Decorate Christmas light cupcakes for the holiday season! They are so festive and easy for beginning cake decorators.
Are you baking cookies for Christmas? These Christmas tree meringue cookies are so much fun! Or, if you like chocolate, these holly crinkle cookies are the best. Make them both!
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They’re definitely not the kind of lights you’ll get tangled in.
Once the holiday season kicks in, does your family gets into beast baking mode at full force? This is the best time of year to bake, with all the gifts and parties!
These Christmas Light Cupcakes are so much fun to make – and so easy, too! In fact, this is the kind of recipe you can let your kids help you make.
Easy Christmas Cupcakes
This recipe is one of those you can put together last-minute. You don’t need a lot of crazy ingredients. In fact, I’ll share some swaps you can make if you don’t have time to pipe black frosting.
How To Decorate Christmas Cupcakes The Easy Way
You don’t even have to know how to use a piping bag to decorate these cute cupcakes. All the exact ingredient amounts are in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Kitchen Tools Needed
Ingredients Needed
All the exact amounts you need are in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post. First, here is a quick list of what you need to get from the store.
- One dozen of your favourite chocolate cupcakes
- Unsalted butter, softened
- Confectioners’ sugar, sifted
- Milk
- Gold and white shiny sprinkles
- Black decorating frosting
- M&Ms
Ingredient Swaps
Here are some ways to save yourself even more time or to help you honor food allergies.
- Use pre-made vanilla frosting if you don’t have time to make your own.
- Instead of black frosting, use Pull-N-Peel Black licorice.
- Instead of gold sprinkles, use your favorite colored sugar.
- Edible spray glitter can also work instead of colored sugar.
Deocrating Tips
Here are some photos showing you how to decorate the cupcakes.
After you frost the cupcakes, dip them into the bowl of gold sprinkles. This will give you an even layer.
Then, add a little bit of black frosting as the wires for the Christmas lights. It’s so easy! Remember to make the line curve slightly to give it a little flair!
Finally, insert the M&Ms vertically. This will make them look the most like little Christmas lights!
Use Mini M&Ms
One last quick tip! If you want to add more lights to your cupcakes, then I suggest using M&M minis. This will give you more room on the cupcakes.
How To Store The Cupcakes
Make these up to 3 days ahead of time. If you made your own buttercream frosting, you should store them in the refrigerator in an airtight container.
If you use store-bought shelf-stable frosting, you can set the cupcakes out for about a day. It’s always best to store food in the refrigerator.
Christmas Light Cupcakes
Equipment
- Wilton Tip #3
Ingredients
- 12 Chocolate Cupcakes
- 1 stick Unsalted Butter softened
- 2 cups Confectioner's Sugar
- 2 tbsp Milk
- 1/2 cup Gold and White Sprinkles
- Black Decorating Frosting
- 60 M&Ms
Instructions
- Start by preparing your buttercream. Place all ingredients in a large bowl: softened butter, confectioners’ sugar and milk (start with 1 tbsp and add another, slowly if you feel like the buttercream is too dry).
- Beat all buttercream ingredients with an electric mixer, starting on slow speed and gradually increasing to high.
- Once all ingredients are smooth and form semi-stiff peaks, scoop into a piping bag and frost each cupcake.
- Pour coarse sugar/shiny sprinkles into a bowl. Dip each frosted cupcake into the bowl of sprinkles.
- Attach Wilton tip #3 to your bladck decorating frosting and pipe out 1-2 curvy lines on each cupcake.
- Add 4-8 M&Ms sideways onto the black, curvy lines on each cupcake (depending on how many lines you have on each one). You’ll want about 4-5 M&Ms for each “string of lights.”
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More Christmas Recipes
If you are looking for more Christmas recipes, here are some of our most popular ideas.
Melissa Chapman says
I love that cupcake design and they look like they taste amazing. It is always fun to bake something kids will like during the holidays.
Amber Myers says
These are such amazing cupcakes! I’ll have to make them with my kids.
Mitch Chaitin says
These are brilliant! So creative, and something different! Thanks for sharing these cool cupcakes!
Brianna S says
These are the cutest! I’m going to make these this weekend! Thanks for sharing.
Sarah Bailey says
How much fun are these! What a great idea to make for Christmas cakes as well, they would go down so well at a party.
Serena says
Anything with buttercream icing is going to be great. i just have to have it. These cupcakes look so good.
Kathy says
These turned out so great. I really love this idea. I really want to make these now. I bet they’ll be a hit.
Theresa says
OMG, these are the cutest holiday cupcakes! So simple to make, but so fun and festive. I am totally going to make them with my girls this weekend!
Brandy says
These are super cute! What an adorable way to start getting excited for the holidays with family. I love baking with my family any chance I get. Maybe I can decorate these as perfect as you have.
Ice Cream n Sticky Fingers DFW Parenting/LIfestyle says
I love making cupcakes, with homemade icing. I’ve always wanted to make pretty goodies and when my son wanted an ice cream cake one year. I challenged myself to make it. It came out awesome and since then I’ve been on a baking challenge. I’ll be posting some fun Christmas cupcakes soon too.
Jenn @ EngineerMommy says
These cupcakes are so cute indeed. I love the lights on top so much!!
Janelle M says
Oh my how amazing!! Never seen this before. I LOVE creativity. Gotta make this for my two bear cubs.
Melanie Walsh says
The cupcakes are so cute! I love finding recipes I can make with my kids, and these would be a hit to make (and, of course, eat).
rika says
Very creative! The cupcakes look so cute and pretty! My kids will love this recipe.
Beth says
Those look so cute! The glitter makes them even more special.
Terri Steffes says
So easy to make and it’s something that kids will like! It would be nice to add this to our Christmas spread. I’m sure it’s going to be a hit.
Jona Shares says
Such a cutie! I would make this and try for New Year! I love to have a colorful vibe.
Jhentea says
Oh my! I really love the uniqueness of this recipe. It looks much fun doing this with kids.