Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house we were making mouse cupcakes. And it was easy.
What You Need: 1 cupcake (baked and cooled); chocolate frosting; 2 black Necco wafers; 2 red hots (cinnamon imperials); red licorice strings; red gumdrop.
How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Stick lengths of red licorice into cupcake for mouse whiskers and tail. Insert 2 Necco wafers at an angle for ears. Add gumdrop nose and red hot eyes.
These Christmas tree cupcakes are basically a triangle of icing stars with sprinkled decorations and a simple M&M trunk.
What You Need: 1 cupcake (baked and cooled); white frosting; frosting tinted green; red sprinkles; yellow star sprinkle; brown M&M.
How to Make It: Frost cupcake white. To make the stars, you can use a purchased tube of green icing with twist-on plastic tip, or use pastry bag with star tip. When you’re making stars, be sure to stop squeezing before you pull the tip away from the cupcake. Make triangle shape with green stars for tree. Decorate with red sprinkles and large star sprinkle, or whatever you’d like. Use brown M&M for trunk.
Here’s another take on reindeer cupcakes. Instead of using mini pretzels for antlers, make horns out of the thick style of pretzel.
What You Need: 1 cupcake (baked and cooled); chocolate frosting; thick pretzel; red gumdrop; 2 Tic-Tac mints.
How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Break pretzel and stick into cupcake to make two horns. Add gumdrop nose and Tic-Tac eyes.
This cupcake, a variation on a Wilton design, is quick and easy to make using basic decorating tips and tinted icing.
What You Need: 1 cupcake (baked and cooled); chocolate frosting; white icing; icing bag and round metal tip such as 2 or 3 (or just use prefilled tubes and plastic tip set from the grocery store.) We used pink M&Ms for the cheeks, but you could use pink icing or candies instead.
How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Use white icing and tip to pipe hair curl, eyes, nose and mouth. Add pink M&Ms for cheeks. If you don’t have pink M&Ms, using pink icing. Pipe a circle by squeezing the bag while keeping the round tip (size 2 or 3 would work) in the icing and be sure to stop squeezing before you pull away.
What could be easier than placing M&Ms on a cupcake in the shape of a wreath?
What You Need: 1 cupcake (baked and cooled); chocolate frosting; green and red M&Ms.
How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Arrange green M&Ms, flat, on the cupcake to make a wreath circle. Then place 2 red M&Ms on end next to each other for a bow.
Just as every snowflake in nature is unique, so it can be for your next batch of cupcakes. Have fun experimenting with different designs and colors. Maybe even add some sprinkles, or Wilton Cake Sparkles.
What You Need: 1 cupcake (baked and cooled); icing tinted light blue; white frosting in decorating bag and round tip 1, 2 or 3 (or just use a commercially made tube of writing icing).
How to Make It: Frost cupcake blue. Using fluid motions and even pressure, pipe snowflake shapes onto cupcake. It’s easiest if, for each “line” in your design, you lightly touch the tip to the surface of the cupcake, pull away as you gently squeeze the length of the line, and touch the tip down again to reattach. Be sure to stop squeezing before you pull away.
This clever reindeer cupcake is adapted from an idea from Kraft foods that uses a chocolate sandwich cookie for the reindeer head.
What You Need: 1 cupcake (baked and cooled); chocolate frosting; cookie such as Oreo (we used Trader Joe’s Candy Cane JoJo’s); cinnamon imperial (“red hot”); 2 mini pretzels; candy eyes or white and black writing icing.
How to Make It: Frost cupcake with chocolate icing. Cut cookie carefully into wedge shape as shown and place on top of cupcake. Position pretzels behind cookie for antlers. Use dab of icing to stick on red hot Rudolph nose and do the same with candy eyes (or use white and black writing icing).
