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You’re going to love these easy Santa cupcakes. It’s always fun to make a Christmas cupcake recipe and this one is simple. The holiday cupcakes look so cute! They’re made with boxed cake mix, frosting and little candy decorations. These shortcuts mean you can make the Christmas cupcakes in record time with hardly any effort.
Store-bought cupcakes just lack the charm and magic of homemade ones, but that doesn’t mean you have to spend hours following a complicated recipe. These Santa Claus cupcakes are perfect.
Spreading Christmas cheer? Try reindeer rice krispies treats and gingerbread cookies. Potpourri simmer jars or shower steamers are great gifts!
Why You’ll Love Them
Easy: As this recipe relies on boxed cake mixes, prepared frosting and candy decorations, you’ll find this Christmas cupcake recipe to be super-simple. You just need to bake the cupcakes, frost them and add decorations. They couldn’t be easier!
Flavorful: If you love cake, there’s no way you’re not going to love these vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with their Santa theme. They’re light, sweet and very tasty. You can also choose any flavors you want for the cupcakes and the frosting, so if you want to go for simple chocolate cupcakes with mini chocolate chips, shredded coconut decorated Santa cupcakes or even Christmas tree cupcakes with green food coloring for your holiday party, you can do just that.
Ideal for gifting: Make one batch for yourselves and perhaps another for gifting. A few of these in a cellophane bag decorated with a festive ribbon makes a lovely gift for friends, neighbors or colleagues.
Ingredients for Easy Santa Cupcakes
You will need white cake mix, chocolate cake mix, store bought red frosting and white frosting, red M&Ms, edible eyeballs and white mini marshmallows for the cupcakes. In addition you will need the other items listed on the boxed cake mixes.
How to Make Santa Cupcakes
For more detailed instructions with weights and measurements, jump to the printable recipe card.
Make the cupcakes: Follow the directions on the package to make the cupcake batter, divide the batter between cupcake liners (here) in a cupcake pan and bake.
Prepare the decorations: Cut each mini marshmallow in half and get the edible eyeballs and M&Ms ready.
Frost the cupcakes: Let the cupcakes cool completely, then pipe white frosting at the bottom of each cupcake and also make a brim for Santa’s hat. Pipe on the red frosting as the hat.
Decorate them: Add the eyes and nose, pressing into the white frosting to secure in place and add the halved mini marshmallows as the hat brim, hat pom pom and beard.
Substitutions and Variations
A different type of red candy would work for the nose so you might prefer to use Red Hots or something similar. You can also swap the white cake mix for yellow cake mix, or even use your favorite cupcake recipe if you want.
How to Serve These Cute Cupcakes
Pair them with your favorite Christmas tipple, perhaps Grinch green cocktails, a Santa charcuterie board or melon margaritas. If you’re having guests over, these are sure to be a great talking point and they’ll all want the recipe! As they’re so simple to make you might even want to make some Christmas tree cupcakes, air fryer Santa cinnamon rolls, or a Ferrero Rocher Christmas tree!
How to Store Santa Cupcakes
Store: They will keep for up to 3 days at room temperature or up to 5 days in the refrigerator in an airtight container.
Freeze: Although you can freeze the undecorated cupcakes, it’s best not to freeze them once decorated because the texture will change and they won’t look as pretty either.
Santa Face Cupcakes FAQs
Yes, you can just use white frosting instead of the marshmallows if you want. Another idea for the hat rim would be using white chocolate chips or another kind of white candies. If none of those options appeals, then what about making Santa’s bear with coconut flakes?
The frosting is up to you and you can use any kind you want. Peppermint frosting would add a nice festive flavor, or you could use vanilla frosting or any other kind you want, perhaps even adding a little pink or brown to it, so it looks like Santa’s skin tone. You can get as creative with these Santa cupcakes as you want, even enlisting the kids’ help (and they love to make these!)
Easy Santa Cupcakes Recipe
Santa Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 Box cake mix, 15.25 Ounce Box, white
- 1 Box cake mix, 15.25 Ounce Box, chocolate
- 16 Ounces frosting, red
- 16 Ounces frosting, white
- red M&M’s
- edible eyeballs
- mini marshmallows
Instructions
- Prepare your cupcake pans with cupcake liners. Preheat your oven and make cupcakes as instructed on the box of cake mix. Allow cupcakes to cool completely before decorating.
- While the cupcakes are cooling, cut your mini marshmallows in half. Reserve the remainder of the mini marshmallows for the pom-poms for Santa’s hat.
- Once cool, pipe white frosting on the bottom fourth of the cupcake and make a line for the brim of Santa’s hat. Then, take the red frosting and pipe the top fourth of the cupcake to fill in the hat.
- Using white frosting as glue, place Santa’s eyes and nose and press to secure. Then, place the previously halved marshmallows in the white frosting to make a “fluffy” beard and brim of hat.
- Finally, place a marshmallow in the corner for the pom-pom on Santa’s hat!
Nutrition
These easy Santa cupcakes are really easy to prepare and decorating them is always lots of fun. They are light, sweet and flavorful and make great gifts. These vanilla and chocolate cupcakes are cute and special, and are ideal for Christmas.
Other Recipes to Try
- Fans of classic holiday treats might enjoy these Easy Gingerbread Man Cookies.
- For a whimsical dessert option, craft these Chocolate Strawberry Birds or Grinch Crumbl Sugar Cookies.
- Looking for a festive treat that’s as eye-catching as it is delicious? Try this Jumbo Christmas Tree Fruit Sugar Cookie.
- Reindeer Cupcakes are a lot of fun to make and they taste great.
- Add a homemade touch to your holiday mornings with Homemade Christmas Tree Pop Tarts.
- Toast to the holiday season with this festive Santa’s Hat Coconut Rum Cocktail.
Bella Bucchiotti
Bella Bucchiotti is a Canadian-based syndicated food, travel, and lifestyle writer, photographer, and creator at xoxoBella. She founded xoxoBella in 2015, where she shares her love for food, dogs, sustainability, fitness, crafts, outdoor adventures, travel, and philanthropy to encourage others to run the extra mile, try new recipes, visit unfamiliar places, and stand for a cause. Bella creates stress-free and family-friendly recipes for weeknight dinners and festive feasts.
This was a total hit with our guests! Excited to make this again. 🙂