Cupcake Coloring Pages

A cupcake is a small canvas that decorates itself: a pleated case at the bottom, a swirl of frosting on top, and whatever you like on the swirl. These cupcake coloring pages go through every way of finishing one, and then follow the cupcakes into the kitchen, onto the party table and out on a picnic.

The single cupcakes come first. The classic one wears a tall swirl and a cherry, another melts down its sides under a shower of sprinkles, another has a lit birthday candle, and one waits unfrosted beside a piping bag and a bowl of buttercream. Then the decorated ones: a cat face cupcake, a unicorn cupcake with a horn and a mane of piped swirls, a rose cupcake with every petal drawn, a cupcake covered in tiny flowers, a pumpkin cupcake, a snowman cupcake in the snow, a spider web cupcake with a friendly spider above it, a cupcake wrapped in a frosting bow like a present, a chocolate lattice, a berry cupcake, a strawberry cupcake with sugar crystals, a cupcake with a sprig of mint on a lace doily, one with a paper parasol, and a butterfly resting on a swirl. A cupcake volcano erupts frosting all over its plate.

The kitchen and the party fill the rest. A mouse baker in a chef's hat climbs a step ladder to pipe frosting onto a cupcake twice its height, a tray slides out of the oven with steam curling above, a stand mixer lifts its beaters, and two children frost cupcakes at the kitchen table. A three-tier stand, a tall cupcake tower on a table draped with garlands, a box of six seen from above, a stack of three about to topple, a slice of layer cake, a teapot beside a cupcake, a picnic basket with lemonade, and a market cart under a striped awning. A kitten reaches for one at the edge of the counter, a fairy sits on top of a giant one, a smiling cupcake holds a whisk, and there is a cupcake mandala and a border of cupcakes and cherries.

Where the cupcake got its name

The word first appears in an American cookbook in 1796, but the name most people repeat has two explanations, and both are true. The earliest cupcakes were baked in cups, individual pottery ramekins, long before paper cases existed. And many old recipes were written by the cup rather than by weight: one cup of butter, two of sugar, three of flour, four eggs, which is why they were also called 1-2-3-4 cakes. Paper cases arrived in the 20th century, and the frosting swirl, the part children care about, came last.

Coloring frosting so it looks soft

The pleated case and the frosting are two different textures, and coloring them differently is what makes a page look finished.

For the case, color the pleats in alternating light and dark stripes of the same color, one pleat pale, the next a shade deeper. That is how a real paper case catches the light.

For the frosting, follow the swirl. Color each ring in one soft color, and make it a little darker where it tucks under the ring above. Leave a thin line of white paper along the top edge of each ring, and the frosting looks piped rather than painted.

Sprinkles are the fun part: use as many colors as you like, and color them last, after the frosting, so the dots stay bright.

One swirl for toddlers, a whole tower for patient hands

The collection runs from one big cupcake to scenes crowded with them. The simplest keep a single cupcake large in the middle of the page, with wide rings of frosting that a child of three or four can fill in one go. Quick to color, above the grid, begins with:

• Cupcake volcano
• Rose cupcake
• Cupcake with a cherry on top

The densest are the ones where cupcakes multiply, the tiered stand, the picnic basket and the mandala, or where the frosting breaks into dozens of tiny flowers. Lots of detail opens on:

• Cupcake covered in tiny flowers
• Cupcake mandala
• Cupcake picnic basket

Cupcakes around the year

Some of these cupcakes belong to a date. The pumpkin cupcake and the spider web cupcake are for Halloween, the snowman cupcake for a winter party, the rose cupcake and the cupcake in a frosting bow for Mother's Day or Valentine's Day, the berry and strawberry cupcakes for a summer picnic. Pinned up month by month, they make a small calendar a child can color ahead of each celebration. December 15 is National Cupcake Day in the United States, if anyone needs an excuse.

A bake sale sign and a birthday table

The cupcake pages were made for the things people do with cupcakes. For a bake sale, color the market cart or the three-tier stand and pin it to the front of the table. For a birthday, the cupcake with a candle goes on a card for the birthday child, the cupcake tower goes on the invitation, and a different decorated cupcake at each place keeps guests busy while the real ones are being handed out.

In the kitchen, the unfrosted cupcake and the piping bag make a good plan for real baking: color the design you want, then try to pipe it. The rose and the cat face are harder than they look; the classic swirl and the berry cupcake are the ones to start with.

Printing a tray of cupcakes

The pages come as free 300 dpi PDFs sized for A4: actual size on an A4 printer, "fit to page" on US Letter, which takes about six percent off the drawing and nothing off the frosting. The printing guide has a screenshot of where that option sits. Use Add to pack to line up several cupcakes and print them as one file. The candy coloring pages and the ice cream coloring pages fill the rest of the dessert table, and the happy birthday coloring pages finish the party.