Christmas Cupcakes

My girls had a Christmas party in church last weekend, and I was tasked to make cupcakes for the event. My daughter told her teacher (without asking me first!) that I would make a log cake. I panicked when I found out because I have never made a log cake in my life and was not about to experiment at the risk of not having a cake to deliver on the day. I convinced the girls and the teacher that cupcakes would be easier for kids to eat :p I’ll get round to learning how to make the log cake making next year. 

Next came the frantic search on the web for easy cupcake ideas – a search which yielded these Christmas tree, snowman and ponsiettas cupcakes. I love how these cupcakes bring on the spirit and mood of Christmas. Here’s wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and have a great time with your family and friends!

Christmas Tree Cupcakes

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
Your branches green delight us!
They are green when summer days are bright,
They are green when winter snow is white.
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
Your branches green delight us!

This Christmas tree cupcake is made of an ice cream cone sitting on a cupcake. The cone is covered with green frosting piped out using the star-shaped tip. I cut the star on top of the tree out of a gummy sweet and coated it with dessicated coconut.  View Martha Stewart’s video on how to make this cupcake here.

Snowman Cupcakes

 Frosty the snowman was a jolly happy soul,
With a corncob pipe and a button nose
And two eyes made out of coal.
Frosty the snowman is a fairy tale, they say,
He was made of snow but the children
Know how he came to life one day.
There must have been some magic in that
Old silk hat they found.
For when they placed it on his head
He began to dance around.

The snowman cupcake is made using two pieces of marshmellow cut to size and held together with frosting. I used a piece of gummy for the hat and cut the carrot nose out of the gummy. The eyes are black food colouring painted on using the tip of a paintbrush. View Martha Stewart’s video on how to make snowman cupcakes here.

Poinsietta Cupcakes

The beautiful striking red poinsiettas are a hallmark of the Christmas holiday season. I got the idea of these lovely poinsietta cupcakes from a picture posted by Cake Whiz on her facebook page. The petals are piped using a leaf tip and the green dots using a small round tip. Check out Cake Whiz’spost and video on how to pipe the leaves.

You can use any cupcake and frosting recipe. The frosting needs to be able to hold up well for the piping job not to run. This is my frosting recipe which worked very well, despite the humid weather I have here:

Perfect Cream Cheese Frosting
Recipe from here

Ingredients

2 8-oz. packages cream cheese (light works fine, although it will yield a slightly softer frosting) at almost room temperature
1/2 cup salted butter at almost room temperature
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract

Method

Whip together the cream cheese, butter, and extract until light and fluffy. Add in the powdered sugar and whip until smooth and fully incorporated.  Refrigerate any leftovers (or anything you’ve frosted that doesn’t get eaten immediately).