This delicious frosted cupcakes or so moist and so beautiful! Chocolate cupcakes, topped with a scrumptious dragon fruit buttercream frosting – these are exceptional. Perfect for parties and special occasions!
Last week when we went to the succulent farm, we made a stop at my favorite fruit market on the side of the road. There are quite a few of them in Socal and they’re open year round! My favorite one is Francisco’s off the 126. They sell local produce for great prices. We usually stock up on strawberries and a few other seasonal fruits as well as locally harvested honey and bee pollen. Last week they had local organic dragon fruit, so I picked a few up to make something delicious! I was actually going to make a salad, but my sweet tooth, having a mind of its own, convinced me I needed a frosted cupcake with dragon fruit buttercream… I know, crazy! I made my mother-in-law’s amazing chocolate cupcake recipe and then altered my favorite buttercream recipe using dragon fruit and my goodness were they yummy!!
How To Make Dragon Fruit Frosted Cupcakes – Step By Step
Chocolate Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add all of the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
- Boil 1 cup water.
- Combine all of the wet ingredients in a bowl and with the mixer on medium slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry and blend, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Then add 1 cup boiling water and continue to mix.
- Pour into cupcake molds and then bake for 10-12 minutes. Do not overcook these cupcakes or they’ll become dry.
Meringue Dragon Fruit Buttercream Frosting
- Add the sugar and the egg whites into a heatproof mixing bowl. Fit the bowl over a pan of simmering water.
- Whisk constantly until the mixture is hot, sugar is dissolved and the egg whites are a little frothy. About 4 minutes. It should look like a shiny marshmallow cream.
- With the whisk attachment, beat eggs on medium speed until cooled and thicker for about 5 minutes.
- Switch to the paddle attachment and one at a time, add in one stick of room temperature butter beating until smooth.
- On medium speed, add in the dragon fruit juice and vanilla bean extract.
- If the buttercream curdles or separates, just keep beating until it comes back together. You should end up with a shiny, smooth and absolutely delicious buttercream frosting!
Meringue Buttercream – Perfect For These Frosted Cupcakes!
Buttercream often takes quite a bit of whipping in order to reach the right consistency of light and fluffy. Cool butter is whipped in and many times the meringue buttercream breaks, but with more beating it comes together and makes a silky, very buttery, not too sweet or grainy buttercream.
This buttercream is great to work with, perfect for these frosted cupcakes! It’s not overly sweet or greasy, great for these little chocolate cakes.
What Does Dragonfruit Taste Like?
Dragon fruit, also known as pitaya or the strawberry pear, is a beautiful tropical fruit that is sweet and crunchy. It tastes a bit like a cross between a kiwi and a pear.
Though it may look intimidating, cutting and preparing this exotic fruit is easy. It adds a unique and delicious flavor to these frosted cupcakes!
Dragon fruit is grown in Southeast Asia, Mexico, Central and South America, and Israel. The plant is actually a type of cactus of the genus Hylocereus, which includes only about 20 different species.
Dragon fruit is also low in calories and offers numerous nutrients, including Vitamin C, phosphorus, and calcium. It also supplies a good amount of fiber and antioxidants.
Dragon Fruit Buttercream Frosted Cupcakes – An Easy Cupcake Recipe
These frosted cupcakes not only look great and taste delicious, they are also relatively simple to make! Plus, this recipe gives you 16 of the lovely little cakes, great for bringing to parties or pleasing a last minute crowd in your living room!
Just 15 mins prep time and 45 cook, then you’ll have a batch of these scrumptious little fellas! Dragon fruit is pretty widespread in supermarkets and grocery stores and the other ingredients are all pretty standard. But it all comes together in perfect cupcake!
Top Tips For These Frosted Cupcakes
- Use the best ingredients available.
- Bring your ingredients to room temperature.
- Don’t over mix the batter, or you will end up with tough cupcakes.
- Use a scoop to fill the cupcake molds, to keep them all even.
