Minecraft Cupcakes Recipe Without Fondant

These Minecraft cupcakes are soft chocolate cupcakes topped with piped green buttercream grass, a square of chocolate mousse for the dirt, and little green jelly cubes set out like a grass block. There is no fondant to roll. The recipe makes 12 cupcakes with about 45 minutes of mixing and baking, plus an overnight freeze for the mousse squares, so start the day before the party.

The trick is the topper. A frozen mousse square holds a sharp edge long enough to look like a block, and cut jelly candy gives you clean pixels that kids actually eat.

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Why These Skip the Fondant

Fondant tastes like chewy sugar, and I have seen enough birthday party plates with the fondant peeled off and left behind. So the dirt block here is chocolate mousse, and the green squares are jelly candy cut into cubes. Both have clean corners. Both taste like dessert.

The same thinking works for a bigger cake. For one centerpiece instead of a dozen cupcakes, my easy Minecraft cake builds the grass block look with frosting and candy too.

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A Thin Chocolate Batter That Bakes Flat Enough for Toppers

The base uses vegetable oil, not butter. Oil keeps the crumb moist and soft for a couple of days, and the buttercream on top brings all the butter flavor these cupcakes need.

Whisk the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt first. Mix in the egg, milk, oil and vanilla until just combined, then pour in the ½ cup of boiling water while you stir. The batter turns thin, about like heavy cream. That is correct. The hot water dissolves the cocoa and gives a deeper chocolate flavor, so do not add flour to thicken it.

Pour the batter from a jug or a measuring cup so the 12 liners fill evenly, about two thirds full. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 18 to 22 minutes, until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.

Do not worry if the tops settle with a shallow dip in the middle, like the ones in my tin. That dip gives the mousse square a flat seat, so it does not tip off a dome. A deep crater with a wet center is different: that means the cupcakes needed a few more minutes. Let them cool completely on a rack, because warm cake melts the grass before you finish piping.

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Getting the Green Grass to Stand Up

The grass is American buttercream: 1 cup of soft butter beaten until creamy, then 3 to 4 cups of powdered sugar added a cup at a time, 2 tablespoons of milk or cream, and vanilla. It holds a fine strand much better than a silky meringue frosting. Love that smoother style? Save my Swiss meringue buttercream for a layer cake, because the grass strands slump in it.

Use gel food coloring, a few drops at a time. Stop one shade lighter than the green you want. Gel color deepens as the frosting sits, and an hour later that bright grass can look like a pine tree.

Fit the bag with a grass tip such as Wilton #233. Hold it straight up, squeeze, lift about ¼ inch, and stop squeezing as you pull away. Start at the outer edge and work inward in rings, leaving a bare square in the middle for the dirt block. Watch the first few strands:

• Strands break off ragged or the bag is hard to squeeze: the frosting is too stiff or too cold. Beat in milk 1 teaspoon at a time, or let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes.
• Strands fall over and blur together: it is too soft. Add the fourth cup of powdered sugar, or chill the filled bag for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Grass looks thin and patchy: squeeze a little longer before you lift, and set each burst right against the last one.

Once the frosting is right, the piping goes quickly. The first cupcake is the slow one.

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The Dirt Block and Green Pixel Cubes

For the brown square, spoon chocolate mousse into square silicone molds and freeze them overnight. Pop them out straight from the freezer and set one in the bare center of each cupcake. When the cupcakes need to sit out at a party for hours, fill the molds with chocolate ganache instead. Ganache stays firm at cool room temperature, and mousse does not.

For the green pixels, buy firm green apple jelly candy or sour cubes, or make a gelatin candy and let it set. Dust a sharp knife with powdered sugar, or wipe it between cuts, so the edges stay square. Blot the cut cubes on a paper towel. Sticky syrup on the cubes runs down onto the chocolate and leaves streaks.

Press 4 or 5 cubes onto each square in a checkerboard, the way they sit in the photos. Green fondant squares work too if you already have some, but you do not need them.

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Creeper, TNT and Diamond Cupcake Ideas From the Same Batch

One batch of cupcakes and one bowl of buttercream can cover several Minecraft blocks. Split the frosting before you tint it, and keep the grass tip for the grass block cupcakes.

• Creeper: spread green buttercream smooth with an offset spatula, then build the face from small dark chocolate squares: two eyes and the long mouth.
• TNT: red frosting with a band of white across the middle, and the letters TNT piped in black.
• Diamond ore: gray frosting with a few light blue candy cubes pressed in, cut the same way as the green ones.
• Minecraft cupcake cake: set the 12 cupcakes tight together in a 3 by 4 rectangle on a board, pipe grass across all the tops as one surface, and finish with a large chocolate square in the middle. Guests just pull one off.

For a full Minecraft table, add Minecraft cake pops shaped like cubes and decorated Minecraft cookies. Animal cupcakes such as these sheep cupcakes fit the farm side of the game, and confetti sprinkle birthday cupcakes are a good second flavor for kids who skip chocolate.

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What to Make the Night Before vs the Morning Of

The night before: make the mousse or ganache squares and freeze them. Bake the cupcakes, cool them completely, and keep them in an airtight container at room temperature. The buttercream can be made too. Keep it covered in the fridge, then let it soften and beat it for a minute before piping.

On party day: tint the frosting, pipe the grass, then add the squares and cubes. Cupcakes with mousse squares go into the fridge in a tall box with the lid resting loosely on top. A tight seal makes the frosting sweat. Take them out about 30 minutes before serving. Ganache-topped cupcakes can stay in a cool room for up to 6 hours.

Driving them somewhere? Put a non-slip mat under the tray or box. Leftovers keep for 2 days in the fridge.

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Are Minecraft Muffins the Same Thing?

In most searches, yes. Minecraft muffins usually means these decorated cupcakes, especially in countries where cupcakes are called muffins. For a less sweet school snack, skip the grass and set a few green jelly cubes on a plain chocolate cupcake with a thin swipe of frosting.

If you make these for a birthday, tell me in the comments which block your kids asked for. I answer every question there.