Mardi Gras Cupcakes French Vanilla Butter Rum

Fun colorful Mardi Gras Cupcakes flavored with buttered rum and french vanilla cake are perfect for Mardi Gras to celebrate Fat Tuesday!

We love cupcakes for every occasion like these Lemon Filled Cupcakes for Easter, Bailey’s Irish Cream Cupcakes for St. Patrick’s Day, Red White and Blue Cupcakes for Fourth of July and Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cupcakes for Valentine’s Day.

The King Cake might be the traditional sweet on Mardi Gras, but these fun cupcakes are decorated with traditional Mardi Gras colors: purple represents justice, green represents faith and gold represents power.

LET’S MAKE MARDI GRAS CUPCAKES

(full printable recipe at the end of this post)

Don’t be intimidated by the long recipe, it’s all really very easy.  They are just as delicious if you leave the frosting white, so if you don’t want to mess with the food color and three colors of frosting, you can just skip that step!

French Vanilla Butter Rum Cupcakes

Preheat your oven to 350° F and line a cupcake pan with cupcake papers.

Place French Vanilla cake mix, French vanilla pudding mix, cinnamon, nutmeg, eggs, vanilla extract, cold milk, melted butter and rum in a large mixing bowl.  Using an electric mixer, beat on low for 1 minute.  Continue beating on medium-high for 1 more minute. Do not over mix.

Pour cupcake batter into lined cupcake pans and bake for 22-24 mins. Cool on a rack.

Next, you will make a Butter Rum Glaze with butter, water, sugar, and rum in a saucepan on the stove.

Once the cupcakes have baked and cooled, you will dip the tops in the butter rum glaze and top with buttercream frosting!

How To Decorate Mardi Gras Cupcakes

The hardest part about these Mardi Gras cupcakes was piping the three colors of buttercream on top. Wilton has this  3-COLOR COUPLER that would be a big help! – note, I did NOT use this, but it has great reviews on Amazon.

Get the Wilton 3-COLOR COUPLER HERE

These cupcakes were FAN-TAS-TIC!

Seriously… GO…make these… now!! My kitchen smelled SOOOO wonderful even the next day!

Mardi Gras Cupcakes | French Vanilla Butter Rum

Yield: 24 cupcakes
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes

The King Cake might be the traditional sweet on Mardi Gras, but these fun cupcakes are decorated with traditional Mardi Gras colors: purple represents justice, green represents faith and gold represents power.

Ingredients

French Vanilla Butter Rum Cupcakes

• 1 French Vanilla cake mix (I prefer Duncan Hines)
• 1  (4 serving size) instant French vanilla pudding mix
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 4 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup cold milk
• 1/2 cup melted butter (not margarine)
• 1/2 cup rum (I used Capt. Morgan which is a spiced rum)

Butter Rum Glaze

• 1/2 cup  butter
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup rum

Butter Cream Frosting

• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 cup vegetable shortening
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups powdered (confectioners) sugar
• 1/4 – 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
• gel food coloring

Instructions

French Vanilla Butter Rum Cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Line cupcake pan with cupcake papers.
2. Place all cupcake ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  Using an electric mixer, beat on low for 1 minute.  Continue beating on medium high for 1 more minute. Do not over mix.
3. Pour cupcake batter into lined cupcake pans and bake for 22-24 mins. Cool on a rack.

Butter Rum Glaze

1. Melt butter in a saucepan and stir in the water and sugar. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and slowly stir in the rum.
2. Let the glaze cool for just a few minutes.
3. Dip the tops of the cooled cupcakes in butter rum glaze.

Butter Cream Frosting

1. Using an electric mixer, cream butter and shortening in large mixing bowl until light and fluffy .
2. Beat in vanilla. Add sugar, one cup at a time until well blended. Once the sugar is completely incorporated, scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the whipping cream, beating at the highest speed until super fluffy, about one minute.
3. If you wish to add color to your frosting, like I did for these Mardi Gras colors, use the gel paste food coloring. It’s stronger and more vibrant.
4. Pipe frosting* on top of glazed cupcake then drizzle a little more glaze over the butter cream frosting and top with chunky sugar sprinkles.

 

Notes

*I have to be honest, piping 3 colors was NOT an easy task, only about 1/2 of my cupcakes came out looking good, the others were either missing a color, or the colors started to mix and looked gray or brow!! How did I do it?- I divided my frosting into 3 bowls and colored each. I then spooned a big scoop of each color into the bag, trying the best I could to get them side by side. I then squeezed the frosting into another bowl until all three color started to come out—then I piped onto the cupcakes, using my 1M tip. UPDATE: This Wilton 3-color coupler would work! and it has GREAT reviews

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

• KitchenAid 7-Quart Pro Stand Mixer
• Nonstick 12-Cup Regular Muffin Pan (2)
• Wilton Disposable 16-Inch Decorating Bags
• JELL-O French Vanilla Instant Pudding & Pie Filling Mix (3.4 oz Box)
• Wilton Icing Colors, 12-Count Gel-Based Food Color
• Duncan Hines Signature French Vanilla Cake 
• Wilton ColorSwirl 3 Color Coupler

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 24
Serving Size: 1

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 393
Total Fat: 28g
Saturated Fat: 15g
Trans Fat: 1g
Unsaturated Fat: 11g
Cholesterol: 83mg
Sodium: 362mg
Carbohydrates: 31g
Fiber: 0g
Sugar: 22g
Protein: 2g

Nutrition information is estimated based on the ingredients and cooking instructions as described in each recipe and is intended to be used for informational purposes only. Please note that nutrition details may vary based on methods of preparation, origin, and freshness of ingredients used.