Check Out These Other Delicious Cupcake Recipes
Pumpkin Spice Sunflower Cupcakes
Chocolate Toffee Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting
Crazy Cupcakes by Bigger Bolder Baking
Moist Vanilla Cupcakes by Beyond Frosting
If you have tried this frosted cupcake recipe, or any other recipe on my blog, then please rate it and let me know how it turned out in the comments below! You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM and PINTEREST to see more delicious, healthy, family friendly food!
Chocolate Cupcakes with Dragon Fruit Buttercream
Ingredients
Chocolate Cupcakes
- 2 cups flour
- 1 3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 cup boiling water
Meringue Dragon Fruit Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 large egg whites
- 3 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/4 cup blended dragon fruit
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
Instructions
Chocolate Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add all of the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.
- Boil 1 cup water.
- Combine all of the wet ingredients in a bowl and with the mixer on medium slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry and blend, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Then add 1 cup boiling water and continue to mix.
- Pour into cupcake molds and then bake for 10-12 minutes. Do not overcook these cupcakes or they’ll become dry.
Meringue Dragon Fruit Buttercream Frosting
- Add the sugar and the egg whites into a heatproof mixing bowl. Fit the bowl over a pan of simmering water.
- Whisk constantly until the mixture is hot, sugar is dissolved and the egg whites are a little frothy. About 4 minutes. It should look like a shiny marshmallow cream.
- With the whisk attachment, beat eggs on medium speed until cooled and thicker for about 5 minutes.
- Switch to the paddle attachment and one at a time, add in one stick of room temperature butter beating until smooth.
- On medium speed, add in the dragon fruit juice and vanilla bean extract.
- If the buttercream curdles or separates, just keep beating until it comes back together. You should end up with a shiny, smooth and absolutely delicious buttercream frosting!
Renee @ Awesome on $20 says
September 12, 2013 at 11:18 pmDragon fruit is so beautiful, but I never know what to do with them. I can’t wait to try these.
Training Wear says
September 16, 2013 at 1:26 amLove the recipe. This is a great way to make cupcakes healthy. This is great. I can substitute other fruits also for this.
angel swanson says
September 18, 2013 at 11:15 pmLooks and sounds amazing! I love the little specks that the seeds give the frosting… so pretty!
KellyWeb says
September 19, 2013 at 3:33 amI love dragon fruit cocktail. I want to try this recipe.
Vera Zecevic – Cupcakes Garden says
October 4, 2013 at 7:10 amWhat a great idea to combine dragon fruit with chocolate cupcakes,it sound so yummy. I’ve featured this recipe on my blog, hoping that you don’t mind, but if you do, please contact me and I’ll remove it. All the best.
IlaRae says
March 27, 2014 at 7:38 amWhen making the frosting – when do you take the egg whites and sugar off the heat/stove? I’ve read all of your comments and can’t see one that addresses my question. I’m assuming you don’t mix the whole thing on the heat. I’d like to make these today as my dragon fruit is ready. Thanks for the sweet way to use dragon fruit!
Calich says
April 19, 2014 at 6:05 pmDoes the frosting need to be icing sugar or can any sugar be okay? I made the mistake of trying to make chocolate icing once and used normal granulated sugar instead of powdered sugar and it turned out like water 🙁
Sophie says
October 5, 2014 at 12:35 pmHow many grams were in the sticks of butter you used for the dragon fruit frosting as butter is sold in tubs in uk
Katelyn says
August 3, 2016 at 10:13 amwhat consistency isthe cupcake batter suppose to look like. Mine looks really doughy.
Eden says
August 3, 2016 at 8:15 pmIt’s supposed to be like a normal cupcake/cake batter… definitely not a dough though. Not sure what happened.
Katelyn says
August 3, 2016 at 9:12 pmI measured everything by weight not volume. Oops. They came out like brownies… The buttercream came out great though just like a Swiss buttercream but with dragonfruit in it.
Eden says
August 4, 2016 at 9:06 pmOh man!!! Happy the buttercream turned out for you!!