Christmas Cupcakes

I’m going ALL OUT with my Christmas cupcakes this year and making them five different ways! Melting snowmen, poinsettias, Santa hats, Christmas Trees, and wreaths topped with a homemade buttercream frosting bow! You can make any or all of these decorations schemes and I guarantee you’ll love the taste of these cupcakes!

Pro Tips for Christmas Cupcakes

• Measure your flour correctly! Adding too much flour to the recipe is the most common mistake. The best, and easiest way to measure flour is by using a scale. If you don’t have one then fluff your flour with a spoon, sprinkle it into your measuring cup, and use a knife to level it off.
• When making that marshmallow snowman make sure to pick a little bit of the surface where the nose will go! That helps it to stick on better 🙂
• You can substitute whole milk yogurt for the sour cream if desired, I do it all the time and can’t really tell the difference.
• Add in some crushed candy canes to the batter at the very end for a festive and minty touch.
• These decorations can all be made with Italian or Swiss meringue buttercream for a less sweet frosting.

How To Make Christmas Cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and place your cupcake papers in the pan. Sift the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and the sugar into a large bowl then whisk together and set aside.

2. Separate the yolks and whites of your room temperature eggs. Save the yolks for a batch of French buttercream, pastry cream or add to your morning omelette!

3. Add the sour cream, milk, vanilla, egg whites and melted butter to a large bowl.

4. Whisk together the wet ingredients until combined. The batter may be a bit clumpy but do not worry! 

5. Now add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix them until they’re just combined.

6. Distribute the bater evenly into the papers filling about 2/3 the way up. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden and springy to the touch.

7. For the buttercream; Cream the room temperature butter in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Sift in the confectioners sugar in two to three batches mixing after each batch.

8. Add the salt, vanilla, and either the milk or cream depending on which you decide to use. Continue to mix until is smooth. Once your buttercream is done, separate it into multiple bowls and add food coloring to create green, red, and a very small amount of orange and brown. Don’t forget to leave some white!

How to Decorate a Wreath Cupcake

1. For the wreaths; Pipe a white base onto your cupcake. I used an 898 tip. You can also just cut the tip of your piping bag and smooth it out with a knife.
2. In an overlapping motion, pipe the leaves using a 349 tip or a small leaf tip. I would recommend practicing on a flat surface if you’re not comfortable.
3. Use a 101 tip or a small petal tip to pipe the ribbon on your wreath. Once you’ve piped your wreath, you can decorate it using sugar pearls if you’d like.

How to Decorate a Poinsettia Cupcake

1. For the poinsettia; using a large leaf tip, pipe the green leaves of the poinsettia right on the surface of the cupcake.
2. To pipe the red leaves, use a medium leaf tip. Pipe a second set of red leaves over the first set to close up that bare spot in the middle.
3. Finish off by adding the tiny yellow flowers in the middle with a number 3 tip, and there you have your poinsettia!

How to Decorate a Melting Snowman Cupcake

1. For the snowmen; to start off, add a little bit of crumbled up cake from the cupcakes to some buttercream. Mix it up then add orange food coloring. You’re going to mold this together to make the snowman’s nose.
2. Pipe a white base onto your cupcake and smooth it out with a knife.
3. Cut off a corner of a large marshmallow and place it at the edge of your cupcake. This is going to be your snowman’s head!
4. Now you’re going to pop that nose on. Make sure to pinch off the surface of the marshmallow where your nose will attach.
5. Use the black buttercream to give your snowman arms, a mouth, and eyes.
6. Finish up by adding the buttons. I used small sugar pearls but dots of buttercream will work too.

How to Decorate a Christmas Tree Cupcake

1. Start off by piping another white base with your buttercream onto the cupcake and smooth it out with a knife or off set spatula.
2. Spread a small amount of brown buttercream on to replicate your tree stump. With a number 40 star tip, start piping dollops to create your Christmas tree.
3. You can use any color sugar pears or chocolate pearls to decorate your Christmas tree. I also covered a star shaped sprinkle in gold to put on the top of my tree!

How to Santa Hat Cupcake

1. Use a large round tip (808) to pipe the red body of Santa’s hat. Start with a circular motion at the base and move up while decreasing the size of your swirl to create a cone shape. If you don’t have that piping tip just cut the tip off of a piping bag.
2. Pipe a dollop of white buttercream on top using a 199 or any medium-sized star tip.
3. User that same tip to pipe the hat’s brim. You can pipe a bunch or little dollops or move the piping bag around to get an undulating pattern. A final but very optional touch is tipping the white parts of the hat in sanding sugar for some extra sparkle.

