The Cutest Sheep Cupcakes for Easter

Aren’t these sheep cupcakes the cutest? I am telling you, these are definitely a show-stopper, for Easter, but probably also for a baby shower. You get a super delicious vanilla cupcake with Italian buttercream, which serves as the fur, yum! This is a simple and plain cupcake dressed up to be all fancy for Easter. I’d say, you are all set, aren’t you?

I’m not a fan of cakes covered in fondant. In my opinion you should be able to eat all parts of a cake. I find it weird that some people like to spend hours and hours on cutting out the tiniest details in fondant, take so much time to decorate the cake with it. What happens in the end? People just throw it away. I would be so upset if people threw away my labor and I don’t understand how anyone likes to eat this ultra sweet sugar paste. So when I saw these sweet sheep on the blog The Sweet Nerd, I loved the idea of making sheep cupcake, but using marzipan instead. Because, you know marzipan is so delicious and it is also just as easy to form the face and ears from.

The vanilla cupcake I used as the base is similar to my lavender cupcake I love. I just tweaked the recipe here and there. And then I was thinking about which buttercream to use. Unfortunately, I am not a huge fan of American buttercream. It is way too sweet for my taste. So I decided for Italian buttercream. I already used in in these homemade Oreos.

Of course it is entirely up to you which buttercream you are going to pipe on as fur. However, I would not recommend using whipping cream, that one is too soft. Any buttercream with butter as the main ingredients should be fine. And then of course you are also free to use fondant to create the face of the sheep, but as stated, I love marzipan and strongly believe you should be able to eat all parts of a cake or cupcake. For that reason this is why I chose this combination. Have fun making these and if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.

Print Recipe

The Cutest Sheep Cupcakes

Serves: 12 regular size cupcakes

Cooking Time: 45min preparation + 18min of baking

Ingredients

• Cupcakes
• 90 grams of butter at room temperature
• 70 grams of regular sugar
• 30 grams of honey
• 2 eggs, size L
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, see here how to make your own
• 120 grams/milliliters of milk
• 130 grams of all-purpose flour
• 60 grams of cornstarch
• 3/4 teaspoon of baking powder
• 
  
• Italian Buttercream
• 60 + 130 grams of regular sugar
• 60 grams of water
• 4 egg whites
• 320 grams of butter at room temperature
• 100 gr of Marzipan
• Black food coloring
• Pearls for the eyes

Instructions

1

For the cupcakes line 12 muffin tins with paper and preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

2

Beat butter with sugar for a few minutes until fluffy, add the honey, mix well again. Add eggs, one at a time and the vanilla extract.

3

Add remaining ingredients, only mix until combined. Pour into muffin tins and bake for about 15-18min or inserted toothpick comes out clean.

4

For the buttercream boil 60 grams of sugar with water for about five minutes. Be sure to keep it at rather medium-high temperature.

5

Meanwhile beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, gradually add 130 grams of sugar and beat on high until stiff peaks form. This usually takes in total about seven minutes.

6

While still beating the egg whites on high, add the created sugar sirup. Be careful while slowly adding the sirup to the egg whites. Continue beating until your bowl has room temperature again, this will at least take five more minutes. Once cool to the touch, add the butter slowly. I usually cut it up in small pieces and add one at a time. Don't be surprised if at some point the batter will look runny, this is normal, just continue beating until you have a smooth cream. Once I beat my cream for 15 minutes and it still looked curdled. Since it was relatively cold in my kitchen, I decided to slightly heat up the mix for just a few seconds and then it came together beautifully. If you have the opposite problem in summer and the butter has melted, stick in the fridge for ten minutes and beat again until you have a nice cream.

7

Pipe the cream onto the cupcakes to represent the fur. Then color the Marzipan with the black food coloring and from the face and ears from it (see pictures for visual). Either use pearls or other sprinkles for the eyes. Glue everything together with the buttercream. The sheep cupcakes are best served right away, but you can chill them for a few days.

PS: If you are looking for further inspiration for Easter, how about:

Simple sour cream cookies,  pavlova with lemon curd and blueberries and carrot cake cupcakes

Apple roses cake, double lemon cupcakes and strawberry shortcakes

Fruit pizza, blueberry muffins and strawberry rhubarb waffle cake

strawberry chocolate cake, meringue nests and strawberry pancakes