Ube Cupcakes– Soft velvety cupcakes topped with a delicious Oreo Swiss meringue buttercream and drizzled with caramel. These are the best ube cupcakes ever!
What is ube?
Ube, a vibrant purple yam, enriches Filipino cuisine with its unique flavor and color palette. It has a vibrant purple color and a sweet earthy, nutty flavor. Ube is used commonly to create Filipino desserts. Fresh ube is hard to find in stores but they are available in various forms, such as fresh, frozen grated ube, powdered, or extract.
To provide ube desserts with the best ube flavor recipes usually use will call for ube halaya and ube extract.
You can find it in Asian grocery stores—a sweet ube jam perfect for filling or topping cakes, pastries, and desserts. You can also scout for extracts actively in Asian supermarkets or on Amazon.
Ube Cupcake Key Ingredients
- Cake Flour: Cake flour produces the best texture for ube cupcakes. Cake flour helps with the texture of creating fluffy cakes while all-purpose flour will make the texture denser.
- Ube Jam: Ube Halaya is used in this recipe, it can be found at Asian grocery stores.
- Flavoring: Ube extract provides the cupcakes with more ube flavoring. Ube extract can also be found in Asian grocery stores.
- Sour Cream: Provides the cake with moisture, Greek yogurt can be used as a substitute.
- Butter/Oil: Butter provides the cake with texture, moisture and flavor. Oil helps the cupcakes stay moist.
How to make ube cupcakes
In a stand mixer or a large bowl add the softened room temperature butter, oil, egg, sour cream, vanilla extract, and sugar. Beat until combined and then add the ube extract and ube jam. Mix on high speed until everything is mixed thoroughly.
With a separate bowl add the dry ingredients (cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt) to the medium bowl, and whisk to ensure all the ingredients are combined. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until there are no more flour clumps. Heat the milk in the microwave for 30 to 45 seconds, the milk should be hot.
Add the milk to the ube cupcake batter and stir until everything is just combined.
Line a cupcake pan with 9 cupcake liners.
Fill the liners 2/3 full or scoop the batter with an ice cream scoop, filling it to the top, then release it into the cupcake liners. Next, place them in a preheated oven at 400°F and bake for 6 minutes. Afterward, swiftly reduce the temperature to 350°F and continue baking for an additional 6 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cupcake comes out clean.
Allow the cupcakes to cool on the cupcake tin for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to allow the cupcakes to fully cool before decorating.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
A Swiss Meringue Buttercream is made with cooked egg whites, sugar, butter and flavorings. It’s creamy, not overly sweet and doesn’t require any powdered sugar. But powdered sugar can be used in some recipes.
Crack 4 large eggs and separate the yolks and white. You will only need the egg whites. Check my sugar cookie cut-out recipe to use the egg yolks.
In a medium-sized pot add water halfway into the pot and turn the heat to medium. In a glass or stainless-steel bowl add the egg whites and sugar. Whisk the two together and then place the bowl over the boiling water. The water should not touch the bottom of the bowl.
Cook the mixture to 160F whisking ever so often so the egg whites don’t cook. Once it reaches the desired temperature, pour the mixture into a stand mixer and whip it on high speed. Whip on high for 7 minutes, the meringue should reach stiff peaks and the sides of the bowel should be cool to touch.
Cut the butter into tablespoon-sized pieces and gradually add them to the stand mixer, tossing in one piece at a time until all the butter is incorporated.
If the buttercream begins to curdle just continue to cream frosting as it will come together.
Add 10 to 12 oreos into a food processor and pulse until the crumbs are fine. If the crumbs aren’t fine they won’t be able to pipe well depending on the piping tip used. Mix the Oreo crumbs into the buttercream and cream them with butter until the Oreos blend evenly throughout.
Ube Cupcakes Assembly:
Place the Oreo buttercream into a piping bag with the preferred tip on the bottom of the piping bag. Snip the bottom of the piping bag and then begin frosting the cupcakes. Drizzle the cupcakes with caramel.
Serve the cupcakes cold or at room temperature. Store cupcakes in an airtight container and refrigerate them for up to 3 days for optimal freshness.
