If you’ve got a Fin-tastic mermaid themed party coming up, these mermaid cupcakes are absolutely magical. With edible chocolate candy mermaid cupcake toppers and colorful layered cake batter, they are a dream come true for any mermaid obsessed party host or guest.
The good news is you can make them pretty easily with just a few simple tools (like a mermaid tail candy mold) and follow my step by step photos for advice on how to make them at home.
Want more mermaid recipes? Check out these Mermaid Rice Krispy Treats, beautiful Mermaid Cake, super easy Chocolate Covered Mermaid Pretzel Rods, and this simple chocolate Mermaid Bark!
How To Make Mermaid Cupcakes
Make Chocolate Mermaid Tails
Melt Chocolate
First, melt your pink chocolate candy melts. You can use a double boiler or a microwave-safe bowl according to the instructions on your candy melts.
I melted mine in the microwave by changing the settings to 50% power and stirring every 20 seconds to see if it was done.
If you overheat your candy melts they may burn and turn hard. If this happens, throw them out and start with a fresh bowl then use a shorter amount of time and lower setting on your microwave.
Pipe Chocolate Into Mermaid Tail Mold
Optional step: Use edible purple luster dust to line your mermaid mold with sparkly powder. It will give your chocolate mermaid tails an extra shimmer and dual-tone color. You can do this before putting chocolate in the mold.
Pipe melted candy into your mermaid tail mold with a plastic bag or piping bag. Cut a small hole at the tip of your bag once it’s loaded with chocolate so you can control how much comes out at a time.
Use a toothpick to help spread the chocolate into every corner of the mold. I made the chocolate quite thick on the backside of my candy mold to reduce the chance that it would break as I took it out.
Cool And De-mold Mermaid Tails
Let your chocolate mermaid tails cool completely to room temperature. The smallest point of your chocolate mermaid tails will be the most prone to breaking.
I made my second batch of chocolates quite thick on this pinch point and none of them broke the second time around. It might look a bit lumpier, but it’s more sturdy and the ‘raw’ side will be unseen and buried in frosting so it won’t matter.
Bake Mermaid Cupcakes
Use vanilla cake mix or your favorite vanilla cake recipe for Mermaid Cupcakes. In a large mixing bowl, mix together 3 eggs, ½ a cup of vegetable oil and one cup of water with one box of cake mix (or your dry ingredients) in a bowl. Fill your cupcake baking tin with cupcake liners.
Separate the vanilla cake batter into two even halves. I used two medium sized plastic bags. Add pink food coloring into one bag of cake batter; this should give you a bright pink color. Add blue food coloring to the second bag of vanilla cake batter; this should give you a bright blue color.
Use a spoon to stir the batter inside the bag until the color is completely mixed.
Alternate putting the pink and blue cake batter into the cupcake liners until they are each about ¾ full. The more small squeezes of batter you do, the more stripes you’ll see on the inside of your cupcakes. The pink and blue batter will also form purple inside the cake.
Bake your cupcakes for 16-20 minutes at 350 Fahrenheit, depending on your cake mix instructions and oven. Cook them until the tops spring back when lightly touched. Take your cupcakes out of the cupcake pan and allow them to completely cool on a wire rack to room temperature before you start decorating them. Cold cupcakes are much easier to decorate! Try popping your cupcakes in the fridge for 10 minutes before frosting them.
Make Mermaid Frosting
Make your vanilla buttercream frosting with 1 cup of unsalted butter and about 4.5 cups of icing sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla extract and 2 tsp of cream or whole milk. Mix the ingredients in a large bowl with a hand mixer or stand mixer until they are completely blended and no sugar crystals remain.
Separate your white frosting into two bowls. In one bowl, add a drop of pink food coloring and half a drop of blue; this should give you a light purple frosting color. In the other bowl of white frosting add half a drop of blue food coloring, you can always add more but start small and see if you like the shade of blue first.
Use your spoon or cake spatula to scoop your mermaid frosting into piping bags. Cut the tip of your piping bag off and put your metal piping tip inside then add your frosting.
For the light purple frosting, use a large open star tip like a Wilton brand #1M tip. For the blue icing, you can use a large round tip or a different open star tip like Wilton brand #8B tip.
Decorate Mermaid Cupcakes
Use your piping bag full of blue frosting and pipe a border of blue around the top edge of the cupcake. Use a tray or plate of sanding sugar or blue sprinkles and gently roll your blue frosting in it. You don’t have to use blue sanding sugar but it has a really pretty sea-glass look and ocean vibe.
