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Buddy The Elf’s Favorite Christmas Cupcakes

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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

Ingredients for elf's favorite cupcakes on a counter in bowls with text labels.

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 lot more flavor than 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line cupcake liners in pan and set aside.
  2. 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.
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  1. 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

  1. 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.
  1. 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.
  1. 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.
  1. 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!

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 than 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 be refrigerated.

More Fun Christmas Recipes

Close view of Elf Christmas cupcake on a wire rack with more in the background, with yellow frosting made to look like spaghetti topped with candies, chocolate chips, holiday sprinkles and marshmallows.
Recipe

Buddy The Elf’s Favorite Cupcakes


Course Baking, Dessert
Cuisine American
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Cooling Time 15 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes
Servings 18 Pieces
Buddy the Elf's Favorite Christmas Cupcakes are the ultimate holiday treat for kids! These fun and colorful cupcakes, inspired by Buddy’s love of sweet treats, are easy to make and decorate. Perfect for family baking days, Christmas parties, or cozy movie nights!

Equipment

  • 1 cupcake pan
  • 18 cupcake liners
  • 1 Large Mixing Bowl
  • 1 Silicone spatula
  • 1 electric mixer or stand mixer – while the cake can be mixed without an electric mixer, you absolutely need an electric mixer to make the frosting.
  • 1 Measuring cups and spoons
  • 1 frosting tip 233 = also known as the grass tip, this makes the frosting look like spaghetti, no coupler is needed for this tip. (the piece that holds some frosting tips on the bags)
  • 1 frosting piping bag

Ingredients  

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
  • 1 cup butter softened to room temperature, salted is fine
  • 4 cups powdered sugar also known as confectioner's sugar
  • 3 tablespoons milk
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • yellow food coloring we used gel

Optional Toppings – see notes at the bottom for more

  • mini marshmallows
  • mini chocolate chips
  • mini M&M’s
  • sprinkles

Instructions

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.
  • 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.
  • 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.

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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Load the frosting tip into the end of the frosting bag. (see notes) 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!

Notes

Optional Toppings

I’ve included the toppings I used in the ingredients, but Buddy the Elf loved all kinds of holiday candy and sweets! You can use whatever kind of holiday candy and toppings you prefer or just have in your pantry.

Filling The Frosting Bag

To fill the frosting bag, start by placing the metal tip in the bottom corner of the bag. Place the frosting bag in a tall glass with the tip at the bottom of the glass. Pull the sides of the bag carefully apart to open the bag, and down the sides of the glass so the glass helps hold the bag open.
Then you can easily load the frosting into the bag. Be careful not to full the bag too full, you want to fill it about 1/2 to 2/3 full.
Then twist the top of the bag so it is closed and the frosting stays inside. With scissors snip the plastic tip of the bag so you can pipe the frosting through the frosting tip. Cut only a little of the frosting bag at first, as you can always cut more of the plastic if you need to. Then top the cupcakes with frosting, it will come out of the tip looking like “spaghetti!” 
To refill the bag you can then place the frosting tip down in the glass, and use the glass again to help you open the bag. This can help you to refill the bag without things getting super messy.

Nutrition

Calories: 505kcal | Carbohydrates: 62g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 28g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Trans Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 76mg | Sodium: 400mg | Potassium: 67mg | Fiber: 0.5g | Sugar: 47g | Vitamin A: 457IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 82mg | Iron: 1mg
Keyword Christmas, cupcake

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I would love to see it! Share your thoughts with me in the comments below!

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