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Any sport loving child (or adult) would love these moist chocolate Basketball Cupcakes. They are topped with a Swiss meringue buttercream, orange sprinkles, and licorice laces. If you ask me, these cupcakes are a major slam dunk!
These basketball cupcakes are easy to decorate and they taste delicious! This would be a great treat to make for a boys basketball themed birthday party, March Madness (practically a month-long celebrated holiday in our home), or any basketball themed event. (I mean honestly, they’re so stinking’ cute and they have that whole basketball textured look too, thanks to the orange nonpareil sprinkles).
Ingredients & Supplies Needed
Making these festive and cute cupcakes is easy, here are the basic ingredients you’ll need:
1 batch of cupcakes (12-15 count)- you can use any cupcake recipe you’d like… chocolate, vanilla! Heck, you could do strawberry, coconut, it’s up to you.
Orange sprinkles – I bought this kind on Amazon.
Frosting of some kind – I used Swiss meringue buttercream, which oh my gosh, it’s so so so good! Also you can keep the frosting out at room temperature for up to 2 days. Which means you can make these cupcakes in advance and they’ll still taste amazing after 2 days. (I would know, because I was eating these cupcakes several days after making them. I just want to note, if I hadn’t known they were 2-3 days old, I never would have guessed it). Could use chocolate buttercream if you’d like.
Licorice laces – these are used to make the basketball laces on the cupcakes.
A few notes about the licorice laces, I couldn’t find any black ones so I made my own. Instructions on how to do this are found below the “Ingredients and Supplies Needed” section.
DIY Black Basketball Candy Laces
In order to make my own diy black licorice laces all I did was take regular red licorice laces and dye them black.
Place 1/2 teaspoon of water and 1-2 drops of black food coloring GEL in a plastic cup or bowl. Mix the gel into the water.
Next, place your hand in a small ziplock bag or use a food safety glove. This is an important step because it prevents your hands from being completely covered in food coloring.
Place 5-6 licorice laces in the cup (or bowl) and use your ziploc-covered-hand to coat the laces in the food coloring.
Place the colored laces on a large piece of wax paper and let dry before using on the cupcakes.
How to make basketball cupcakes
Bake the cupcakes. Once baked, let them cool before frosting them.
Frost the cooled cupcakes with your frosting of choice. I used Swiss meringue buttercream.
Dip cupcake tops in orange sprinkles.
Arrange licorice laces to resemble a real basketball. Place 3 parallel to one another, with the outer two laces curved towards the edge. Place a fourth and final lace over the top of the cupcakes, lengthwise or perpendicular to the 3 laces. Gently press the laces into the frosting and sprinkles to adhere.
Tips & Tricks
Place the orange sprinkles in a small bowl rather than on a plate.
If you can find black licorice laces, great, it will save you time from having to dye the red licorice black.
Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes then use a knife or offset spatula to round off the frosting so that it’s smooth and has a slight dome look to it. Piping the frosting on ensured even amounts of frosting used on each dessert.
I really hope you love cupcakes as much as I do. Here are a few of my favorites. Be sure to check them out and make them!
Best German Chocolate Cupcakes
Red velvet cake
Hot Fudge Cake
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Basketball Cupcakes
Moist cupcakes are topped with Swiss meringue buttercream, orange sprinkles, and licorice laces. Any sport loving individual would think these cupcakes are a major slam dunk!
Prep Time: 35 mins
Cook Time: 15 mins
Assemble the cupcakes: 30 mins
Total Time: 1 hr 20 mins
Servings: 13 cupcakes
1/2 batch Swiss meringue buttercream recipe
orange sprinkles
black licorice laces - see notes for instructions on dying red licorice laces black.
Cupcakes
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup Dutch process cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg - at room temperature
1/2 cup buttermilk - at room temperature
1/2 cup hot water - or hot coffee
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
cupcake pan
small offset spatula
Cupcakes
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cupcake pan with liners and set aside. In bowl of an electric mixer whisk the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
In a large liquid measuring cup whisk the egg, buttermilk, hot water (or coffee), oil and vanilla.
Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula and mix for another 30 seconds.
Scoop (pour) the batter into the cupcake liners, the batter is very very thin, filling only halfway full, or up to 2/3 full but no more!
Bake for 13-16 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs.
Remove from the oven and allow cupcakes to cool in pan for 10 minutes. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
Assemble
Pipe an even amount of frosting onto each cupcake. Using a knife or offset spatula, spread the frosting into a nice roundish dome. .
Place the orange sprinkles in a small bowl.
Dip the frosting covered cupcakes in the sprinkles, rolling the top of the cupcake around to get full sprinkle coverage.
Cut 3 inch strands of black licorice laces. Place 3 parallel to one another, with the outer two laces curved towards the edge. Place a fourth and final lace over the top of the cupcakes, lengthwise or perpendicular to the 3 laces. Gently press the laces into the frosting and sprinkles to adhere.
Store cupcakes in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days.
Prep time doesn’t include the time it takes to make the Swiss meringue buttercream.
To make black licorice laces using red licorice:
Place 1/2 teaspoon of water and 1-2 drops of black food coloring GEL in a plastic cup or bowl. Mix the gel into the water.
