This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, read my disclosure policy.
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!
I love easy cupcake decorating – I’m not a fancy decorator by any means. Some people have that natural talent for cake decorating – I’m not one of them! However, I can make fun cupcake with colorful frosting and sprinkles (see my Halloween Cupcakes as proof!)
This is the easiest cupcake decorating you’ll ever do! You just need a few ingredients:
- Bake chocolate cupcakes – you can use any flavor you want, like vanilla cupcakes or red velvet cupcakes. You can also use a cake mix!
- Make vanilla buttercream frosting (or grab a few cans of frosting). I love my homemade frosting with unsalted butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. It’s so good.
How to make Christmas Cupcakes
Again, these cupcakes are just decorating ideas to get you started. Here’s what you’ll need:
- 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 faces
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Christmas Cupcakes Recipe Tutorial
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
Ingredients
- 24 Cupcakes
- 2 recipes vanilla frosting or 4 cans vanilla frosting
- Food Coloring
- Sprinkles
- Marshmallows for the snowmen
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
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!
