Celebrate the four elf food groups with Buddy the Elf’s favorite Christmas cupcakes! These colorful and creative cupcakes are a blast to make with the kids, are great for Christmas movie nights, and are as much fun to decorate as they are to share.

An Elf Christmas cupcake with more in the background, with yellow frosting made to look like spaghetti topped with candies, chocolate chips, holiday sprinkles and marshmallows.

Why We Love Elf’s Favorite Cupcakes

Fun To Make With The Kids – The kids will have so much fun helping to make these Christmas cupcakes to share and chatting about Buddy’s favorite treats while they do it! Since they are designed to look like an elf’s favorite meal, the decorating doesn’t have to be perfect to look great, which is way fun for kids.
Make It For A Christmas Movie Night – Of course these cupcakes are perfect for a Christmas movie night, they are based off elves favorite food groups!
Unique Treat For Christmas Parties And Potlucks – These cupcakes stand out at a party in a good way that will get your family and friends talking!

Ingredients For Elf’s Favorite Cupcakes

Find the full printable recipe with specific measurements and directions below in the recipe card.

Ingredients For The Cupcakes

15.25 ounces white cake mix we used Duncan Hine’s perfectly moist
1 cup flour
¾ cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs – whites only
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon maple syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup water

Ingredients For The Frosting

1 cup shortening – like Crisco
1 cup butter softened to room temperature, salted is fine for this recipe
4 cups powdered sugar also known as confectioner’s sugar
3 tablespoons milk – we used 2%, you can use what you have on hand
1 tablespoon maple syrup – real maple syrup will give you a lote more flavor then imitation maple syrup or a pancake syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
yellow food coloring we used gel, I used Wilton’s gel food coloring in copper, but you can use any yellow food coloring you have.

I often use gel food coloring when baking because it makes a more vibrant color, so I always have them in my pantry. This frosting is a light color in this recipe, so you don’t need a super vibrant color to make the frosting look like spaghetti. You can use drip food coloring to make that color too.

Optional Toppings

See the notes in the recipe card for more ideas.

mini marshmallows – I used the tiny style marshmallow bits, but regular mini marshmallows work too
mini chocolate chips
mini M&M’s
sprinkles

How To Make Elf’s Favorite Cupcakes

Making And Baking The Cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line cupcake liners in pan and set aside.
To a large mixing bowl add the cake mix, flour, granulated sugar and salt. Mix well until combined.

A bowl of cake mix and other dry ingredients for elf cupcakes being mixed together.

Separate the eggs and place just the egg whites in a medium sized bowl. Add the sour cream, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, maple syrup, and water to the egg whites. Mix until combined.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in the large mixing bowl. Stir until a smooth cake batter forms. Pour cake batter into the cupcake liners in the cupcake pan, dividing evenly between about 18 cupcakes wells.

Wet ingredients including egg whites and maple syrup being mixed into the dry ingredients in a bowl for elf cupcakes.

Bowl of elf cupcakes batter being mixed in a bowl from above with other ingredients for toppings nearby.

Place the cupcakes in the oven. Bake for 17-18 minutes or until cooked through. The tops of the cupcakes will be lightly golden brown. Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting or the frosting will melt off. You can place them on a wire rack to cool.

A muffin pan with twelve plain cupcakes or Elf cupcakes.

Making The Frosting

In a clean large mixing bowl, add the butter and shortening. Cream together butter and shortening with an electric mixer until smooth, about 3 minutes.

Bowl with butter and shortening cubes for frosting for elf cupcakes ready to be mixed together.

A bowl of butter and shortening beat together in a bowl with electric mixer beaters and other frosting for elf cupcakes in bowls nearby.

Add the powdered sugar to the butter mixture a cup at a time, mixing on low well in between each cup until the frosting begins to thicken. Then add the milk and vanilla extract and mix again with the electric mixer until combined.

Powdered sugar being added to butter and shortening mixture for frosting in a bowl to top Elf cupcakes.

A bowl of creamy white frosting after being mixed together for elf cupcakes.

Place a little of the food coloring in the frosting and mix with an electric mixer until combined. Keep adding food coloring until you get your desired color.

A mixing bowl full of frosting for elf cupcakes with food coloring being mixed in to make the frosting yellow.

A bowl of yellow frosting for elf cupcakes after mixing in food coloring to make it a spaghetti color.

Load the frosting tip into the end of the frosting bag. (see notes in the recipe card at the bottom) Fill the bag with frosting. Pipe frosting to look like spaghetti all over the tops of the cupcakes. Top with sprinkles and candies to decorate, then enjoy!

Piping yellow frosting onto cupcakes that resemble spaghetti for Buddy the Elf's favorite cupcakes on a cooling rack.

Several cupcakes with yellow frosting resembling spaghetti sit on a cooling rack. One cupcake is decorated with colorful candies and marshmallows like Buddy the Elf enjoys.

Variation Ideas

Get Creative With The Toppings – I used toppings that I remembered Buddy adding on top of his cupcakes, but don’t feel limited! You can use any chopped up candy, holiday candy or decorations that feel like they belong at the holidays. Buddy the elf loves all sugar for breakfast, so using things like holiday gumdrops, fun holiday sprinkles, or other seasonal candies you may find just add to the fun!

Simplify The Cupcakes – This recipe ended up with a few more ingredients then I originally meant, but that maple flavor I think makes it worth it as it makes it more like the Elf movie. You could simplify and make the cupcakes according to the package and use the frosting recipe to decorate. Note that if you make the cupcakes according to the box you may have a few less cupcakes.

Elf Christmas cupcakes on a platter with yellow frosting made to look like spaghetti topped with holiday candies, sprinkles and chocolate chips.

How Long Will Elf’s Favorite Cupcakes Last?

Expect these cupcakes to last for 4-5 days. Store the cupcakes in a covered container in the refrigerator. It’s ok if they are on a platter to share for around 3-4 hours, but beyond that they should to be refrigerated.