles
Chocolate Elphaba Cupcakes
- unsweetened natural cocoa powder
- all purpose flour
- baking soda
- salt
- vegetable or canola oil
- coffee or water
- sugar
- large egg
- vanilla extract
- mint Oreos
- mini waffle cones (I used the Target brand favorite day mini dark chocolate waffle cones, but you could also use any brand like these mini cones on Amazon).
- Ghirardelli dark chocolate melting wafers
- green edible glitter (Fancy Sprinkles or The Sugar Art make great edible glitters!)
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- unsalted butter
- powedered sugar
- vanilla extract
- heavy whipping cream
- salt
- gel food coloring (Americolor Electric Green and Electric Pink is pictured)
- pink, gold, or silver edible glitter (optional)
- star sprinkles (optional)
How to Make Wicked Cupcakes
Making these Wicked cupcakes is not as confusifying as you may think! Start by preheating the oven and prepping a 12 count cupcake pan with liners. I used pink liners for Glinda cupcakes and some green and black striped cupcake liners I had for the Elphaba cupcakes. I found these pink and green cupcake liners on Amazon after I made these Wicked cupcakes and wish I had them when I made these cupcakes!
Vanilla Cupcakes: To make the vanilla cupcakes, whisk the sour cream and milk together, set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt, then set aside. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to cream together the butter, sugar, and oil. Add in the egg and then the vanilla extract, mixing until combined. Add in half of the flour mixture and then the milk and sour cream, then the remaining dry ingredients. Avoid overmixing. Fill 6 cupcake liners ¾ of the way full and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 18 minutes.
Chocolate Cupcakes: To make the chocolate cupcakes, whisk the all purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together and set aside. In another bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar, egg, and vanilla. Add in half of the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, then add in the warm coffee (or room temperature water), and finally the rest of the flour mixture. Mixing only until combined and avoiding overmixing. Fill 6 cupcake liners ⅔-3/4 of the way full and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 18 minutes.
While the cupcakes are baking, make the vanilla american buttercream frosting. Note that the cupcakes will need to cool completely before frosting and decorating them.
How to Make American Buttercream Frosting
To make this simple vanilla buttercream frosting, you only need a handful of ingredients and it comes together really quickly. It pipes and spreads beautifully and is the perfect sweet compliment to these chocolate and vanilla cupcakes!
We start by using an electric mixer to cream the unsalted room temperature butter until it is light and fluffy. Then add in half of the powdered sugar mixing until combined. Add in the vanilla extract. Then add in the remaining powdered sugar and finally finish with the heavy whipping cream.
Note: Use more milk or heavy whipping cream one tablespoon at a time to reach the desired piping consistency. The temperature of your kitchen and the butter will determine how much milk you'll need. In the summer, I usually do not need to add much heavy cream, if any at all. In the winter when my kitchen is colder, I usually need more liquid added to help smooth the buttercream.
Split the buttercream frosting in half. Dye one half pink and the other half green. Fit one piping bag with a piping tip of your choosing, then fill with the pink buttercream. Fill the other piping bag fitted with a piping tip with the green buttercream. I prefer using a 16" piping bag so that you can fit all of the buttercream in it and properly hold it with the best control.
I get into a lot more details on American buttercream frosting in my Vanilla Buttercream Frosting recipe, so be sure to check this recipe post out too if you have more questions or want to learn more about this versatile frosting!
How to Make Elphaba Cupcakes
First start by piping green buttercream in a swirl on top of the chocolate cupcakes. I like to use a large open star piping tip to create the swirl effect below. I start towards the outside edge of the cupcake, apply pressure to the piping bag, and swirl in a counter clockwise motion in a circle and piping a second smaller ring on the inside of the first piped outer ring.
Next is to make Elphaba's hat. These little gravity defying hats are super easy to make and they taste good! By using mini chocolate filled waffle cones and oreos, you can create the most scandalacious witch hat for these Elphaba cupcakes.
Start by melting the dark chocolate wafers per the package instructions. I think the Ghirardelli tastes the best, but you can use any brand of chocolate melting wafers for these mini dessert hats.
Dunk the top side of an oreo into the melted chocolate, then set aside. Quickly dunk a mini waffle cone into the melted chocolate, using a fork to move it around coating the mini waffle cone evenly in the melted chocolate. Gently pick up the chocolate covered waffle cone and place it on top of the oreo. Allow the chocolate to dry and harden.
Once the oreo waffle cone witch hats are dry, place them on top of the green buttercream swirls on each cupcake. For the magic finishing touch, sprinkle green edible glitter over the tops of the cupcakes.
How to Make Glinda Cupcakes
Making Glinda themed cupcakes is easy and fun. What better way to Galindify something than to add frilly swirls, pink, sprinkles, and glitter!
Fill your piping bag fitted with any medium sized piping tip you'd like with pink buttercream frosting. I like to use either a Wilton 2D piping tip or a Wilton 1M piping tip to create the perfect light and fluffy swirl of buttercream which resembles Glinda's pink frilly poofy dress!
Optionally, to really Galindify these cupcakes add edible gold glitter on top and white confetti start sprinkles - or any sprinkles of your choosing that reflect Glinda's character.
