2018 has been our busiest year yet. So busy that before we could fully release our festive treats collection we started to get booked up! We are officially sold out for the holiday season, but these pretty Christmas cupcakes were too fabulous to not share, right? There’s pink! Gold! And cute Christmas-y details! What’s not to love?
We’d been wanting to whip up a festive bauble macaron for a few Christmases now. Sadly, when the season arrives it zooms past and we hardly get time to sit down. This year we sketched out our cupcake ideas in advance (possibly a little odd when Halloween had not even landed). Blush pink macarons were dressed up as cute tree ornaments with an edible golden loop and fixing.
The cupcake itself is one for the grown-ups! A Raspberry Pink Gin flavour… a gorgeous pink coloured cupcake (yes, it’s pink inside) filled with fruity raspberry preserve laced with Gordon’s Pink Gin, then swirled with a raspberry gin & tonic buttercream, fun pink sugar strands from Fancy Sprinkles and a Raspberry Pink Gin macaron bauble! Oh la la! Perfect for the party season.
Gorgeous and glam Christmas cupcakes!
The next wonderfully festive treat in our holiday cupcake collection is our Vanilla & White Chocolate Truffle Snowstorm! This has been such a popular flavour for macarons all year we thought we’d add it to our cake & cupcake menu! Obviously it made it’s debut for Christmas! Fluffy Madagascan vanilla cake swirled with creamy vanilla bean and Belgian white chocolate infused buttercream, covered with a flurry of snowy sprinkles and then finished with glittering fondant snowflakes!
Finally, let’s introduce our Salted Caramel Stardust cupcake. It’s the perfect cupcake for a Christmas wish! It is a soft Belgian chocolate cake filled with our home made salted caramel sauce. We then swirl each with Madagascan vanilla and salted caramel buttercream before adding a pretty edible shooting star!
Thank you to all the lovely people who got their orders in for these glam little festive cupcakes! We are absolutely booked to the ceiling with these gorgeous treats. Happy holidays everyone!
When it comes to companies that we LOVE Benefit Cosmetics are definitely way up on the list. They’re fun, quirky and we love the amount of pink they use! When they contacted us about collaborating together to create some fun (and chic) festive content we were thrilled! Plus we got to create a super exclusive collection of Benefit cookies for one lucky winner (giveaway now ended)! Head on over to Benefit’s Instagram to find our Mrs Claus cupcake tutorial via their story highlights.
Mrs Claus cupcake tutorial for Benefit Cosmetics!
Materials and tools needed…
Cupcake (if the top is domed and risen… even better)
Core and fill your cupcake(s) with frosting. We used a classic Madagascan vanilla buttercream for our cupcake! It’s absolutely fine to fill your cupcakes with other fillings such as salted caramel, cookie butter or fruity jams.
Tip! You don’t need to core your cupcake all the way to the bottom. Halfway down is a great amount of space for enough buttercream. Also, you’ll risk piercing the cupcake case so take it easy.
Step 02:
Use a palette knife ot spatula to spread any excess buttercream around the top of your cupcake which will help your sugar paste / fondant to stick to the cupcake’s surface.
Step 03:
You don’t need to do this step BUT it is our top tip for making smooth and flawless iced cupcakes! Roll out some white sugar paste / fondant and cut out a circle just a little smaller than your the top of your cupcake. Lay this central on top of your cupcake and smooth down.
As we said you don’t need to double ice your cupcakes and a lot of people aren’t too keen on sugar paste / fondant. However, for a super smooth look this part is pretty important. Cupcakes can bake uneven or bumpy too so this really helps!
Step 04:
Repeat step 03 but with whatever skin tone coloured fondant you like. Also, make sure to use a circle cutter a little larger than your cupcake this time so that it can accommodate for the curve of your cupcake! Apply and smooth over the top of your cupcake to the edges of the case.
Step 05:
With your circle cutters cut two smaller circles of white sugar paste / fondant. Then cut away a portion from one circle so that the other can fit inside. These sections are going to be Mrs Claus’ hair which is going to be so cute and on-trend too!
Step 06:
Attach on top of your cupcake with a little amount of edible glue to create Mrs Claus’ hair! Once this is in place dust with some white lustre dust to add a little glitz for the party season.
You can also use edible white lustre paint if that’s what you have to hand. There’s lots on the market like sparkling dusts, shimmer sprays and glittery paint too so you’re spoiled for choice!
Step 07:
Now to add a chic top knot! Roll a ball of white fondant and attach on top of your cupcake with some edible glue. Hold in place lightly until stable. Then add a little texture to Mrs Claus’ hair using a thin veining tool. Also, remember to dust her top knot with lustre dust.
Step 08:
Using a small ball tool indent where you’d like Mrs Claus’ eyes to be which you can nestle black sugar pearls into later.
Step 09:
With a thin veining tool indent eyelashes to the sides of her eyes. Three is always a good amount composition-wise, but it’s a lot for a small eye so stick to two ‘lashes’.
Step 10:
Now add black sugar pearls for the eyes with a tiny amount of edible glue. Try not to add too much glue as it can look messy if it seeps out or ends up making your pieces slide around! Edible glue is pretty slippy so just remember that a little goes a l-o-n-g way!
Step 11:
For her cute button nose roll a tiny amount of fondant in the same colour skin tone you iced your cupcake with. Attach with a small amount of edible glue.
