Crochet cupcake pattern — three pieces, 32 rounds written out
About 9 cm tall with the cherry on and about 8 cm across the frosting: a free crochet cupcake pattern, worked on a 4.0 mm hook in five colours, around three hours of work. The nine sprinkles are not sewn on at the end — they are single stitches in a pastel yarn carried inside the frosting, four picked up in round 9, three in round 11 and two in round 12, with the cream running along behind them. All 32 rounds are written out below across three pieces, each carrying the stitch count it ends on.
Maths verified, not yet made. Every one of the 32 rounds was checked against the round before it by machine — the counts, the increases and the decreases all add up. What nobody can promise you yet is how it sits in the hand.How we check
6 of 8 checks ran on 2026-09-04
- 1 format and stitch chainscripts/validate.py — 113 patterns, all counts chain.
- 2 catalogue auditscripts/audit-patterns.py — 113 audited, 0 errors, 66 warnings.
- 3 geometrygeometry-check.py — 113 checked, 0 errors, 4 warnings.
- 5 not a duplicate113 distinct display names across 113 patterns
- 6c target on the recordseo.headKeyword, confidence and demand present and cross-checked by scripts/validate.py
- 8 page readinessscripts/check-completeness.py --gate — 0 required fields missing, 114 editorial flags, 0 unearned claims.
Not yet checked
- 4 render matches the pattern — no image has been compared against its own prompt, so a render showing a piece the rounds do not make would not be caught here. Nothing has counted how many do.
- 6a recognisability — provenance.recognisability is empty in every pattern, so there is no feature list to check the parts against.
Why it is rated Medium
Medium: four rounds of the case are back loops only at an unchanging thirty stitches, and a second yarn is carried inside three rounds of the frosting for nine single stitches.
Sell what you make. Anything you crochet from this pattern is yours to sell — any quantity, no fee, no credit required.
00
00What you need before you start
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What you need before you start
Yarn — five colours, all weight 4
small ball, about 40 mWorsted / aran cotton or acrylic
scraps, about 12 mWorsted / aran cotton or acrylic. The same yarn makes the cherry stem
small ball, about 45 mWorsted / aran cotton or acrylic
scrapsWorsted scraps in any pastel. Blue, mint and lilac all read well against the cream
scraps, about 8 mWorsted / aran cotton or acrylic
Tools
5 you probably own, 1 to buyYou likely have
Tapestry needle
Scissors
Stitch markers
Pins
A chopstick or similar blunt stick for pushing stuffing
You need to buy
Polyester stuffing (about 25 g)
Optional
A stitch marker in a contrast colour to mark the back-loop rounds
A small pouch of pellets or dried beans to weight the base
A row counter
Gauge and finished size
the last check before you cast onTension
Tight enough that the stuffing does not show between stitches. Gauge is not critical here — a looser hand makes a larger cupcake and eats a little more yarn.
Finished size
~9 cm tall with the cherry on top, ~8 cm across the frosting
In DK on a 3.5 mm hook the same counts give a smaller cupcake and the ridge rounds read fainter. Keep the sprinkle yarn at the same weight as the cream, or the picked-up stitches sit proud of the dome.
How to make the cupcake, piece by piece
Switching rewrites every round:US6 sc in mrUK6 dc in mrWork a US sc as a UK single crochet and the fabric comes out looser and taller.
1
01The paper case
A flat disc out to thirty, a fold, then a straight wall. The ridges…13 RNDS
starts in paperCasePink· magic ring· Piece 1 of 3
First six rounds[6] [12] [18] [24] [30] [30]
The flat base
RND 1–51[6]
2[12]
3[18]
4[24]
5[30]
The fold that sets it flat
RND 6–66[30]
The wall, ridged every other round
RND 7–117[30]
8[30]
9[30]
10[30]
11[30]
The cake above the rim
RND 12–1312[30]
13[30]
US termsmrmagic ringscsingle crochetincincreasedecdecreasebloback loops onlyst(s)stitch, or stitches
When this piece is doneRounds 6, 7, 9 and 11 are the back-loop rounds. Each is still thirty stitches, so the count never changes — what changes is the little shelf of front loops each one leaves behind.
2
02The frosting
Out to thirty-six, two rounds straight for the overhang, then down in…14 RNDS
starts in buttercream· magic ring· Piece 2 of 3
First six rounds[6] [12] [18] [24] [30] [36]
Opening out underneath
RND 1–61[6]
2[12]
3[18]
4[24]
5[30]
6[36]
The overhanging rim
RND 7–87[36]
8[36]
Closing to the peak, sprinkles as you go
RND 9–149[30]
10[27]
11[24]
12[18]
13[12]
14[6]
US termsmrmagic ringscsingle crochetincincreasedecdecreasebloback loops onlyst(s)stitch, or stitches
When this piece is doneThe steps down are 30, 27, 24, then 18, 12, 6. The gentle middle is what keeps the sides full instead of coning straight to a point. Stuff it as you close the last three rounds.
3
03The cherry
Twelve stitches, two rounds straight, closed again. Five rounds and a…5 RNDS
starts in cherryRed· magic ring· Piece 3 of 3
First five rounds[6] [12] [12] [12] [6]
1[6]
2[12]
3[12]
4[12]
5[6]
US termsmrmagic ringscsingle crochetincincreasedecdecreasebloback loops onlyst(s)stitch, or stitches
When this piece is doneA pinch of stuffing is enough. Chain about eight in the brown yarn and sew one end into the top for the stem.
You are here
Nine notes on the cupcake
Read themClose
01An original Crochet Genie design.
02Worked in a continuous spiral. Nothing is joined, nothing is turned.
03The whole piece is smooth single crochet. There are no clusters, no gaps and no openwork anywhere in it — the only surface texture comes from the back-loop rounds described below.
04Round 6 of the case is worked in back loops only. It is still 30 single crochet, thirty in and thirty out; leaving the front loops behind folds the base flat so the cupcake sits without rocking.
05Rounds 7, 9 and 11 of the case are worked in back loops only as well. Each one is still 30 single crochet — the front loops it leaves behind stand up as a horizontal ridge, and three of them evenly spaced read as the fluting on a paper case. Rounds 8, 10, 12 and 13 go through both loops as usual.
06The nine sprinkles are single stitches in the pastel yarn, worked into rounds 9, 11 and 12 of the frosting. Carry the cream along inside the round and pick the pastel up for one stitch at a time.
07The cherry stem is a short chain of about eight worked in the brown yarn and sewn into the top of the cherry. It carries no stitch count, so the app has nothing to count for it.
08Stuff the case firmly before you sew the frosting on, and stuff the frosting as it closes over rounds 12 to 14.
09Sew the frosting to the case so the widest round overhangs the rim by the same amount the whole way round. Pin it in four places first and check it from the side. That even overhang is the whole illusion.
Four questions this pattern answers
Not questions anybody asked. Each one is written from this pattern's own record, and every answer is read off the fields it names.
How is the colour worked into the cupcake?
How much yarn will the cupcake take?
What hook will the cupcake need, and what is the finished size?
How long will the cupcake take to crochet?
A round that will not add up?
Tell us the piece and the round number — the stepper already knows where you are.There is nowhere to send one yet.
Put the laptop down mid-round
The iPhone app keeps your place — piece of 3, round of — and hands it back where you left it.
