Christmas Cupcakes!
A love letter to Christmas,
I love Christmas. I love Christmas Eve. I love Christmas month. I love turkey. I love ham. I LOVE STUFFING. I love spuds on spuds. I love gravy. I love Brussel sprouts. I love mash turnip and carrots. I love Christmas cake. I love sugar cookies. I love Christmas baking. I love candy canes. I love advent calendars. I love Christmas stockings. I love my mothers Christmas jelly. I love Christmas morning bucks fizz. I love Baileys coffees. I love spiked hot chocolate. I love Secret Santa. I love Christmas trees. I love Christmas lights. I love Christmas decorations. I love tacky Christmas decorations. I love Christmas drinks. I love Christmas nights out. I love Christmas markets. I love Christmas jumpers. I love Christmas earrings. I love pubs at Christmas time. I love Christmas carols night at mass with my mam. I love buying Christmas presents. I love wrapping Christmas presents. I LOVE watching people open Christmas presents. I love Christmas Music. I love Christmas movies. I love Fairytale of New York. I love New York at Christmas time. I love Westport at Christmas time. I miss Westport at Christmas time.
Yours truly,
Santa junior.
Christmas is such a magical time of year. As a kid, as an adult, it’s the best. Growing older, and world wide pandemics, unfortunately means that we don’t always get to spend Christmas with our nearest and dearest. On the bright side, in this day and age, we have FaceTime and priority shipping so we can feel some of those home comforts, even for fleeting moments. So, if you’re at home with your family or stuck on another continent, there’s no excuse not to be full of festive cheer or at least on a sugar high with my, admittedly over the top, Christmas cupcakes!
I’m not going to lie, these take a little bit of time buuuut if you’re stuck in the house and have a spare day or couple of hours these are actually a lot of fun to put together and look amazing when they are finished. All parts are very easy, there’s just a few more parts than usual!! It would be a lovely group project with kids or just family/friends. Very festive!
Enough rambling, I hope you love this recipe as much as I do and let me know if you try it or have any questions or comments!
Bácáil sona agus na Nollag sona!!
CHRISTMAS CUPCAKES
Recipes
⏲ PREP TIME: 2 hours
⏲ BAKING TIME: 20 minutes
⏲ RESTING TIME: 20 minutes
🧁 SERVINGS: 27
EQUIPMENT
stand mixer/ hand mixer
mixing bowls
whisk
cupcake tins
cupcake liners
frosting spatula
weighing scale
INGREDIENTS
Chocolate Fudge Cupcake Batter
110g all-purpose flour
5tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
15g cornstarch
5g/ 1 tsp baking powder
1.25g/ 1/4 tsp baking soda
55g/ 1/2 pack chocolate pudding mix powder
150g granulated sugar
50g light brown sugar
2 eggs (room temperature)
1/4 cup/ 60ml vegetable oil
7.5g/ 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
100ml coffee
40ml milk (whatever milk you prefer)
110g milk or dark chocolate (I do half dairymilk bar and half semi-sweet chips)
Vanilla Cupcake Batter
130g all-purpose flour
15g cornstarch
5g/ 1 tsp baking powder
1.25g/ 1/4 tsp baking soda
55g/ 1/2 pack white chocolate pudding mix powder
200g granulated sugar
112g/ 1 stick salted butter (room temperature)
1 egg (room temperature)
1 egg yolk (room temperature)
120ml/ 1/2 cup whole or 2% milk
7.5g/ 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
White Chocolate Frosting
560g powdered sugar
112g/ 1 stick unsalted butter
112g/ 1 stick vegetable shortening
5g/ 1 tsp vanilla extract
100g white chocolate
30mls/ 2 tbsp heavy cream
Cupcake Toppers
24 sugar icecream cones
400g powdered sugar (200g per colour you need)
3-4 tbsp 45-60ml water (1-2tbsp per colour)
10g high glucose syrup (5g per colour)
red food colouring
green food colouring
red sugar
green sugar
m&m's (whatever small coloured sweets you like)
INSTRUCTIONS
Cupcake Toppers
1.
I would recommend doing these first so that they are set and ready to go. I made them the day before but you can make them the day of too as long as you do it first.
2.
Break off some of the cone to get the size you want. I used the whole cone for trees and broke some off for the hats.
3.
In a bowl, mix together 200g powdered sugar, 1-2tbsp water, 5g glucose syrup and whatever food colouring you are using. Repeat this with all the colours you are making.
4.
Using a tablespoon, cover your cone in the icing, rotating to completely cover. Let excess drip off and place on kitchen roll or cooling rack to dry.
5.
Repeat on all cones. The first ones should be dry by the time you finish.
6.
Do a second coat on all. After you cover each cone, shake coloured sugar (the same colour as the icing) over the entire cone and put aside again to dry.
Cupcakes
1.
Preheat oven to 350°F, 180°C.
2.
Add cupcake liners to cupcake tins.
Chocolate Cupcakes
1.
Make your coffee, add milk and set aside to cool.
2.
Weigh and sieve all dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and mix together.
3.
Add wet ingredients and your chocolate and mix through until fully combined.
Vanilla Cupcakes
1.
Weigh and sieve dry ingredients (except sugar) into a bowl, mix and set aside.
2.
Cream butter and sugar together on medium in your stand mixer until pale and fluffy.
3.
Add your eggs and mix until fully combined.
4.
Add milk and vanilla and mix on low until smooth.
5.
Add dry ingredients, a little at a time, and mix until completely combined.
Cupcakes
1.
Spoon 1 tablespoon of chocolate mix and 1 tablespoon of vanilla mix into each cupcake liner and bake for 20 minutes.
2.
Leave in tins to cool and then place them on a cooling rack.
Frosting
1.
Melt white chocolate and heavy cream together in the microwave. 30-40 seconds should do it. Set aside.
2.
Cream butter and shortening together in stand mixer.
3.
Add melted chocolate/cream and vanilla and combine.
4.
Add powdered sugar, a little at a time, until thick and creamy.
Cupcake Construction
1.
Using a spatula add frosting to each cupcake. It's okay to be messy here, I think it looks better in the end, it's meant to look like snow or the base of a santa hat.
2.
Fill the end of a cone with m&m's or your sweet of choice and carefully place onto your cupcake. Repeat until all of your cupcakes have a topper.
3.
Gather your tree cupcakes together and use a small sieve to dust powdered sugar over the top so it looks like snow.
4.
Use an icing bag to pipe some frosting onto the tip of your santa hat cupcakes.
5.
Finally, sit down, relax and enjoy!!