Santa Hat Cupcakes

These Santa cupcakes are the perfect holiday dessert recipe. We start with a cake mix and then top the cupcakes with a homemade icing to make the Santa Hats. Which makes these Santa Cupcake Recipe so fun and festive.

Save time and money and make these easy Christmas Cupcakes. Your guest will be impressed and will be beautiful displayed on your holiday dessert table.

Why We Love This Recipe

These festive cupcakes are perfect for you next holiday party. They are fun to decorate and easy to make. My kids love to decorate these cupcakes for a great treat.

These cupcakes would be perfect to top with red and white sprinkles to make them even more festive.

Ingredients

For the full recipe and ingredients, scroll to the bottom to see the recipe card.

Variations

• Strawberry – Instead of using red frosting, you can top the cupcake with a strawberry for a fun variation.
• Change the Cake – We used a chocolate cake mix, but feel free to use another cake mix. Red velvet Cupcakes or a vanilla cake are always good options.
• Change the Frosting – We made a vanilla buttercream frosting, but you use a cream cheese frosting. You can also use store bought frosting and place it in the piping bag.
• Powdered Sugar – Dust the top of the Santa Hat frosting with powdered sugar. It will make it look like there is snow on top.
• Mini Chocolate Chips – You can even top the hat with mini chocolate chips.
• Cupcake Holders – Feel free to change the cupcake holders. You can use green or holiday print cupcake holders.

Step by Step Instructions

Step 1 – Prepare the chocolate cake mix based on the cupcake batter instructions with an electric mixer or stand mixer. Line muffin pan using the red cupcake liners then bake in the oven. The cool cupcakes to room temperature.

Step 2 – In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and butter until combined and smooth.

Step 3 – Then slowly add in the confectioners’ sugar (1 cup at a time) on low speed until well combined. Then stir in the vanilla extract and milk until combined.

Step 4 – Split the icing into 2 mixing bowls. Place approximately 70% of the icing in 1 bowl and 30% in another.  Then add a few drops of the red food coloring until the bowl with the larger amount of icing in it.  Stir until the frosting is a vibrant red coloring.

Step 5 – Place the red frosting in a piping bag with a large round pastry tip.  Then pipe a red frosting swirl on top of each cupcake.

Step 6 – Place the white frosting in a piping bag with a star tip.  Use this pastry bag to pipe small star shapes around the base on the red frosting.  Then top each of the cupcakes with a small star on top of the red frosting to resemble the top puff on the Santa hat. Serve and Enjoy!

Expert Tips

• Christmas Cupcake – We love to makes these cupcakes for our holiday parties. They are easy to make and using a piping bag makes to easily decorate the tops.
• Pastry Tip – Frost the cupcakes with a piping bag fitted with pastry tip. We like to use different tops to give that extra decoration.
• Make Ahead – If you have a lot of holiday baking like I do, you can easily prepare these Santa Cupcakes ahead of time.

How to Store

Place your leftovers in an air tight container at room temperature. The cupcakes will stay light and fluffy if stored properly.

We recommend storing in a cupcake container so they are stored so the lid doesn’t mess up the frosting.