Easy DIY Cupcakes for VOLS Fans

It’s almost that time of year again. The countdown has begun, an orange haze is descending upon the city. Practice is underway, the hype is in full swing. We love Tennessee football in my house, and over the years, I’ve come up with a few super simple cupcake designs that I can whip up quickly for any tailgate or watch party.

I’ll walk you step by step through how I made each of these, and I hope it inspires you to create your own UT football themed cupcakes!

Gather your supplies:

I used a Duncan Hines cake mix in Dark Chocolate Fudge (my fave!) for all of these cupcakes and I always use the Wilton buttercream frosting recipe. It’s delicious and holds its shape really well when decorating with tips. I prepared frosting bags with couplers and tips, and prepared my colors: orange, green, brown and white. And of course I had my taste tester on call!

Power T Cupcakes  

Tools you’ll need: Cupcakes, a frosting bag filled with white frosting with Wilton #1M tip, and another frosting bag filled with orange frosting with Wilton #101 tip. 

Step 1: Pipe a swirl of frosting onto the cupcake with the white frosting. This is meant to cover the entire cupcake.

Step 2: Use tip #101 or other flat tip to create a power T on each cupcake.

Football Cupcakes

Tools You’ll Need: Cupcakes, a frosting bag filled with green frosting with Wilton #2010 tip (triple star tip), another frosting bag filled with brown frosting with Wilton #12 tip (large round), and another frosting bag filled with white frosting with Wilton #2 or 3 tip (small round).

Step 1: Pipe the green frosting over the entire cupcake, squeeze and pull to make it look like grass. 

Step 2: Create a large dot in the center of the cupcake for the football. Squeeze and slowly drag the tip to lengthen the dot and create a football shape.  

Step 3: Finish it off with white lines to represent the stitching on the football.

Checkerboard Cupcakes

Tools You’ll Need: Cupcakes, a frosting bag filled with orange frosting with Wilton #47 tip (flat basketweave tip), another frosting bag filled with orange frosting with Wilton #16 tip (small star), and another frosting bag filled with white frosting with Wilton #47 tip (flat basketweave tip).

Step 1: Use the flat side of tip #47 with the orange frosting to create a pattern of orange squares. These should be the width of the tip, and leave the white areas blank for now. Make sure your pattern extends to the edge of the cupcake.

Step 2: Fill in all empty spaces with a pattern of white squares to complete the checkerboard pattern. 

Step 3: Create an orange border with the #16 tip to finish of the edges of the cupcake.

Hopefully this gives you some ideas for your own football themed cupcakes. Only 15 days till football time in Tennessee!

Go VOLS!