Top Tips for Making Wicked Cupcakes
- Bake cupcakes until domed on top with no indent in the center and a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let cupcakes cool COMPLETELY before decorating. This is essential because buttercream frosting is temperature sensitive becaues it is made with so much butter. If the cupcakes are even the slightest bit warm when you begin decorating, the frosting stability will be impacted.
- Fill cupcake liners only ⅔ - ¾ of the way full. Overfilling the liners can cause the cupcakes to have a crispy rim and actually become flat - which is the opposite of what we want!
- Lastly, take your time and have fun! Enjoy the process of making these cupcakes Galindified! They really are not that confusifying!
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Wicked Cupcakes (Elphaba & Glinda)
Equipment
- 12 cup cupcake pan
- electric mixer hand mixer or stand mixer
- whisks and silicone spatulas
- 12 cupcake liners
- Wilton 2D and 1M piping tips or any medium sized open or closed star piping tips
- pink and green gel food dye coloring
Ingredients
Vanilla Cupcakes
- ¾ cup all purpose flour
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter (¼ cup (half a stick) softened, room temperature)
- 1 Tablespoon vegetable or canola oil
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- ¼ cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate Cupcakes
- ½ cup + 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
- ¼ cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup vegetable or canola oil
- 1 large egg
- 6 Tablespoons coffee or water (coffee brings out the best chocolate flavor, warmed but not hot)
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- 1½ cups unsalted butter (3 sticks, softened, room temperature)
- 5 cups powdered sugar
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons heavy whipping cream (use less if buttercream is smooth and a good piping consistency, use a little more if buttercream is too thick)
- pinch of salt
Decorating
- green, gold, pink, or silver edible glitter (SugarArt Diamondust and Fancy Sprinkles edible glitter work great!)
- white star confetti sprinkles (optional)
- 1 cup Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Melting Wafers
- 6 mint oreos
- 6 mini chocolate filled waffle cones
- pink and green gel food dye coloring
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 ℉ and prep a 12 cup cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
Vanilla Cupcakes
- To make the vanilla cupcakes, whisk the sour cream and milk together in a liquid measuring cup and set aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt, then set aside.
- In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to cream together the butter, sugar, and oil until light and fluffy.
- Mix in the egg and vanilla extract, mixing until combined.
- Add in half of the flour mixture, mixing until just combined, then add in the milk and sour cream mixture mixing until uniform. Then mix in the remaining dry ingredients. Avoid overmixing.
- Fill 6 cupcake liners ¾ of the way full. Proceed to making the chocolate cupcake batter to fill the additional liners before baking.
Chocolate Cupcakes
- To make the chocolate cupcakes, whisk the all purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl and set aside.
- In another bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar, egg, and vanilla.
- Add in half of the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, then add in the warm coffee (or room temp water), and finally the rest of the flour mixture. Mixing only until combined and avoiding overmixing.
- Fill the remaining 6 cupcake liners ⅔-3/4 of the way full with the chocolate cupcake batter. Bake the 12 cupcakes at 350℉ for 18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- Using an electric mixer fitted with a beater blade(s), whip up the softened room temperature butter for a few minutes until it becomes light and fluffy. Add in half of the powdered sugar and mix until combined.
- Add in the vanilla extract and heavy whipping cream, mixing until combined. Add in the remaining powdered sugar mixing for a few minutes until uniform.
- Divide the buttercream in half and place it in two separate bowls. Add a few drops of pink food coloring to one bowl and mix until the frosting is completely pink. Add a few green food coloring drops to another bowl and mix until the frosting is completely green.
- Fit two 16" piping bags with open or closed star piping tips. Wilton 1M and 2D work great for this.
- Fill one piping bag with the green frosting and the other piping bag with the pink frosting.
Decorating Elphaba Cupcakes
- Allow the cupcakes to cool COMPLETELY before decorating. Super important!
- First start by piping green buttercream in a swirl on top of the chocolate cupcakes. Start towards the outside edge of the cupcake, apply pressure to the piping bag, and swirl in a counter clockwise motion in a circle, piping a second smaller ring on the inside of the first piped outer ring.
- To create the Elphaba hat: Melt the dark chocolate melting wafers per package instructions. Dunk the top side of an oreo into the melted chocolate, then set aside. Quickly dunk a mini waffle cone into the melted chocolate, using a fork to move it around coating the mini waffle cone evenly. Gently pick up the chocolate covered waffle cone and place the round side on top of the chocolate dipped oreo. Allow the chocolate to dry and harden. Repeat to create 6 hats.
- Once the hats have set, place one on top of each green cupcake. Sprinkle edible green glitter over top for a finishing touch!
Decorating Glinda Cupcakes
- Allow the cupcakes to cool COMPLETELY before decorating. Super important!
- Pipe a fluffy tall swirl on top of the vanilla cupcakes by holding the pink buttercream piping bag vertical to the cupcake. While applying even pressure circling the piping tip around the cupcake in a counterclockwise motion starting towards the outside rim of the cupcake working your way inwards and upwards. I usually circle around 3 times and each time the buttercream circle gets smaller so that you have a swirl that resembles a soft serve ice cream.
- To Galindify the cupcakes even more, add star confetti sprinkles and edible pink/gold/silver glitter!
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