Christmas Cupcakes - the kind of cook recipe

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!!

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