Snowman Cupcakes

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These snowman cupcakes are festive fun for the whole family or for a holiday party. It’s a perfect holiday cupcake recipe that uses box mix to cut down on prep time, and comes with adorable easy tips to make decorating a breeze! This easy recipe is great to enjoy all season long!

Decorating Christmas cupcakes doesn’t have to be more complicated than it may seem. The cutest snowman cupcakes can also be easy snowman cupcakes! Made with less than 10  ingredients and in less than 10 steps, these easy Christmas cupcakes are a big hit.

These adorable snowman cupcakes are not just super cute, but they are a great way to bring the family together with no special skills needed. Sometimes cupcakes are left out of the holidays, but if your family appreciates cupcakes the way mine do, they love a good Christmas cupcake idea! 

Snowman cupcake recipes can range from simple to arduous, but this one has your bustling day in mind, leaving you with a simple yet scrumptious cupcake Christmas recipe! 

👩🏽‍🍳 Why You’ll Love Snowman Cupcakes

• Simple & Easy: With a very busy holiday season, this quick and easy recipe is one less thing to worry about. You’ll only need a couple of minutes to prep the cupcake batter before baking them.
• Fun For Everyone: This is a simple enough recipe that you could make several batches to bring to Christmas parties as fun treats. Your Christmas cupcake decorations can be as elaborate or as simple as you prefer. 
• Tasty Holiday Treat: With classic and comforting vanilla flavors, these light and fluffy cupcakes are a hit with the whole family. And while they are holiday themed, I have to admit, I tend to enjoy these any time of year.
• Festive: Setting down a platter of these cute snowman cupcakes guarantees holiday cheer at any holiday event, from neighborhood parties to ugly sweater parties.

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🥘 Ingredients

This easy Christmas cupcake recipe uses less than 10 ingredients, all of which can be found at your local grocery store. For the full recipe and exact ingredient amounts, see the recipe card below!

Cupcake Ingredients

• Vanilla Or Yellow Cake Mix: A classic variety of cake to create flavors everyone will love. Choose your favorite brand of box cake mix.
• Vegetable Oil: To ensure that these cute Christmas cupcakes are moist. Always use vegetable oil that has a good expiration date and smells fresh.
• Eggs: To bind the cakes and add a neutral and rich flavor.

White Frosting Ingredients

• Butter: A tasty base for the frosting. Use unsalted butter if possible because different brands of butter add differing levels of salt to salted butter. Soften the butter to room temperature before using, or until the butter is soft enough to create an indentation in when pressed gently with your finger.
• Confectioner’s Sugar: This is creamed with butter to create a smooth and creamy frosting. For a tinted white color and a subtle sweetness.
• Milk: Thins the frosting just slightly, making it easier to spread on these snowman Christmas cupcakes.
• Sugar: Measure 1 cup of granulated sugar for dipping the frosted cupcakes in, creating a shimmery snow-like finish.
• Decorating Frosting: Use black icing and orange decorating frostings to paint on the snowman’s eyes and carrot nose.

🔪 How To Make Snowman Cupcakes

Christmas snowman cupcakes are ready in just a few simple steps and only 10 minutes of prep time. Here’s how to make them:

Combine Ingredients: Prepare vanilla cupcakes according to the package’s directions. Add oil and eggs to the dry ingredients, mixing until combined.

Fill Cupcake Liners With Cake Batter: Divide the batter evenly amongst the lined cupcake tins and bake according to package directions. Bake! 

Make Buttercream Frosting: Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before decorating. As the cupcakes cool, use an electric mixer to beat together butter, confectioners’ sugar, and milk together until creamy.

Frost Cupcakes: Use an offset spatula to frost each cupcake with a hefty amount of buttercream.

Dip Cupcakes: Dip each frosted cupcake in a bowl of sugar for a sparkly snowman face.

Decorate Cupcakes: Decorate each cupcake with a “snowman face” by using the black and orange frosting, attaching Wilton icing tip #5 to each frosting. Using the black frosting, make two dots for the snowman’s eyes, dots outlining the mouth, and a little orange triangle for the “carrot” nose! Feel free to use a small piping bag to make this process easier!

Serve & Enjoy!

💭 Expert Tips

• Cake Mix Directions: Follow the directions on the box for the cake mix you choose. Different cake mixes can have slightly different directions, ingredients, and bake times.
• Room Temperature Butter: Make sure the butter is at room temperature before beating it with the sugar to create the frosting. If it’s too cold it won’t whip, and if it’s melted it will be too loose and runny.
• Adding Sugar To The Frosting: When using the stand mixer for the buttercream frosting add small amounts of the confectioner’s sugar at a time, increasing from medium speed to high speed.
• Thinning the Frosting: If the frosting is too thick you can beat in a tablespoon of milk at a time, until the desired consistency.
• Piping Tip Alternatives: Use a pastry bag and frosting tips to get a neat and clean look when decorating these cute cupcakes. If you don’t have a pastry bag, use a small plastic bag and cut a small hole in one of the corners as an icing bag.

📖 Variations

You can change up this recipe in a variety of ways. Here are some of our favorite snowman cupcake ideas!

• Snowman Nose: For more Christmas cupcake decorating ideas, use candy corn, orange candy, orange icing, butterscotch chips, or orange fondant for the snowman’s orange nose.
• Snowman Eyes: Use mini chocolate chips or black frosting for the snowman’s eyes.
• Frosty Finish: For a more glittery snow-like finish on your cupcakes, use sanding sugar or clear sprinkles. Alternatively, you can dip the cupcakes in sweetened dried coconut flakes for a fluffy snow appearance and a coconut finish!
• Snowman Arms: Add pretzel sticks or chocolate sticks as snowman arms to add personality and dimension. Kids love to stick them onto the cupcakes, too!
• Easy Melted Snowman Cupcakes: You can add large marshmallows on top of the cupcakes for a fluffy and tasty marshmallow-like head. The marshmallow head sits on top of the white icing as if the snowman’s body is beginning to melt. Making this version of adorable melting snowman cupcakes is guaranteed to be a hit at any Christmas party!
• Cake Mix: Use any box of cake mix or your favorite cupcake mix. You can make chocolate cupcakes for extra decadent holiday cupcakes.
• Vanilla Frosting: Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to the homemade frosting to make vanilla buttercream frosting or try out cream cheese frosting instead.

🍽 Serving Suggestions

Serve these snowman face cupcakes with a tall glass of milk, a cup of hot cocoa (like this healthy hot chocolate), or even a mug of freshly brewed coffee (like this mocha latte) for adults! These treats make a great addition to any holiday cookie platter, along with Christmas rice krispie treats, healthy chocolate chip cookies, and more!

🙌 Dietary Adaptions

• Egg Free: Make this snowman cupcakes recipe egg-free by using flax eggs instead of regular eggs when making the boxed cake mix.
• Vegan: Use flax eggs, vegan butter, and plant-based milk of your choice to make these into vegan snowman cupcakes.
• Gluten-Free: I recommend using a gluten-free cake mix like this Simple Mills Vanilla Cake Mix to make these frosty the snowman cupcakes gluten-free.

🫙 Storage Directions

• Refrigeration: Keep leftover snowman cupcake cakes in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. I recommend taking them out of the fridge 30 minutes to 1 hour before serving.
• Freezing: These xmas cupcakes can be frozen in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months. Defrost the cupcakes at room temperature for 1-2 hours, or until thawed through.

❓ Recipe FAQs

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• Vegan Mug Cake
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📋 Recipe Card