Ube Cupcakes Tips
Don’t overbake cupcakes– Overbaking causes the cupcakes to dry out and overbrowning on the bottoms of cupcakes. Use an oven thermometer to help you understand your oven. Your oven may be reading 350 but it may be hotter or cooler and may even have heat spots which causes uneven baking. Baking time needs to be adjusted and or rotated based upon your oven.
Overmixing-Overmixing the cupcake batter will cause the cupcake’s textures to be hard. Once the flour is added to the wet mixture gluten begins to form which is why mixing the batter until its just combined is so important.
Hot milk– Hot milk is the secret to creating the perfect texture for cupcakes. Read more about it here in this post!
Can I make a different frosting?
Whipped cream would also be a great substitute if that’s what you prefer. This is a great ube cupcake recipe that will go well with a regular vanilla buttercream also!
Homemade Ube halaya jam:
Ube halaya is sweetened with sugar, different brands can taste different vs homemade ones. Homemade ones can have less sugar-altering the sweetness.
Is a stand mixer required for the Swiss meringue buttercream?
While a stand mixer isn’t essential, it’s highly recommended for best results. The process does take a long time.
For More Delicious Cupcake Recipes:
Ube Cupcakes with Oreo Buttercream
Equipment
- 1 USA Cupcake Pan
Ingredients
Ube Cupcakes
- 1 cup Cake Flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 large egg
- 3 tbsp butter softened
- 3 tbsp oil
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup ube halaya
- 1 tsp ube extract
- 3 tbsp sour cream
- 1/2 cup milk hot
Oreo Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- 4 large egg whites
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 lb unsalted butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 12 Oreos crushed finely
Instructions
Ube Cupcakes
- Preheat Oven to 400 degrees.
- In a stand mixer or a large bowl add the softened room temperature butter, oil, egg, sour cream, vanilla extract, and sugar. Beat until combined and then add the ube extract and ube jam. Mix on high speed until everything is mixed thoroughly.
- With a separate bowl add the dry ingredients (cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt) to the medium bowl, and whisk to ensure all the ingredients are combined. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until there are no more flour clumps.
- Heat the milk in the microwave for 30 to 45 seconds, the milk should be hot. Add the milk to the ube cupcake batter and mix until everything is combined.
- Line a cupcake pan with 9 cupcake liners. Fill the liners 2/3 full or use an ice cream scoop and fill to the top and release into the cupcake liners then bake in a preheated oven at 400 F for 6 minutes reduce the temperature to 350F and bake for an additional 6 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted into the middle of the cupcake and is clean. Allow the cupcakes to cool for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to allow the cupcakes to fully cool before decorating.
Oreo Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- Crack 4 large eggs and separate the yolks and white. You will only need the egg whites.
- In a medium-sized pot add water halfway and turn the heat to medium. With a glass or stainless-steel bowl add the egg whites and sugar. Whisk the two together and then place the bowl over the hot water. The water should not touch the bottom of the bowl.
- Cook the mixture to 160F whisking ever so often so the egg whites don't cook. Once the temperature is reached pour the mixture into a stand mixer and whip on high speed. Whip on high for 7 minutes or until the meringue has stiff peaks and the side of the bowl is cool to the touch.
- Cut the butter into tablespoon sizes and slowly throw in a piece of butter into the stand mixer until all the butter is gone.
- If the buttercream begins to curdle just continue to cream the frosting as it will come together.
- Add 10 to 12 oreos into a food processor and pulse until the crumbs are fine. If the crumbs aren’t fine they won’t be able to pipe well depending on the piping tip used. Add the oreo crumbs to the buttercream and cream butter and Oreos until the oreos are mixed in.
Cupcake Assembly
- Place the Oreo buttercream into a piping bag with the preferred tip on the bottom of the piping bag. Snip the bottom of the piping bag and then begin frosting the cupcakes. Drizzle the cupcakes with caramel.
- Serve the cupcakes cold or at room temperature. Cupcakes can be stored into an airtight container and placed in the refrigerator for up to 3 days
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