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"Tomato Girl Summer" Cupcakes
Maggie Banko

Vanilla Cupcakes

A fun twist on my Classic Vanilla Cupcakes that will make your next Summer dinner party stand out from the rest! These tomato cupcakes come together so quickly and they are the perfect centerpiece dessert for the season.
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Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings: 14 cupcakes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

For the Cupcakes
  • 1 ½ cup cake flour 184g
  • 1 cup granulated sugar 200g - updated on 07/30/25
  • ¼ tsp baking soda
  • 1 ¼ tsp baking powder
  • ¼ tsp fine salt
  • ¾ cup unsalted melted butter - you can also use browned butter if you would like! Just be sure to measure the butter to 185g before browning. 170g
  • 2 large room temperature eggs
  • 1 room temperature egg white
  • vanilla extract to taste
  • ½ cup room temperature sour cream 127g
  • ½ cup room temperature whole milk or buttermilk 116mL
For the Buttercream
  • 1 ½ cup unsalted room temperature butter 339g
  • tiny pinch of fine salt
  • vanilla extract to taste
  • 18 oz powdered sugar
  • 2-3 tbsp heavy cream - start with 2 tbsp and add more if needed 30mL - 45mL
  • red gel food coloring
  • green gel food coloring

Method
 

For the Cupcakes
  1. Preheat your oven to 350℉ and line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners (this recipe makes 14 cupcakes)
  2. In a medium mixing bowl, combine all of the wet ingredients and mix well.
  3. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
  4. Add the wet to the dry and mix until just combined (do not over-mix your cupcake batter! That will change the way they rise!)
  5. Evenly distribute the cupcake batter throughout your pre-prepped cupcake tin and bake at 350℉ for 15-18 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a couple of small crumbs on it.
  6. Allow the cupcakes to cool in their pan for ~10 minutes and then carefully take them out of the pan and place them on a cooling rack to finish cooling before decorating.
  7. While your cupcakes cool, whip the room temperature butter in your stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (you can also use an electric hand mixer). Whip the the butter on medium speed for 5-8 minutes until it's silky in texture and pale in color.
  8. Scrape the bowl down with a rubber spatula and mix in the fine salt and vanilla extract.
  9. Add the powdered sugar and heavy cream, begin mixing on low speed for about 1 minute, and then increase the speed to medium until you have a smooth texture (you'll probably need to scrape the bowl down again to ensure everything is well incorporated)
  10. Next, place a small amount of buttercream in a small bowl and add 1-2 drops of green gel food coloring to dye it for the tomato stems.
  11. Using the red gel food coloring, dye the remaining buttercream until you reach that deep/true red color (gel food coloring is a necessity if you want that opaque color!)
  12. Once your cupcakes are fully cooled, place an Ateco 809 piping tip in a piping bag, fill the bag with the red buttercream, and pipe the buttercream on top of each cupcake using a circular motion.
  13. Next, place a small circle piping tip (I used an Ateco 3) in a separate piping bag, fill the bag with the green buttercream, and create the tomato stem on top of each cupcake. In order to do this, I just made a star shape in the center of each cupcake.
  14. Serve the cupcakes fresh and enjoy! If you have leftovers, you can store them in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 2 days. Please don't refrigerate the cupcakes as that will dry them out!