Princess Party Cupcake

My church has a dedicated lady who sponsors an annual Kindergarten to 4th grade princess party. When I asked her how I could help this year, she asked if I could make pink, frilly, jumbo cupcakes. My reply? You know I said,"Sure, I can do that. How many do you need?" 
Her answer was twenty cupcakes. 

My first step to planning any cupcake is to look at pictures of cupcakes that have been created by other bakers.  In about 20 minutes, I knew exactly how I wanted the princess cupcakes to look. 

Pink,ruffled, ombre layers, sparkling with clear sanding sugar, and topped with a white fondant crown sitting in a silver foil liner. 

Yes, that was my vision for the perfect Princess Party Cupcake. 

The Day Before Baking
Make white fondant crowns and let them air dry on parchment paper. 

 Click Here for the pictorial directions for making the crowns over at Cuppycakes & more. 

Creating Princess Cupcakes Step 1 -  Bake 24 jumbo cupcakes using 2 boxes of Party Rainbow Chip cake mix. Follow the package directions for mixing and baking temperature. Bake for about 18 minutes.

Step 2 -  While the cupcakes are cooling, make butter cream frosting and tint one third dark pink. Put the dark pink frosting into a piping bag that has been fitted with a Wilton #125 petal tip. 
Click Here for my Silky Smooth Butter Cream Frosting Recipe

Step 3 - Place a cooled cupcake onto a lazy susan and pipe a ruffle around the outside edge of each cupcake. 
Note: I tried holding and turning a cupcake while piping on the first ruffle. It was difficult to achieve a uniform ruffle. The difference between the first, hand-held ruffle and the second, lazy susan ruffle in the picture below is noticeable. 

Step 4 - Squeeze the unused dark pink frosting from the pastry bag into a small bowl. 
Add additional white frosting and stir. I do not measure the white frosting when I do this. I just add white frosting and stir until I have a paler pink that I am happy with. 
Load the same pastry bag with the paler pink frosting. 
Before piping the second ruffle, squeeze the pastry bag and clear the remaining dark pink frosting from the piping tip. Repeat step 3 with all of the cupcakes. 

NOTE: You will achieve a stripe effect on your second ruffle from using the same pastry bag.

Repeat Step 4 for your third ruffle. I used the same pale pink for the third and fourth ruffles. Apply sanding sugar to each cupcake after piping the third and fourth ruffles. 

Step 5 - Top each cupcake with a white fondant crown.

For how I made the crowns, Click Here for the pictorial over at Cuppycakes & more.