This is just one of our watermelon-inspired desserts. If you like the concept and want more, check out our list of Fun Recipes That Look Like Watermelon.

Watermelon Cupcakes Recipe

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Watermelon Cupcakes Ingredients:

You can get the full list of ingredients with measurements in the recipe card below.

• White cake mix – You also need whatever ingredients the cake mix requires.
• Food coloring – You need green food coloring for the cupcakes and red food coloring for the icing.
• Icing – I like the taste of cream cheese icing better than white icing, but as long as it’s white, it’s fine.
• Chocolate chips – We use mini chocolate chips.

How To Make Watermelon Cupcakes:

Quick note before we start: I keep calling these watermelon cupcakes because they look like watermelon, but the flavor isn’t watermelon.

If you wanted to, you could probably add a watermelon extract to the batter or the icing, but I haven’t tried that.

Mix the box ingredients together, according to the directions on the box.

The box I use calls for egg whites, water, and oil. Your recipe may call use other ingredients.

But, you want to use just egg whites not the yolks because you want the cake to be as white as possible so it takes on as much as the green color as possible.

Mix the cake mix with the stand mixer.

Add green food coloring to the cake mix. Stir gently by hand until the green is incorporated.

On the back of the food coloring box, there are recipes to make deeper greens by adding a formula of green, blue, and yellow food coloring.

I’ll be very honest and tell you that I have tried this and it doesn’t matter. Mixing together those three food colorings looks exactly like just adding green food coloring to my untrained eye.

So you can try food coloring math or you could just add green and save yourself a little bit of time.

Add the batter to cupcake molds.

I use a cookie scoop to divvy out the batter so I can make sure that they’re all filled the same and bake evenly.

I also use silicone cupcake liners.

You don’t have to use them, but when you’re serving these, you serve them out of the wrapper so people can see that they look like mini watermelons. If you use silicone molds, the cupcakes easily pop out of the mold. Plus, they’re better for the earth (and your wallet) because they’re reusable.

If you don’t have silicone cupcake molds, you can either use paper cupcake wrappers or grease the muffin tin.

Bake the batter for one minute less than the package says.

This way, the cupcakes don’t get golden brown outside and you’re able to really see the green.

When the cupcakes are done, cool them completely (or at least to room temperature) on a wire cooling rack.

When the cupcakes are cooled, remove them from the silicone baking molds.

Spoon the icing into a small mixing bowl.

Add in the red food coloring.

Use a hand mixer to mix the icing.

You don’t have to use a hand mixer to mix the icing, but I do because store-bought icing has been sitting in the container for a while and it gets flat.

Aerating it by mixing with a hand mixer makes it softer and fluffier. It also expands the icing so you have more without actually purchasing more.

Add the icing to a piping bag with a No. 131 tip.

That tip is my recommendation, but you could use a different sized piping tip.

Pipe the pink frosting (the “watermelon flesh”) on top of the cupcakes.

Sprinkle some mini chocolate chips (the “watermelon seeds”) on top of the icing.

Continue until you’re done with all the cupcakes.

Watermelon Cupcakes: Frequently Asked Questions

More Watermelon-esque Recipes:

These aren’t the only watermelon-esque recipes we have on Drugstore Divas. We also have watermelon fudge and watermelon cake pops.

Just like this recipe, those are decorated to look like watermelons but aren’t watermelon flavored.