Description
Celebrate the holiday season with these festive Easy Christmas Cupcakes! Featuring a mix of vanilla and chocolate cupcakes topped with vibrant, handcrafted buttercream decorations including Christmas trees, snowmen, reindeer, and Santa hats, these cupcakes bring joy and color to any holiday gathering. The buttery vanilla buttercream is expertly colored and piped with detailed tips to create charming holiday characters and designs that are as delightful to look at as they are to eat.
Ingredients
Scale
Cupcakes
- 12 cupcakes (a mix of vanilla and chocolate)
Vanilla Buttercream
- 2 cups (448g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 8 cups (460g) powdered sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 4–6 tbsp (60-90ml) heavy cream or milk
- Salt, to taste
Tree Cupcakes Decoration
- Green gel icing color
- 1 piping bag
- Ateco 847 tip
- Star sprinkles
- Colorful nonpareil sprinkles
Melted Snowman Decorations
- Brown gel icing color
- Marshmallows
- Food writing pens (black and orange)
- 2 piping bags
- Ateco 808 tip
- Wilton 5 tip
- 1 coupler
- Large nonpareil sprinkles (for buttons)
Reindeer Cupcakes Decoration
- Brown gel icing color
- 4 oz melting chocolate
- 2 piping bags
- 1 coupler
- Wilton 5 tip
- Ateco 808 tip
- Eyeball sprinkles
- Large round red sprinkles (for nose)
Santa Hat Cupcakes Decoration
- Red gel icing color
- 2 piping bags
- 1 coupler
- Ateco 808 tip
- Wilton 21 tip
Instructions
- Make the buttercream: Add the butter to a large mixer bowl and beat until smooth and creamy. Incorporate about half of the powdered sugar and mix thoroughly. Add vanilla extract and 3 tablespoons of cream, mixing until well combined. Add remaining powdered sugar and blend until smooth. Adjust consistency with more cream as needed and season with salt to taste to balance sweetness.
- Color the buttercream: Divide buttercream into four bowls, allotting a bit extra for the green and red batches. Color one bowl green, another red, one brown, and leave one white. Colors will darken slightly as the buttercream rests.
- Make Christmas tree cupcakes: Fit a large piping bag with an Ateco 847 tip and fill with green buttercream. Pipe tall, even swirls starting from the cupcake perimeter inward, completing three full inward rotations with a tip on top. Before moving to the next cupcake, decorate with star and colorful nonpareil sprinkles while frosting is still fresh.
- Make snowman cupcakes: Decorate marshmallows’ faces using black and orange food writing pens in advance. Fit a large piping bag with an Ateco 808 tip and fill with white buttercream. Pipe a flower-like design over the cupcake top with ‘petals’ formed in a circular motion and smooth with an offset spatula. Attach the marshmallow face to the back of the cupcake, add large nonpareil sprinkles as buttons down the center, then pipe brown buttercream arms onto the sides using a Wilton 5 tip fitted on a medium-sized piping bag.
- Make reindeer cupcakes: Melt 4 oz melting chocolate and pipe antlers onto parchment paper using a piping bag fitted with a coupler and Wilton 5 tip. Let antlers dry completely. Using an Ateco 808 tip in a large piping bag, pipe a short, offset brown buttercream swirl onto the cupcake, positioning the ‘snout’ below center where the piping tip finishes. Affix red nose sprinkle where the tip is removed, place eyeball sprinkles above the snout, then insert chocolate antlers at the top.
- Make Santa hat cupcakes: Fill a large piping bag fitted with an Ateco 808 tip with red buttercream. Pipe tall swirls starting from the edge inward making three rotations and finishing with a small tip on top, leaving space around the base. Using a medium piping bag with a coupler and Wilton 21 tip, pipe white dollops around the hat’s base and a fluffy ball on the top for trim and pom-pom.
- Serve and store: Serve cupcakes at room temperature the day they are decorated to prevent color bleeding from sprinkles and eyeballs. Cupcakes can sit at room temperature for 24 hours, after which they should be refrigerated for up to 3-4 days in an airtight container. Bring to room temperature before serving.
Notes
- The buttercream recipe yields about 5 cups, enough for 12 cupcakes. Adjust amounts if making fewer or simpler designs but maintain stiffness for decoration stability.
- 4 oz melting chocolate is sufficient for making 12 pairs of antlers; use at least 2 oz to ensure ease of piping.
- Food writing on marshmallows can be done ahead of time for convenience.
- Decorate cupcakes prior to serving day to keep decorations fresh and colors vibrant.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cupcake
- Calories: 420
- Sugar: 40g
- Sodium: 110mg
- Fat: 25g
- Saturated Fat: 15g
- Unsaturated Fat: 8g
- Trans Fat: 0.5g
- Carbohydrates: 48g
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 3g
- Cholesterol: 70mg
