Cinco de Mayo Taco Cupcakes

Happy Cinco de Mayo this weekend, friends!

I was sent some of the brightest Wilton sprinkles (which everything can be found at Target, too, now! Two of my favorite things in ONE PLACE, people, ahh!), cupcake liners, and other goodies last week and I knew immediately where I wanted to use them in my kitchen. Cinco de Mayo has a lot of Mexican history attached to it, but the celebration has evolved into that of bright colors and plenty of Mexican food in my neck of the woods. 

Plus, tacos. 

Always tacos. 

I wanted to make something for Cinco de Mayo this year that involved carrying my favorite Mexican food (tacos) into a cupcake. Of course, we've passed on the usual taco seasoning, cheese, and lettuce in the crisp shell, and traded them in for the sweeter cupcake-topper version. We had so much fun making these little edible tacos, and also filling our cupcakes with a surprise (sprinkle pinata, anyone!?). 

The method for filling the cupcakes is very simple, and can be pretty quick to if you remember the following steps: 

1. After baking your cupcakes, place them on a cookie sheet and wrap the cupcakes with the sheet twice. Place in the freezer for at least 20 minutes until they're very cold. This will harden the cupcakes enough to be able to carve into them without them getting too crumbly. 

2. Use a melon baller to hollow out the centers of the cupcakes! This is super easy when the cupcakes are cold. Save the scoop of cake for the end. 

3. Fill each hollowed out cupcake with sprinkles (nonpareils, jimmies, sixlets, etc). 

4. Top sprinkle center with the saved scoop of cake. 

5. That's it! You're all set for frosting your cupcake, and making those cute little tacos to go on top! 

The tacos are pretty simple to assemble. I've seen this technique before, but usually with vanilla oreos. I didn't want to have to deal with scooping out all that oreo filling (what a waste!), so I strolled down the latino section at my grocery store and found these "Marias" cookies. PERFECT! They looked the part, tasted delicious, and were the perfect size for little dessert tacos. 

The technique is pretty easy, and only requires a few ingredients, so let's dive in, shall we? 

Cinco de Mayo Taco Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Mexican vanilla cookies

1 Cup shredded coconut

green gel coloring

chocolate frosting

yellow sprinkles/jimmies

red circle sprinkles

frosted vanilla cupcakes

1. Carefully slice the vanilla cookies in half. Set aside. 

2. In a small bowl, mix together coconut and one drop of green gel coloring. Stir together until the color is uniform throughout. 

3. Spread or pipe chocolate frosting on bottom end of one of the cookie halves. Place the other cookie half next to it on the bottom (see photo above). 

4. Sprinkle with sprinkles and green coconut, then top with a couple red circle sprinkles. 

Enjoy! 

Don't forget to tag @bakingwithblondie or #bakingwithblondie when you make these darling cupcakes! I love to see what you bake!