Tip! Working this small can be a little tricky as your hands will warm up the fondant making it squishy. Once you create her nose just set it aside for a few minutes to firm up or cool down. It should be much easier to work with and attach.
Step 12:
Let’s finish Mrs Claus’ stylish hair! Use edible glue to attach pretty snowflake sprinkles in place. Then with a small amount of melted white chocolate (don’t use milk or dark… it’ll get messy and it’s so much more noticeable) attach a real bow in place!
Tip! White chocolate makes for a pretty sturdy edible glue for harder to attach elements… which is so handy for stubborn pieces. The reason we advise not using milk or dark is that if that drips all over your work it will stain. Not a good look right?
Step 13:
Add a smile with the bottom of a piping tip. We used the end of a 2.5 by PME Supatube then pressed it into the cupcake at an angle to indent a curve. You can also use the scallop tool in any icing modeling tool kit… which basically looks like a curved line.
Step 14:
Mrs Claus still isn’t ready as, just like anyone would need a touch of Benetint (or Posietint… our fave), she still needs her blush! Use a small fluffy brush to apply a little pink edible dust to her cheeks. Just like Benetint build your colour up so add a little at a time! It’s oh so much easier to just a little more colour each time instead of going overboard and having to start all over again from step 03!
Now Mrs Claus is ready to take on the festive season armed with her Benefit-inspired look! She’s the perfect guest at any Christmas dinner party too. A super cute idea would be to create lots of other cupcakes decorated with fondant bows to look like gifts. Arrange these on top of a cupcake tower stand and surround with pretty snowflake confetti for a scene stealing centrepiece!
Planning a fun dinner party with the girls? Why not tweak this Mrs Claus cupcake tutorial and make each match your bestie too! You can change hair colour and style, add edible accessories (try white sugar pearl sprinkles or stars for fabulous earrings), change their skin tone or play with make up styles too (add a little edible glitter eyeshadow or some black eyeliner with a black edible pen)! How much fun does that sound?
We had SO much fun working alongside Benefit to create this fun and festive Mrs Claus cupcake tutorial. We hope you have an amazing time creating your own at home. Remember… she’s not ready until she’s a #Benebabe!
OK so most people already have their Christmas tree up if they’re celebrating, but now it’s time to put some Christmas trees on your freshly baked cupcakes! Last year we created a rustic and more simplified version of this tutorial for the lovely people at Craftsy. This year we’re going glam, gorgeous and loaded with gifts! Who wouldn’t want this chic little cupcake? Keep reading for our stylish Christmas tree cupcake tutorial!
01: One of the very first things you need to do for this Christmas tree cupcake tutorial is what we call ‘flat icing’. This just involves covering the tops of your cupcake with a little buttercream and then with some circles of fondant. To do this core your cupcakes and fill them up with fruity preserve or buttercream. Then smooth a little buttercream around the top.
Tip!
We get a lot of comments on how smooth our flat iced cupcakes are. There’s two things we always do to achieve this look. One, we use Satin Ice fondant. Two, we double ice!
Roll out some white fondant or sugar paste to a thickness of around 3mm and cut out a plain circle. Lay this central on top of your cupcake and gently smooth the edges down and around the top.
Now roll out some more fondant and cut a larger scalloped edged circle. Lay this on top of the first layer of fondant and smooth carefully down and over the edge of the cupcake cases.
02: For the glam sequin look you need to add confetti sugar sprinkles on top of your iced cupcake. You can attached each individually, but that takes a heck of a lot of time. Instead, spread some edible glue on top of your fondant / sugar paste icing and then dip your cupcake into a bowl or plate full of round flat sprinkles. We like to use a mixture of two different sizes (4mm and 6mm).
03: One of the fun parts is painting the sequins gold. Simply use edible gold paint for this step. You can also leave your sequins as they are if you’ve used white (they’ll look like snow) or you can even paint a subtle white pearl shimmer onto them!
04: Next create your stylish Christmas tree by carefully cutting down a waffle ice cream cone. They can crumble so be gentle.
05: Decorate your tree by covering it in either stiff consistency royal icing or white frosting. Then roll it lightly in sprinkles or desiccated coconut for a textured frosty look.
06: Pipe a little royal icing onto the bottom edge of the cone and attach to your cupcake.
07: For the cute little Christmas gifts and parcels roll out pink and mint green fondant to a fat thickness (7mm is a good depth) before using a small sharp knife to cut out a variety of square and rectangle shapes of different sizes. Check to see if these fit around the base of your Christmas tree to make sure you make enough! To attach them use a little dot of royal icing.
08: Add detail to your little fondant presents by piping ribbon and bows onto each. We used a disposable piping bag fitted with a PME Supatube tip in size 1.5 filled with stiff consistency royal icing.
To create the ribbon and bow details pipe a central line from top to bottom. Then pipe a line through the middle from left to right before finishing with two loops and two tails in the centre where both lines meet.
Yay! You should now be left with one incredibly chic festive treat thanks to your Christmas tree cupcake tutorial. You can also adapt this step-by-step guide to make your cupcake(s) fit in with your party. Go traditional with reds and greens with green tinted trees and bright crimson parcels. Decorate your tree with adorable themed sprinkles like candy canes or bright lights. Or why not add tiny gingerbread people cookies to the side?
