Easter Cupcakes

ByJaclyn Shimmel On03/24/202503/24/2025

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This Easter cupcake recipe is a must-have for your Easter celebrations! Whether served as an after-dinner dessert or as kid-friendly treat for Easter brunch, these pretty pastel cupcakes with buttercream frosting and mini eggs are sure to be a huge hit.

Several pastel swirl Easter cupcakes sit on a round metal tray, each topped with piped buttercream frosting, pastel sprinkles, and mini chocolate eggs.

Easter Desserts are even more fun when you can get creative with the theme. From pastel-colored Easter cookies, to adorable peep cupcakes and birds nest cookies, there are so many ways to bring the holiday to life!

This year, I’m leaning into pastels even more with these colorful Easter cupcakes. A soft, moist vanilla cupcake swirled with pink, yellow, and blue batter is topped with silky buttercream and nestled chocolate mini eggs.

A close-up of a pastel swirl Easter cupcake with a bite taken out, revealing soft layers of blue, pink, and yellow cake. The cupcake is topped with piped buttercream frosting, pastel sprinkles, and three mini chocolate eggs in blue, yellow, and pink.

I used the same color combination as my Easter Poke Cake because I love how vibrant it turns out. Make a batch of these cute Easter cupcakes for your dessert table and watch how quickly they disappear!

Why you’ll love this recipe

Makes 16 soft vanilla cupcakes in under an hour.
Uses simple pantry staples.
You can get as creative as you want with the Easter candy and decorations.
Fun, colorful, and festive for spring!

Ingredients for Easter Cupcakes

This section includes ingredient notes and substitution options. Get all measurements, ingredients, and instructions in the printable recipe card at the end of this post.

Ingredients for cupcakes and frosting, divided into two sections. The left side shows labeled ingredients for cupcakes, including flour, sugar, eggs, butter, milk, baking powder, vanilla extract, salt, and blue, yellow, pink gel food coloring. The right side displays frosting ingredients: confectioners' sugar, butter, milk, vanilla extract, almond extract, sprinkles, and mini chocolate eggs.

All-purpose flour – Spoon and level out your flour for accurate measurement.
Baking powder – This ensures your cupcakes are nice and fluffy.
Salt – Brings out the flavors to enhance the overall taste. Omit if you using salted butter.
Butter – Use unsalted, softened to room temperature.
Granulated sugar – For sweetness.
Large eggs – Bring these out to room temperature with your butter. That way all your ingredients are starting at the same temperature.
Vanilla extract – Adds extra flavor.
Whole milk – Using warm milk (about 110°F) is a great way to ensure all ingredients are at room temperature, but again, not a make or break situation!
Food coloring – I use yellow, pink, and blue gel food coloring. You can play around with the colors.
For the frosting – Softened unsalted butter, confectioners sugar, vanilla extract, almond extract (optional), and whole milk.
For the topping – Easter sprinkles and candy-coated mini chocolate eggs.

How to Make Pastel Easter Cupcakes

This section shows you how to make the recipe with step-by-step photos and instructions. For the full printable recipe, see the recipe card below.

Prepare the batter. Follow the recipe below to mix your cupcake batter. Divide it evenly into 3 bowls and tint each one with a different color.

Two images showing bowls of cupcake batter being colored. The left image shows three bowls of plain batter with drops of yellow, pink, and blue food coloring. The right image presents the mixed pastel batters in yellow, pink, and blue, ready to be used.

Fill the cupcake liners. Using a cookie scoop or large spoon, add about 1 ½ Tablespoons of each color to each liner, filling them about ⅔ full.

Pro Tip:

When adding the dollops of batter into the paper liner, add the colors in a triangle form. That way you can see all the separate colors evenly when you swirl it.

Four images showing the process of filling cupcake liners in a muffin pan with colorful batter. The first shows a cookie scoop filled with bright blue batter. The second shows the blue batter in the bottom of the cupcake liners. The third shows pink batter being added alongside the blue. The final image features yellow batter completing the tri-color swirl effect.

Swirl for a marble effect. Use a toothpick to gently swirl the colors together slightly. Just a little bit-don’t over do it.

A hand using a toothpick to swirl yellow, pink, and blue cupcake batter inside a paper liner placed in a muffin pan. The colors blend slightly, creating a marbled effect before baking.

Bake. Place in a preheated 350°F oven and bake for 18-20 minutes. Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.

Buttercream frosting preparation and piping onto a cupcake.

Decorate. Pipe or spread the buttercream, then top with festive sprinkles and mini chocolate eggs.

A pastel swirl cupcake decorated with sprinkles and mini eggs.

Storage

Room Temperature: Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Refrigerator: For longer freshness, refrigerate for up to 5 days.

Freezing: Freeze unfrosted cupcakes for up to 3 months. Thaw at room temperature before decorating.

A pastel Easter cupcake with piped frosting and mini eggs on a plate.

Recipe Tips

Let cupcakes cool completely before frosting to prevent melting.
You can make the cupcakes ahead of time, store at room temp, and frost just before serving.
Use a small cookie scoop for even layers of colored batter.
If short on time, use a vanilla box mix instead of making your cupcakes from scratch.
Adjust buttercream consistency by adding more milk (to make thinner) or powdered sugar (to make thicker).

Additions and variations

Swap the colors. Have fun experimenting with different pastel shades using food coloring to match your Easter theme. Purple and green food coloring are also great!
Add extra decorations. Chocolate easter eggs, shredded coconut, Easter sprinkles, jelly beans, etc.
Use coloring in the frosting. You can make plain vanilla cupcakes and add coloring to the frosting instead. You can also make chocolate cupcakes and do the same thing.