Next, use your purple frosting inside the blue perimeter to make a large frosting swirl on top of your cupcake. Put your cupcake in a large baking tray to catch the sprinkles that fall off and then sprinkle your mermaid-themed sprinkles on the purple frosting.
Lastly, place your chocolate mermaid tail on top of your cupcake. If you want your mermaid tails to stand straight up, I recommend placing them on top once they’ve arrived at their party destination because they are going to be too tall to transport. You can also place your mermaid tails flatter on your cupcake like I did to give them more support from the rest of the cupcake and icing.
Mermaid Cupcakes Troubleshooting
- Chocolate mermaid tails keep breaking
- If you’re having trouble getting your cooled chocolate mermaid tails out of their mold, try pulling the silicone away from the chocolate first and moving slowly when popping them out of their mold.
- If your tails are always breaking at the same point, try making your chocolate thicker at that point of the mold. It may make the back of your chocolate a bit more lumpy but no one will see it.
- How do you make chocolate mermaid tails two-tone?
- I used edible luster dust to give my pink candy melts a purple tone.
- Put a layer of luster dust into your candy mold. Spread it around with a clean paint brush or tiny bit of paper towel. Then add your melted chocolate.
- How do you make your mermaid cupcakes two-tone?
- Use two different colors of cake batter and alternate them as you put it in your cupcake liners.
- You can leave it striped just by making different color layers, or try using a tooth pick to make one swirl through your cupcake batter before baking them to mix the colors up a bit more.
- I can’t find mermaid themed sprinkles
- You can make your own mix of sprinkles at home if you can’t find pre-packaged mermaid sprinkles. Use a combination of sprinkle colors like blue sanding sugar, small gold sugar balls, blue and purple jimmies, and teal colored sprinkles for a nice underwater vibe.
- Check your local craft store in the baking section. You can also check Etsy and Amazon for mermaid-themed sprinkles if you have the time to order them.
Mermaid Cupcakes FAQ’s
- How long do mermaid cupcakes stay good for?
- You can store your finished mermaid cupcakes at room temperature in an airtight container for 24-48 hours. They are best when fresh.
- Which steps can I prep in advance?
- You can make your chocolate mermaid tails up to a week before your event. Store them in an airtight container in a cool spot and they will still be fresh for decorating.
- You can make your mermaid cupcakes in advance and then freeze them in an extra-large plastic bag for up to a week before your mermaid party. When you’re ready to decorate, you can either thaw them out or decorate frozen cupcakes (either is fine as long as they have time to thaw before they’re eaten).
- What can I do with extra melted chocolate candy melts?
- If you melted too many candy melts and don’t want them to go to waste, spread it out on some parchment paper and add mermaid sprinkles on top. Check out my recipe for Mermaid Bark and add it to your dessert table!
Mermaid Cupcakes Ingredients & Materials
- Ingredients
- One box white cake mix
- Three eggs
- ½ cup oil
- One cup water
- 1 cup Butter
- 4 cups Icing sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 2 tsp Heavy cream or milk
- Pink food coloring
- Blue food coloring
- Pink chocolate candy melts
- Purple edible luster dust (optional)
- Blue sanding sugar or sprinkles
- Mermaid sprinkles
- Materials
- Bowls
- Spoons
- Piping bags
- Open star piping tip
- Spatula
- Baking tray
- Cupcake pans
- Cupcake liners
- Electric hand mixer or stand mixer
Final Thoughts on Easy Mermaid Cupcakes
These mermaid birthday cupcakes are perfect for an underwater birthday party or little mermaid themed party. They’re totally fintastic treats that your party guests are going to be blown away by.
You can make them more simple by using white cake batter or making your cake batter a single color like pink, purple, or teal. You can also skip the luster dust and your mermaid tails will be one nice solid color instead of two toned.
These mermaid tail cupcakes are going to look perfect on your dessert table! Share this recipe with some one who would love it and check out more mermaid themed treats from Mama’s Buzz like these Chocolate Covered Mermaid Pretzel Rods, and this easy chocolate Mermaid Bark!
Mermaid Cupcakes
Equipment
- bowls
- spoons
- piping bags
- Open star piping tip
- Spatula
- Baking tray
- Cupcake pans
- cupcake liners
- Electric hand mixer or stand mixer
Ingredients
- One box white cake mix
- 3 Eggs
- ½ cup Oil
- 1 cup Water
- 1 cup Butter
- 4.5 cups Icing sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 2 tsp Heavy cream or milk
- Pink food coloring
- Blue food coloring
- Pink chocolate candy melts
- Purple edible luster dust optional
- Blue sanding sugar or sprinkles
- Mermaid sprinkles
Instructions
Make Chocolate Mermaid Tails
- Melt Chocolate
- First, melt your pink chocolate candy melts. You can use a double boiler or a microwave-safe bowl according to the instructions on your candy melts.
