This winter, we had a birthday party for one of my kiddos. It was a great time. We went to an indoor bouncy place, got a lot of energy out, played with friends and ate some amazing Poké Ball cupcakes.
How do I know they’re amazing? When I asked the birthday child what their favorite part of the day was, they sat and thought for a second before saying, “The cupcakes.”
Just so you don’t think I’m tooting my own horn, Grandma made these. Our oven was unfortunately broken at the time, so I bought all the materials and passed my vision along to her. But in the end, the delicious and good-looking cupcakes were 100% done by her.
I should have known she’d pull it off. I grew up with Little Mermaid and Snow White cakes that looked like they were ordered from a bakery. They weren’t. Grandma’s just got that baking magic.
Not only did they end up being the favorite part of the day, but they ended up being the most frugal, too.
How do you throw a frugal birthday party in the winter?
That’s not a rhetorical subheading. I really, truly want to hear some comments on this one, because I have no idea.
We live in a small apartment with no yard. Even though this winter was pretty warm in Pittsburgh, it’s unpredictable enough to not plan an outdoor party at a park or something like that at the beginning or end of the season.
And all the indoor places are expensive.
I knew it was going to be costly to go to the bouncy kingdom, but their package looked cheaper than other kid-friendly spaces I could find. Then I got hit with a much larger bill than I was expecting because of overpriced add-ons suggested the day of. Mental math was not my friend that day.
I digress.
We were talking about our super frugal, super awesome Poké Ball cupcakes.
How to Make Pokémon Cupcakes
Making Pokémon cupcakes is actually a lot simpler than you may think. You only need to buy six things–assuming you’ve got a muffin tin at home.
Poké Ball Cupcake Ingredients
- Red Cake Sprinkles
- White Pearl Candies
- Your favorite cake mix
- Any flavor white frosting
- Tiny tube of black icing
- Red Cupcake Liners
The cake mix and frosting should be cheap enough–especially if you shop sales and use coupons.
The sprinkles, pearl candies and cupcake liners all feature affordable options. You may have to buy two packs of the sprinkles and candies–especially if you’re making two dozen–but one order of cupcake liners is more than enough.
There’s a discount on the white pearl candies if you are buying double. Score.
The icing will probably be the most expensive part, but you can cut costs by buying a tiny tube.
Poké Ball Cupcake Directions
Now that you have everything you need, it’s time to start working your own baking magic.
- Bake cupcakes as directed on the box, using red cupcake liners. Let them cool.
- Ice with white frosting.
- Dump your red sprinkles out into a bowl. Dip half of each frosted cupcake into the sprinkles.
- Use the black icing to draw a line diving the red an white halves of the cupcake.
- In the middle, put a relatively large dot of black icing.
- Gently push a pearl candy into that black dot.
Simple! And fun.
We also thought about baking a small Pokémon toy in the center like a King’s Cake, but that was going to get expensive.
If money’s no object or you find a great place to buy cheap Pokémon toys, I think it could be super fun to find one inside your Poké Ball cupcake!
Side note: We went to the Pokémon Center in Osaka. It was so fun, and something you should definitely put on your list if you’re ever in Japan!
Reader-Approved Pokemon Cupcakes
You all have been trying these cupcakes out with great creativity and success! Here are some reader images shared on Pinterest:
Yumm, those look delicious. I wish I could print your photo and just eat it!
I’m actually thinking about trying to make icing and frosting from scratch. Haven’t done it yet, because of the way-too-much-sugar I’d have to use, but cupcakes aren’t made to be healthy anyway 😀 Thanks for sharing the recipe!