Showy Filled Cupcakes for Desserts That Really Wow

It's easy to re-create this bakery favorite full-size pie as an individually-portioned filled cupcake recipe. Slather a split vanilla cupcake with luscious vanilla cream and drench it with rich chocolate ganache. As a bonus to those of you who are planners, you can make the vanilla cream a day ahead.

With bananas, cream cheese, and coffee in the ingredient list, these filled cupcakes sound equally wonderful for breakfast as dessert. With 2 to 3 bananas in the cake mixture and another banana used in the frosting, this is certainly the go-to filled cupcake recipe for banana lovers.

Related: Irresistible Banana Bread Recipes from Classic to Redefined

These chocolate cupcakes are hiding two secrets—a cream cheese filling and a shortcut ingredient: boxed cake mix. You can keep using shortcuts by utilizing purchased canned vanilla and chocolate frosting or make your own frosting recipes. When you pipe the two frosting colors using different pastry bag tips you add instant beauty to the dessert.

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This moist cupcake is hiding a filling of crushed pineapple in a sweetened cream cheese mixture. But it also has shredded carrots, and a luscious cream cheese frosting. After baking in a muffin tin, cooling, and frosting, roll the edge of the frosted cupcake in chopped walnuts for crunch.

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Meringue topping makes these lemon curd-filled cupcakes taste just like classic lemon meringue pie. For an extra-special touch, use a pastry bag and large star tip to pipe the meringue in pretty designs.

A miniature peanut butter cup is tucked instead each of these yummy treats. The candy makes the cupcakes sink slightly during baking—the perfect spot for a pretty dollop of jam once they’re cooled. With the jam on top and peanut butter in the filling, these cupcakes are a fun dessert spin on a PB&J recipe.

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With these donut-inspired cupcakes, you can pick your favorite filling. Try any jelly, jam, marmalade, or curd for delicious results. No matter the filling, we like to squeeze enough filling into the cupcakes that some comes out of the top so we can tell what flavor is inside.

Related: Donut Recipes to Make Breakfast a Little Sweeter

Just like those purchased cupcakes of your youth, this copycat recipe is a chocolate cupcake at its base but filled with a buttery-marshmallow crème filling, topped with a decadent ganache and a bit of white icing for that telephone-cord swirl you remember. Whip up a batch to feel like a kid again today.

These filled cupcakes keep the flavor you love in the Sicilian pastry, cannoli, thanks to a sweet ricotta frosting and pistachios but eliminates the intense work of making cannoli shells. Garnish with additional pistachio nuts and grated chocolate for a pretty finish.

Related: Italian Desserts

Come the fall months we will eat any pumpkin dessert in front of us. Heck, a pumpkin dessert any time of year is sure to be devoured. This filled cupcake recipe isn’t shy about hiding what’s inside, it’s layered proudly to display the spiced mascarpone cream filling, which also serves as the frosting. A light sprinkling of crystallized ginger adds the final sparkly, sophisticated garnish.

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Sweet-tart lemon curd fills the center of these dreamy citrus-flavor cupcakes. Garnish the lemon cream frosting with lemon zest or a slice of lemon to hint at the flavor profile inside these lemon-filled cupcakes.

These adorable filled cupcakes are intended as a St Patrick’s Day dessert, but you can use the recipe as a template for other filling ideas for other holidays and occasions. Instead of green and shamrock sprinkles use sprinkles or tiny candies in the color scheme of your party.

Turn these amazing raspberry-filled chocolate cupcakes upside down before drenching them in rich chocolate truffle icing. The filling is just fresh berries so there’s no extra step of making a filling.

These pretty-in-pink cupcakes get their subtle hue from cherry juice in the batter and the frosting. A cherry is also the only filling called for, making this the perfect filled cupcake recipe for those who don’t love loads of sugary frosting and fillings in their desserts.

This filled cupcake recipe may use our most favorite way of concealing the hole where you piped in the creamy, minty filling. A tiny bit of melted chocolate serves as "glue" to adhere chocolate-covered mint cream candies for a cute topper that let's you know what flavors are inside.

Make these yummy desserts in a flash with store-bought products like purchased cupcakes and ice cream. Add 2 to 3 miniature scoops of ice cream—topped with a cherry-pecan mixture—inside a sliced cupcake. Garnish with more ice cream for a cake take on an ice cream cookie sandwich.

In this fun remake of a soda shop favorite, banana cupcakes are filled with whipped cream and topped with a scoop of ice cream. To make it even more like the sundae treat, don't forget the chocolate sauce, whipped cream, and chopped nuts.