- I melted mine in the microwave by changing the settings to 50% power and stirring every 20 seconds to see if it was done.
- If you overheat your candy melts they may burn and turn hard. If this happens, throw them out and start with a fresh bowl then use a shorter amount of time and lower setting on your microwave.
- Pipe Chocolate Into Mermaid Tail Mold
- Optional step: Use edible purple luster dust to line your mermaid mold with sparkly powder. It will give your chocolate mermaid tails an extra shimmer and dual-tone color. You can do this before putting chocolate in the mold.
- Pipe melted candy into your mermaid tail mold with a plastic bag or piping bag. Cut a small hole at the tip of your bag once it’s loaded with chocolate so you can control how much comes out at a time.
- Use a toothpick to help spread the chocolate into every corner of the mold. I made the chocolate quite thick on the backside of my candy mold to reduce the chance that it would break as I took it out.
- Cool And De-mold Mermaid Tails
- Let your chocolate mermaid tails cool completely to room temperature. The smallest point of your chocolate mermaid tails will be the most prone to breaking.
- I made my second batch of chocolates quite thick on this pinch point and none of them broke the second time around. It might look a bit lumpier, but it’s more sturdy and the ‘raw’ side will be unseen and buried in frosting so it won’t matter.
Bake Mermaid Cupcakes
- Use vanilla cake mix or your favorite vanilla cake recipe for Mermaid Cupcakes. In a large mixing bowl, mix together 3 eggs, ½ a cup of vegetable oil and one cup of water with one box of cake mix (or your dry ingredients) in a bowl. Fill your cupcake baking tin with cupcake liners.
- Separate the vanilla cake batter into two even halves. I used two medium sized plastic bags. Add pink food coloring into one bag of cake batter; this should give you a bright pink color. Add blue food coloring to the second bag of vanilla cake batter; this should give you a bright blue color.
- Use a spoon to stir the batter inside the bag until the color is completely mixed.
- Alternate putting the pink and blue cake batter into the cupcake liners until they are each about ¾ full. The more small squeezes of batter you do, the more stripes you’ll see on the inside of your cupcakes. The pink and blue batter will also form purple inside the cake.
- Bake your cupcakes for 16-20 minutes at 350 Fahrenheit, depending on your cake mix instructions and oven. Cook them until the tops spring back when lightly touched. Take your cupcakes out of the cupcake pan and allow them to completely cool on a wire rack to room temperature before you start decorating them. Cold cupcakes are much easier to decorate! Try popping your cupcakes in the fridge for 10 minutes before frosting them.
Make Mermaid Frosting
- Make your vanilla buttercream frosting with 1 cup of unsalted butter and about 4.5 cups of icing sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla extract and 2 tsp of cream or whole milk. Mix the ingredients in a large bowl with a hand mixer or stand mixer until they are completely blended and no sugar crystals remain.
- Separate your white frosting into two bowls. In one bowl, add a drop of pink food coloring and half a drop of blue; this should give you a light purple frosting color. In the other bowl of white frosting add half a drop of blue food coloring, you can always add more but start small and see if you like the shade of blue first.
- Use your spoon or cake spatula to scoop your mermaid frosting into piping bags. Cut the tip of your piping bag off and put your metal piping tip inside then add your frosting.
- For the light purple frosting, use a large open star tip like a Wilton brand #1M tip. For the blue icing, you can use a large round tip or a different open star tip like Wilton brand #8B tip.
Decorate Mermaid Cupcakes
- Use your piping bag full of blue frosting and pipe a border of blue around the top edge of the cupcake. Use a tray or plate of sanding sugar or blue sprinkles and gently roll your blue frosting in it. You don’t have to use blue sanding sugar but it has a really pretty sea-glass look and ocean vibe.
- Next, use your purple frosting inside the blue perimeter to make a large frosting swirl on top of your cupcake. Put your cupcake in a large baking tray to catch the sprinkles that fall off and then sprinkle your mermaid-themed sprinkles on the purple frosting.
- Lastly, place your chocolate mermaid tail on top of your cupcake. If you want your mermaid tails to stand straight up, I recommend placing them on top once they’ve arrived at their party destination because they are going to be too tall to transport. You can also place your mermaid tails flatter on your cupcake like I did to give them more support from the rest of the cupcake and icing.
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