If you’ve tried these cupcakes then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you!

5 from 29 votes

Christmas Cupcakes

These festive Christmas cupcakes decorated five different ways are too cute not to make for your next holiday gathering! Moist and fluffy vanilla cupcakes topped with vanilla buttercream, this recipe will become a year-round favorite!!

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Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 18

Calories 300kcal

Author John Kanell

Video

Ingredients

For the Cupcakes

• ▢ 1 2/3 cups all purpose flour 200g
• ▢ 1 cup granulated sugar 200g
• ▢ 1/4 tsp baking soda 1g, heaping
• ▢ 1 tsp baking powder 4g, heaping
• ▢ 1/4 tsp kosher salt 1g
• ▢ 3/4 cup unsalted butter 190g, room temperature
• ▢ 3 egg whites
• ▢ 1 tbsp vanilla extract 15mL
• ▢ 1/2 cup sour cream 120g
• ▢ 1/2 cup whole milk 118mL

For the Vanilla Buttercream

• ▢ 2 lbs confectioners sugar 900g
• ▢ 1 lb unsalted butter 450g
• ▢ 1 tsp vanilla extract 5mL
• ▢ 1 tbsp heavy cream 15mL
• ▢ 1 pinch salt
• ▢ 1 tsp whole milk 5mL
• ▢ red, green, and orange food coloring
• ▢ gold or silver sugar pearls
• ▢ rainbow sugar pearls
• ▢ large marshmallows
• ▢ 3 tbsp candy melts black

Instructions

For the Cupcakes

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place cupcake papers in a cupcake pan.
• In a large bowl, sift the dry ingredients together until incorporated. Including the sugar.
• In another bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients until combined. (The batter may be clumpy! Do not worry!)
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix until combined.
• Distribute the batter evenly into cupcake papers.
• Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden and springy to the touch.

For the Buttercream

• In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the room temperature butter. Add in the confectioners sugar in two batches.
• Now add salt, milk, cream and vanilla. Mix until fluffy.
• Separate into multiple bowls and add food coloring to create green, red, and a very small amount of orange. Transfer each color to a piping bag.

For the Assembly

• For the wreaths; pipe a white base onto your cupcake. I used an 898 tip. Use a 349 or a small leaf tip to pipe the green leaves. To make the ribbon, use a 101 or a small petal tip. You can decorate your wreath using gold or silver sugar pearls.
• For the poinsettia; Using a 70 (large leaf tip), pipe the green leaves of the flower right on to the cupcake. To pipe the red leaves, use a352 tip. Finish off by adding the tiny yellow flowers in the middle with a 3 tip (or just snip the tip off a piping bag.
• For the Christmas tree; Pipe a white base onto your cupcake. Spread a small amount of brown buttercream at the edge of your cupcake to create your tree stump. With a number 30 or medium star tip, start creating your dollops to make your tree. Use rainbow or any color sugar pearls to decorate your Christmas tree.
• For the snowman; Add a little bit of cake from the cupcakes, some buttercream, orange food coloring, and mix together. Use this to mold the noses. Start off by piping a white base. Cut off a corner of a large marshmallow and place it at the edge of your cupcake. Use black buttercream to pipe the arms, mouth, and eyes. You can add small sugar pearls for the buttons.
• For the Santa hat; pipe the hat using the red buttercream and an 808  tip. For the fur around the hat, add dollops of white buttercream with a medium star or 30 tip.

Notes

• When making that marshmallow snowman make sure to pink a little bit of the surface where the nose will go! That helps it to stick on better 🙂
• You can substitute whole milk yogurt for the sour cream if desired, I do it all the time and can’t really tell the difference.
• Add in some crushed candy canes to the batter at the very end for a festive and minty touch.
• These decorations can all be made with Italian or Swiss meringue buttercream for a less sweet frosting.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 300kcal | Carbohydrates: 46g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 23g | Saturated Fat: 14g | Cholesterol: 80mg | Sodium: 210mg | Potassium: 55mg | Sugar: 34g | Vitamin A: 600IU | Calcium: 30mg | Iron: 0.9mg

*Nutrition Disclaimer

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