Neapolitan Cupcakes

I’ve always wanted to make Neapolitan cupcakes, and decided to finally do it. I love vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream, so why not in the form of a cupcake?

I started with two yellow (or in my case, a yellow and a white) cake mixes. I just love the texture of a cake from a cake mix, and it’s less work to make, so why not? I added the ingredients to make the cakes, and measured out equal parts in three different bowls (I think I got 4 cups in each).

Then I added 4 pouches of pre-melted unsweetened chocolate (I used Nestle brand) to one of the bowls, and mixed in with the batter. For the strawberry, I added some strawberry extract, some strawberry jam and a little red food coloring for the red tint. Keep tasting the batter for the right amount of strawberry flavor. You can even put some finely ground fresh strawberries through a fine mesh strainer and use the pulp for flavor as well. Don’t be afraid to tint with red food coloring a little darker than it looks like it should be when mixed in with the batter. After baking the color will not be so predominant. I left the third bowl alone for the vanilla.

I started to spoon the batter in to one third of the cupcake liner, and then the other third, and so on. That seemed like it was going to be pretty tedious, so I thought of something more “automated”. I took the three batters, and put each one in a pastry bag.

Then I took the three and put into one larger pastry bag, with no decorating tip on it. I cut the ends off the bag at the last minute, and then proceeded to fill the cupcake liners.

It really was a pretty fast and easy way to fill the liners with equal parts of the batter.

Bake as directed on box, and frost with Neapolitan Frosting, which is basically your favorite vanilla recipe, with added chocolate and strawberry as you did for the cake batter.

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For the Neapolitan frosting, I made my basic vanilla frosting recipe, and added the chocolate to one, and strawberry jelly and extract to the other. Its hard to say how much frosting to make for each but I would probably say about 2 cups confectioners sugar for each. I always seem to make too much, because it will be such a pain to stop in the middle and make more. You can always refrigerate and use later. I thin k I made 3 cups each for this recipe and I did have some leftover, so use your best judgement. You always use a lot more frosting when piping it on the cupcakes. I stock up on my confectioner’s sugar in places like Costco, BJ’s or Sam’s when I can, so it’s not too bad.

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I used a single 16″ pastry bag for the chocolate frosting, and piped a ring around the outside of the cupcake.

Then I filled a pastry bag each with the vanilla and strawberry frosting’s. I put both bags in to one bag with a frosting tip on the one bag. Snip the ends off of the two individual bags before you put in to the one bag, and tie the top, or twist the top. Pipe frosting to fill the center of the cupcake. Sprinkle tops with chocolate sprinkles.

I realized after I filled the two individual pastry bags, that I had purchased some dual chamber pastry bags for exactly this type application. They’re perfect for piping two different colored frosting’s on a cupcake. Oh well, next time!