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Christmas Cupcakes are super simple and so much fun! I’m showing you how to make FOUR different decorations: Christmas Tree Cupcakes, Santa Hat Cupcakes, Christmas Pinata Cupcakes, and Melting Snowman Cupcakes!

4 cupcakes decorated for christmas: snowman, Santa, swirled frosting, tree


Easy Christmas Cupcake Decorating

Today I’m going to show you how to make some super cute and sweet cupcakes for Christmas! These treats are mere ideas – you can use any kind of cupcake you like!

With just some easy frosting, sprinkles and food coloring you can make the cutest Christmas Cupcakes ever.

Ingredients Needed

Again, these cupcakes are just decorating ideas to get you started. Here’s what you’ll need:

  • Cupcakes: you can use any flavor, homemade or from the store.
  • Vanilla Frosting: use homemade or store bought. If using homemade you’ll want a double recipe.
  • Cupcake Liners: any color works, but I love the brown ones for the trees and Santa hats!
  • Tools: pastry bags, round tip (Wilton Tip 12), star tip (Wilton Tip 22), Wilton 1M tip, gel food coloring (I love the Wilton Color System or Americolor Gel)
  • Sprinkles: gold stars for the trees (and any other kind for ornaments) plus some fun holiday sprinkles for the piñata cupcake and something for the buttons on the snowman
  • Marshmallows for the snowmen face

How to get the right color frosting

Instead of using guesswork, check the brand of food coloring you’re using and see if that brand has a color chart on their website. It helps you do the mixing by telling you the number of drops for each color.

How to make Christmas Cupcakes

christmas tree cupcake with brown wrapper and green frosting

How to make Christmas Tree Cupcakes

  • Cupcakes: Bake the cupcakes in brown liners if you have them – and chocolate cupcakes look more like the bark of the tree.
  • Frosting: I did Spring Green from the Wilton Color Chart (linked above).
  • Tools: Use a piping bag fitted with a 1M tip and frost the cupcakes high (see my easy cupcake frosting tutorial to see how I get it so high).
  • Decorating: Top the cupcake with a gold star and sprinkle some sugar sprinkles around the edges of the frosting for ornaments.
  • These would be pretty cupcakes to make a cupcake wreath with – decorate the entire batch like Christmas trees and place in a circle and you have Christmas wreath cupcakes!
christmas cupcake decorated like a Santa hat with red frosting and white puffs

How to make Santa Hat Cupcakes

  • Cupcakes: Use any flavor cupcake. If you can find red liners they are perfect!
  • Frosting: Tint some of the frosting bright red. This is best done with a gel food coloring (the grocery store kind has a hard time turning full red).
  • Tools: Use the small round piping tip with the red frosting to pipe the pile of hat, then use the star tip with white frosting to pipe the ball at the end and puff balls around the base.
  • Decorating: If you want, sprinkle some white sanding sugar on the white parts to make it look fluffy.
cupcake decorated like a melting snowman

How to make Melting Snowman Cupcakes

  • Cupcakes: Use any flavor cupcake and any color liner.
  • Frosting: leave it white, no piping bag or tip needed.
  • Tools: toothpick, for drawing the arms and face. Black and orange food coloring for the arms and face.
  • Decoration: use a knife to spread white frosting on the cupcake. Cut a large marshmallow in half and place it on one side of the cupcake, then add large sprinkle buttons. Use the toothpick dipped in food coloring to draw the face and arms.
christmas cupcake in green liner with green and red swirled frosting

How to make Pinata Cupcakes

  • Cupcakes: Use any flavor cupcake and any color liner.
  • Frosting: two or three colors: red, green, white.
  • Decoration: Fill the cupcake with sprinkles and frosting with frosting.
  • See this post on how to do a swirled frosting effect.
  • See this post on how to make a pinata cupcake.
chocolate cupcake sliced open with sprinkles inside and swirled frosting

Tip From Dorothy

Expert Tips

  • You could also turn my Reindeer Christmas Cookies into Reindeer cupcakes – frost the top of the cupcake with vanilla frosting then top with pretzel antlers and use a red m&m for the red noses and candy eyes.
  • Store cupcakes loosely covered at room temperature or in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Cupcakes can also be frozen.
4 cupcakes decorated for christmas: snowman, Santa, swirled frosting, tree

Christmas Cupcakes Recipe Tutorial

5 from 1 vote
Learn how to make easy and fun Christmas Cupcakes 4 different ways with just a few ingredients.
Prep Time 30 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Yield 24 cupcakes
Serving Size 1 cupcake

Ingredients
 

  • 24 Cupcakes
  • 2 recipes vanilla frosting or 4 cans vanilla frosting
  • Food Coloring
  • Sprinkles
  • Marshmallows for the snowmen
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Instructions

  • Christmas Tree Cupcakes: tint frosting green. Add to a pastry bag fitted with a 1M tip and frost cupcake high, then decorate with a gold star sprinkle and other sprinkles for ornaments.
  • Melted Snowmen Cupcakes: frost cupcake white. Cut a large marshmallow in half and place it on the cupcake. Place sprinkles as buttons facing away from the head and use a toothpick with food coloring to draw the arms and face.
  • Santa Hat Cupcakes: tint 3/4 of frosting red. Use a round tip to pipe the hat then use a star tip to pipe around the edges and the tip.
  • Pinata Cupcakes: tint frosting 2 or 3 colors. Wrap each color frosting in plastic wrap formed into a log. Place all frostings in a pastry bag fitted with the 1M tip. Cut out top of cupcake and fill with sprinkles. Frost cupcake.
  • See the recipe post for more details and links to tools and other resources.

Recipe Nutrition

Serving: 1cupcake | Calories: 154kcal | Carbohydrates: 25g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 141mg | Potassium: 41mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 15g | Vitamin A: 22IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 56mg | Iron: 1mg
Nutritional information not guaranteed to be accurate
Course Dessert
Cuisine American

4 EASY Christmas Cupcake Recipes – learn how to decorate cupcakes super simple for the holidays: Snowman Cupcakes, Santa hat Cupcakes, Christmas Tree Cupcakes and Pinata Cupcakes with swirled frosting! These easy decorating techniques are so much fun!

Last Updated on December 16, 2023



Dorothy Kern

Welcome to Crazy for Crust, where I share recipes that are sometimes crazy, often with a crust, and always served with a slice of life.

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