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How to Fill Cupcakes and What to Fill Them With
We make a lot of cupcakes. My cupcakes are not works of art; I make them for taste, not for show though they are reasonably attractive. And they’re nearly always filled. It’s so quick and easy that I rarely make cupcakes without filling them-usually with a pastry filling. But there are other ways.
- Pastry Fillings
- Ice Cream Filling
- Pudding Filling
- Whipped Cream Filling
- Marshmallow Cream Filling
For Bavarian Cream and Other Pastry Fillings
We sell more Bavarian cream but the others are good too–lemon, strawberry, blueberry, cream cheese, chocolate, pineapple, cherry, raspberry, and apple pastry filling. All of these are great in cupcakes. See the pictures but all you do is clip the corner, insert the clipped corner into the cupcake, and squeeze. There’s no need to core the cupcakes or even cut slits.
As you squeeze filling into a cupcake, it will begin to swell and get heavier. If you squeeze too much, cracks will start to develop around the hole. It’s okay-you’ll cover it with frosting anyway. After two or three cupcakes, you’ll have a sense of how much to squeeze.
See this video about filling cupcakes with pastry fillings.
For Ice Cream Filled Cupcakes
To make ice cream filled cupcakes, use a cupcake corer. With a quick twist, the corer will cut the center from a cupcake. Use the corer to cut a plug of ice cream from a block of ice cream. Insert the top of the corer back into the hole in the cupcake and push the plunger to deposit the ice cream into the center of the cupcake.
You can cover the ice cream with a portion of the cake plug if you want but I never bother. You’re going to cover everything with frosting anyway.
Put the cupcakes in the freezer to completely freeze them. You can frost them first but then the frosting will be hard and frozen. That’s never bothered me-a few minutes out of the freezer and the frosting will start to soften. If you don’t like your frosting frozen, wait and frost your cupcakes after they come from the freezer.
For Pudding Fillings
Pudding makes an excellent filling. You have two ways to go: a cupcake corer or a pastry bag. I would use a pastry bag; it’s quicker. Equip it with a star tip or a longer narrow tip, fill the bag, stick the tip into each cupcake and squeeze. The hole will be small and you’ll cover it with frosting.
For Whipped Cream Fillings
I would suggest using a pastry bag when you’re using whipped cream fillings. You’ll need to add a stabilizer to your whipped cream filling, like meringue powder. Whipped cream filling should be refrigerated, and you serve your cupcakes soon after they are filled.
For Marshmallow Cream Fillings
Marshmallow cream makes a scrumptious filling too. And it doesn’t need to be refrigerated, but make sure you store it properly. You could use a pastry bag to fill these cupcakes too, but if you would like you can use the cupcake corer with any of these fillings, just as you did with ice cream. You’ll want to cover the filling with a piece of the cake plug.
Look at all the possibilities matching fillings to cakes to frostings. There are so many creative flavors to use, that you’ll never run out of ideas. It’s no wonder that we rarely make cupcakes without filling them. Once you try these filling ideas, you’ll do the same.
Author Biography
Dennis Weaver has burnt food from Point Barrow, Alaska, to Miami, Florida. He is the founder of The Prepared Pantry in Rigby, Idaho and the author of How to Bake: The Art and Science of Baking, available free in an e-book or as a Kindle book on Amazon for $10.
He loves to help people bake and is giving away Free Kitchen Library sets with 30 e-books and over 1500 pages of content like this-a $150 value. There is no cost or obligation. You get five books immediately and one per week for 25 weeks. See how to get your free kitchen library.
Dennis lives in Rigby, Idaho, with his wife, Merri Ann. They have five wonderful children.