It’s always so exciting to receive requests for unusual cupcakes. It’s a challenge to find or create a great cupcake recipe. Then, it’s a challenge to design the decorations. I recently had a request for cheesecake cupcakes for a “Night In Atlantis” themed prom party.
My first thought on decorations with an underwater theme was seahorses. Now, I love to paint on Royal icing, so I knew that was the direction I wanted to take. I started by coloring the royal icing light brown and piping and flooding the outline of a seahorse. After 24 hours and the seahorses where dry, I painted them. Using brown food color (mix, red, blue and green together) I used a food safe sponge to dab on color and a food safe brush to paint on the details. (A tutorial for painting on Royal icing is here.)
Note: If you choose to make Royal icing decorations, they must be made 2-3 days ahead of time. They can be stored in the refrigerator for almost forever.
The “seaweed” is melted white chocolate. Pour a small amount of chocolate into a microwave safe bowl and microwave at 5 second intervals until chocolate is melted. Pour into a zip-lock bag and cut off a small corner. Pipe irregular lines into a fan shape. Make extra to allow for breakage.
Now on to the best cheesecake cupcakes recipe (credit: Joy of Baking ) and Vanilla Buttercream Frosting.
Note: It’s best to make the cupcakes a day before decorating and serving to give them time to set up.

- 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
- t Tbls. sugar
- 4-5 Tbls. butter, melted
- 2 8 oz. pkgs. full fat cream cheese, room temperature
- 2/3 cups sugar
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp. grated lemon zest
- 1/2 cup sour cream, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 tsp. vanilla bean paste (or 3 Tbls. vanilla extract) 1
- 1 Tbls. heavy cream
- blue gel coloring
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Preheat oven to 350°F and line muffin tins with 12 paper liners.
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Make the crusts: In a small bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, 1 tablespoon sugar and melted butter. Press a heaping tablespoon of crumbs into the bottoms of the 12 cupcake liners. Press down the crumbs with a juice glass. Cover and refrigerate while making the filling.
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Filling: On low speed of an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese until creamy and smooth. Add 2/3 cup sugar and salt and beat until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating until incorporated. Add the vanilla extract, lemon zest and sour cream and beat until incorporated.
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Remove the crusts from the refrigerator and evenly divide the filling among the 12 cups. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until firm but centers still wobble. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack. Let cool, then cover and refrigerate for at least a few hours or overnight.
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In a stand mixer, beat 1/2 cup unsalted butter until creamy.
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Slowly add the sugar until incorporated. Add vanilla bean paste (or extract) and heavy cream and beat for another minute.
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Add small amount of blue coloring and mix well. Continuing adding small amounts of color until desired color is achieved.
Assemble:
- Pipe a small bit of frosting onto each cupcake.
- Add a royal frosting seahorse.
- Add white chocolate seaweed.
Happy baking!