Next, place your hand in a small ziplock bag (or use food safety gloves). This is an important step because it prevents your hands from being completely covered in food coloring.
Place 5-6 licorice laces in the cup (or bowl) and use your ziplock-bag-covered-hand to coat the laces in the food coloring.
Place the colored laces on a large piece of wax paper and let dry before using on the cupcakes.
Nutritional information is based on 1 serving and doesn’t include the frosting or licorice.
Did you make this recipe?Leave a star rating and review on the blog post letting me know how you liked this recipe! Take a picture and tag @saltandbaker on Instagram and Facebook so I can see what you’re making!
Today I’m going to show you how to make Basketball Cupcakes decorated with buttercream and a super cute basketball hoop cookie topper.
updated post from 2014
HOW TO MAKE BASKETBALL CUPCAKES
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Reese’s Mini Peanut Cups
Basketball Toppers for Cupcakes
Decorate Basketball Cupcakes with Buttercream
Assembly Basketball Hoop Cupcakes
REESES’S MINI PEANUT BUTTER CUPS
To make the hoops I used mini peanut butter cups. Round cups are a little tricky to attach to the cookies. And so before I glued them onto the iced cookies I used a micro zester to shave one side of the mini cup flat, a few strokes of the zester and you are done, (steps 1-5).
BASKETBALL TOPPER FOR A CUPCAKE
To make cute basketball hoop toppers I used mini square cookies on a stick decorated with royal icing a mini Reese’s Mini Peanut Butter Cups.
To make Basketball Hoop Cookie Toppers you need:
Mini Square Cookies on sticks – use 1. 25 to 1.5-inch square cookie cutter and 4-inch lollipop sticks, or you can use pliers and cup sticks from large bamboo sticks. If you haven’t made cookie pops before, follow my step-by-step instructions on How To Make Cookie Pops.
Royal Icing – white icing (15-second consistency) to flood the cookie and red icing (piping consistency) to make a red border and a frame inside
Reese’s Mini Peanut Butter Cups – use a zester to shave one side flat to make it fit better on the cookie.
First, flood the cookie with white icing (15 second consistency) and let the icing to dry for about 4-5 hours, (steps 1-4).
With red icing (piping consistency) pipe an outer outline, (steps 1-2). Pipe some red icing on the shaved side of Reese’s mini peanut butter cup and glue it just above the bottom red outline, (steps 3-5).
Now finish the basketball cupcake topper with a smaller square frame, pipe it just above Reese’s mini cup candy. Allow icing to set for a couple of hours before decorating the cupcakes, (steps 1-5).
You can prepare basketball hoop cookie toppers ahead of time. Store them in an airtight container.
DECORATE BASKETBALL CUPCAKES WITH BUTTERCREAM
Swiss Buttercream (recipe) – use black and orange-brown colored buttercream. Swiss Buttercream can be hard to color, be sure to follow my step-by-step directions on how to color swiss buttercream with concentrated gel food colors. Or instead, you can use oil-based food colors; those are a little easier to use with swiss buttercream.
Piping Tips: Star Tips #14 and #16
Cupcakes – use your favorite cupcake recipe. Try my delicious Chocolate Cupcake Recipe.
Bake the cupcakes and allow them to cool. Then, before you start piping basketball design with buttercream; create a guide on top of the cupcake using a toothpick. It’s really simple, gently scratch the surface of the cupcake with a toothpick (steps 1-3).
Start by decorating the basketball cupcake with black buttercream and a piping bag fitted with a star tip #14. First, pipe stars next to each other creating all of the lines, (steps 1-8).
Now take orange-brown buttercream and a piping bag fitted with a Star Tip #16 and pipe stars next to each other into each section between the black lines, (steps 1-8).
ASSEMBLE BASKETBALL HOOP CUPCAKES
To assemble these cute basketball cupcakes insert the decorated basketball hoop cookie pop into the cupcake.
TIP: If you are transporting these DIY Basketball Cupcakes, it’s best to decorate them with cookie pops on location.
Celebrating a win of your favorite basketball team just got a little sweeter. Use this cute and creative Basketball Cupcake idea for birthday parties, March Madness parties, and more.
MORE SPORT DESSERT IDEAS
How to Make Baseball Cookies
Soccer Ball Cookies [with a TEMPLATE]
Lil’ Quarterback 1st Birthday Cake
Football Cookies
Baseball Bat Cake (Philadelphia Phillies)
This post was originally published on March 18, 2014. On February 4th, 2021 I updated this post with new text, step-by-step photos, and a video.
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Place a fourth and final lace over the top of the cupcakes, lengthwise or perpendicular to the 3 laces. Gently press the laces into the frosting and sprinkles to adhere.
Line cupcake pan with liners and set aside. In bowl of an electric mixer whisk the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. 
. 
This is an important step because it prevents your hands from being completely covered in food coloring.
25 to 1.5-inch square cookie cutter and 4-inch lollipop sticks, or you can use pliers and cup sticks from large bamboo sticks. If you haven’t made cookie pops before, follow my step-by-step instructions on How To Make Cookie Pops.
First, pipe stars next to each other creating all of the lines, (steps 1-8).
On February 4th, 2021 I updated this post with new text, step-by-step photos, and a video.
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