Chilly weather, warm and cozy blankets, food, and more are headed to us this winter. With that on our minds, you won’t be able to resist these Santa Belly Cupcakes. These sweet vanilla cupcakes are made completely from scratch with a smooth and creamy vanilla buttercream frosting.
Christmas Santa Cupcakes
These are gonna come out looking like you snatched Santa’s tummy right from him! These adorable little cupcakes use black, yellow, and red food coloring to pigment the frosting to make the cutest little belly of Santa. This is a recipe that I love making with my kiddos for the holidays and of course, they love eating them! Serve these at parties, and holiday events, or give them as silly gifts!
Key Ingredients You’ll Need
Flour: I use all-purpose flour for the best results along with baking powder and baking soda to allow the cupcakes to rise properly in the oven.
Sugar: I like to use granulated sugar for the batter and powdered sugar to sweeten the buttercream frosting.
Gel Food Coloring: You will need red, black, and yellow food coloring to make the design. I use Gel food coloring because it blends easier into the frosting.
How To Make Santa Belly Cupcakes
Step 1. Set the oven to 325 degrees and use paper liners to line a 12-cup cupcake pan. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Add the milk and vanilla into a smaller bowl and combine. Put the butter and sugar into the bowl of a standing mixer and combine using a paddle attachment until light and fluffy on medium-high speed. Turn the speed down to medium-low before gradually adding the egg and egg whites one at a time. Combine the ingredients until creamy.
Step 2. Pour half of the flour mixture into the batter slowly, then follow with the milk mixture before combining until just blended. Portion the batter into the lined pan and place into the oven to bake for 18-20 minutes until the tops are dry and a toothpick placed in the middle comes out clean of batter. Let them cool thoroughly while you make the frosting.
Step 3. add the butter and vanilla into a standing mixer and combine using a paddle attachment. Pour in 2 cups of powdered sugar and combine on low until it forms pebbles. Add in the rest of the powdered sugar and combine while slowly turning up the speed to medium until smooth. In small bowls, put 1 cup of frosting. Put a few drops of yellow coloring into the first bowl and combine. Put it into one of the piping bags. Repeat the same steps with the yellow food coloring to make the black frosting in the second bowl. Use the rest of the frosting and put a few drops of the red coloring in and combine.
Step 4. Add a mound of red frosting on top of the cupcake using a cookie scoop. Gently flip the cupcake over and place it onto a silicone mat to flatten it. Continue until all the cupcakes have been frosted. Place in the freezer to chill for 10 minutes or until set. This will make a smooth layer, so it’s easier to decorate. Gently remove the frosting/cupcakes from the silicone mat. Pipe a thick line of black frosting across the middle of the cupcake. Make a square of yellow frosting in the middle of the black line. Finally, place two dots using the black frosting above the buckle. Serve and Enjoy!
Variations and Substitutions For Santa Belly Cupcakes:
You can substitute and alter these cupcakes to your liking. Here are a few great choices, if you need to change anything:
- You can use different kinds of cupcake flavors like chocolate, pumpkin, carrot, etc.
- Instead of using vanilla to flavor the frosting, you can use almond extract, lemon extract, pumpkin, etc.
- You can use gold shimmer dust to make the cupcakes pop even more!
Tips & Tricks
- Place any leftover cupcakes in a single layer in an airtight container for the best storage method.
- These can be stored at room temperature or in the fridge to last a bit longer.
- You can buy boxed mix for the cupcakes if you want the recipe to go by a bit faster. You can do the same with the frosting, however, homemade makes everything taste so much better!
More Christmas Cupcake Recipes:
Santa Belly Cupcakes
Ingredients
Vanilla Cupcakes ingredients
- 1 ½ cup flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp kosher
- 2/3 cup whole milk
- 1 ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
- ½ cup butter unsalted, slightly softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 large egg whites
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- 4 ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 cup butter unsalted, softened
- 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 4 Tbsp heavy whipping cream
- Gel food coloring Red, Black, and Yellow
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line a 12-cup cupcake pan with paper liners.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a small bowl, stir together the milk and vanilla.In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy
- Reduce the speed to medium-low, slowly add the egg and egg whites one at a time, and beat until creamy
- Slowly add half the flour mixture, then the milk mixture, then the remaining flour mixture, beating until just blended after each addition.
- Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake liners and bake until the tops are just dry to the touch and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes.
- Allow cooling completely
- Using a standing mixer with a paddle beater, cream the butter and vanilla until combined
- Mix in 2 C of powdered sugar on low speed until combined, the frosting will look like pebbles
- Mix in the remaining powdered sugar and slowly increase speed to medium speed
- Mix in the heavy whipping cream and continue to beat the frosting until it is combined and smooth
- Scoop about 1 C of frosting into both of the small bowls
- In one bowl, mix in a few drops of yellow gel food coloring then scoop into 1 of the piping bags
- In the second bowl, repeat the step above in order to make your black frosting color
- Using the remaining frosting in the mixing bowl, add several drops of red gel food coloring to create your red frosting
Building your Santa belly cupcake
- Using the cookie scoop, scoop a mound of red frosting onto the top of a cooled cupcake
- Carefully place the cupcake upside down so that the frosting is flat on top of the silicone baking mat
- Repeat the step above for the remaining cupcakes
- Place into the freezer for 10 minutes or until the frosting is firm
- This allows you to get the smooth frosting layer
- Carefully peel off the frosting and the cupcake off the silicone baking mat
- Using the black frosting, pipe a thick line of black frosting across the center of the cupcake
- Using the yellow, create an open square in the center of the black line. This is the belt buckle
- Using the black frosting again, pipe two dots above the buckle
- Enjoy
Last Step:
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- 2 disposable piping bags with number 4 tip
- 1 Cookie scoop medium
- 2 Bowls small
- 1 Baking sheet lined with silicone baking mat
Nutrition
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