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I whale-y love these Narwhal Cupcakes that you can make at home. The instructions include a super easy upgrade to a box of cake mix, frosting recipe, plus how to decorate cupcakes to make the cutest narwhals.

Recipe Snapshot:

Make fondant whale tails the day before. On baking day, you’ll be making cupcakes and frosting. I’ve got some time-saving tips that will make it possible for any baker to create sea-riously adorable treats for a Narwhal birthday party.

Upgrade a Box of Cake Mix

Making homemade cupcakes doesn’t mean you have to do everything from scratch. Cut down on time by using a box of cake mix. The recipes makes about 18 cupcakes.

Ingredients:

• 1 box of french vanilla cake mix cake mix
• 3 large eggs room temp 
• 1/2 C of softened unsalted sweet cream butter
• 1 C whole milk
• 1TBSP pure vanilla extract 
• Sky Blue gel food coloring 
• white cupcake liners
• cupcake pan

Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Line muffin pan with the white cupcake liners.
• In a medium bowl, add the cake mix, butter, milk, and vanilla extract and stir until combined.
• Mix in a few drops of the blue food coloring into the cake batter. 
• Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 way full.
• Bake in the oven for about 18-20 minutes. 
• Pull out the cupcakes and allow to cool before frosting.

Make Your Own Frosting

Short on time? Substitue homemade frosting for storebought frosting.

To make Narwhal Cupcakes, you’ll make one batch of frosting and then color it pink, black, and lots of blue.

Frosting Ingredients 

• 2 C unsalted sweet cream butter, softened
• 5 C powder sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla 
• 6-10 TBSP heavy whipping cream
• Sky blue, soft pink, and black gel food coloring 
• 1 medium ice cream scooper
• 1 disposable piping bag with medium round tip
• 2 disposable piping bag with a #3 piping tip
• 1 package of unicorn horn royal icing transfers (Similar horns found at Walmart)
• 3 mixing bowls

Frosting Instructions

Don’t have piping bags at home? Try a sandwich

• Using a stand mixer, combine all ingredients and mix on medium speed.
• Mix until you see stiffed peaks in your frosting.
• Once the frosting is made, split it into 3 bowls.
• Scoop about 1 C of the frosting into one bowl and add in a black food coloring.
• Scoop about 1/2 C of the frosting into the second bowl and add in a few drops of pink food coloring.
• Mix in a few drops of the sky blue gel food coloring into the remaining frosting.
• Scoop about 2 C of blue frosting into the medium round tip.
• Scoop the black frosting into one #3 tip piping bag.
• Scoop the pink frosting into the other #3 piping bag.

How to Decorate Narwhal Cupcakes

Decorating your Narwhal Cupcakes is a lot of fun! You’ll be using dyed frosting, premade unicorn horn candies, and a fondant whale tail.

Fondant Whale Tail

Prepare your work space by sprinkling powdered sugar onto a cutting board. Roll out blue fondant onto a cutting board to 1/4 inch thickness using a fondant rolling pin. Use an Exacto knife or other knife to cut out a whale tail design. Use a paper stencil for uniform whale tails.

Allow the tail to dry to strengthen. Overnight is great.

Decorating your Narwhal Cupcake

• Using the ice cream scooper, scoop some blue frosting onto the cupcakes
• Place a “Unicorn horn” into the top center of the frosting
• Using the black frosting pipe out a smile.
• Using the pink frosting pipe two dots for the cheeks.
• Using the medium round tip, pipe the whales “flippers” on the side by piping a small dollop on both sides.
• Stick the tail into the top back of the frosting.

SEA how easy it is!

Narwhal Party Ideas

These Narwhal Cupcakes are a fun treat for any celebration, including a Narwhal Birthday Party!

Looking for Narwhal Birthday Party Ideas?

Decorate with soft pastels and hints of gold for a mythical celebration that captures the spirit of the narwhal. Pinks, blues, and purples are a great color palette!

Guests can be transformed into narwhals with elastic narwhal headbands.

Serve ocean themed treats like Goldfish crackers, ocean water punch, and these cupcakes of course!

It’s a great theme for a pool party. If you’re staying on dry land, try a pin the horn on the narwhal for guests.

Check out these Narwhal Party Supplies!

Looking for more cupcake ideas?

Unicorn Cupcakes

Star Wars Cupcakes

These Nawahal Cupcakes are the cutest treats you’ll ever SEA!