10 Christmas Cupcakes

Cupcakes are the easiest Christmas dessert to bring anywhere, because nobody has to slice anything and everyone gets their own.

These ten cover the holiday flavors, from gingerbread and eggnog to peppermint, cranberry and pistachio, and the notes say which frostings need to stay in the fridge.

Each one below has a pin so you can see what you’re aiming for, and a link to a recipe that has actually been made.

Ten of them.

1. Gingerbread Spice Cupcakes

Molasses makes gingerbread batter heavy, so fill the liners only about halfway or the tops spill over and stick to the pan.

A slightly lower oven, around 325°F, keeps the dark batter from burning on the outside before the middle is baked.

For cream cheese buttercream, let the butter soften fully but keep the cream cheese cool, because warm cream cheese makes a runny frosting.

Sift the powdered sugar and add it a cup at a time until the frosting holds a peak, then pipe a tall swirl with a 1M open star tip.

Cream cheese frosting shouldn’t sit at room temperature for more than about two hours, so keep frosted cupcakes in the fridge and set them out shortly before serving.

A tiny gingerbread man cut with a mini gingerbread man cutter makes the topper, and you can bake those a few days ahead.

The pin is Baking with Blondie’s gingerbread cupcakes with spiced cinnamon cream cheese buttercream, which doctors a box of spice cake mix with eggs, sour cream, buttermilk, oil, half a cup of molasses, ginger and cloves, bakes at 325°F, and tops each one with a cream cheese buttercream flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and almond extract and a little gingerbread man.

2. Peppermint Mocha Cupcakes

These are chocolate cupcakes with coffee and peppermint in the batter, so they taste like the coffee shop drink.

Use pure peppermint extract and measure it, because a small splash too much tastes like toothpaste.

Instant coffee or instant espresso powder dissolves straight into the melted butter and chocolate, and it deepens the chocolate more than it tastes like coffee.

Crush the candy canes right before you decorate, because crushed peppermint pulls moisture from the air and turns sticky within a few hours.

For the drizzle, melt a little chocolate, spoon it into a zip-top bag, snip a tiny corner and zigzag it over the frosting.

The frosting is butter-based, so these are fine at room temperature for a party.

The pin is a home cook’s save of Sally’s Baking Addiction’s photo with no recipe attached, so the method is Sally’s peppermint mocha cupcakes, which melts butter with semi-sweet chocolate and a heaping tablespoon of instant coffee, uses natural cocoa, buttermilk and half a teaspoon of peppermint extract, and tops 12 cupcakes with peppermint vanilla frosting, crushed candy canes and a chocolate drizzle.

3. Eggnog Cupcakes

Eggnog goes into both the batter and the frosting here, which is where all the flavor comes from.

Use store-bought eggnog, which is pasteurized, because homemade eggnog made with raw eggs isn’t safe in a frosting that never gets cooked.

Grate the nutmeg fresh with a microplane, since pre-ground nutmeg loses its smell fast and nutmeg is the flavor people recognize as eggnog.

Rum extract gives the boozy note without alcohol, so these are fine for kids.

The frosting has eggnog in it, so keep the cupcakes in the fridge and let them sit out for 20 minutes before serving so the buttercream softens.

The recipe makes 9, so double it for a party.

The pin is Baked by Rachel’s spiced eggnog cupcakes with eggnog buttercream frosting, which makes 9 cupcakes from butter, sugar, two eggs, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla and rum extract and half a cup of eggnog, and tops them with a buttercream made with a quarter cup of eggnog, more nutmeg and rum extract.

4. Cranberry Orange Cupcakes

Cranberry and orange is the brightest flavor on a Christmas dessert table, and it’s a good break from all the chocolate and spice.

Zest the orange before you juice it, with a citrus zester, and rub the zest into the sugar to release the oils.

Cut large fresh cranberries in half and toss them in a spoonful of flour so they don’t all sink to the bottom.

Frozen cranberries work too; add them straight from the freezer so they don’t bleed red streaks through the batter.

For sugared cranberries, roll them in cooled simple syrup, let them dry until tacky, then roll them in sugar, and start a few hours ahead or the night before.

Put them on just before serving so the sugar coating stays sparkly.

The pin is The Cake Blog’s cranberry orange cupcakes, which in the photo are orange cupcakes with cranberries baked into the crumb, a tall swirl of white frosting and sugared cranberries on top.

5. Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

These taste like a mug of cocoa with a marshmallow in it, and kids love them.

Use a hot cocoa mix you’d happily drink, because it goes into the batter and onto the top.

Hollow out the center of each cooled cupcake with a cupcake corer and spoon in marshmallow fluff before frosting.

Don’t fill them to the brim, or the fluff squeezes out when you pipe the frosting on top.

Dust the cocoa powder over the top through a small sieve right before serving, because it darkens and gets patchy as it sits.

For a toasted look, brown the marshmallow on top quickly with a kitchen torch.

The pin is Sugar and Charm’s hot chocolate cupcakes, which uses butter, sugar, four eggs, flour, cocoa, milk, oil and two ounces of hot chocolate mix, half in the batter and half for dusting, fills each one with marshmallow fluff, and tops 20 cupcakes with creamy chocolate frosting and a marshmallow.

6. Red Velvet Snowflake Cupcakes

Red velvet is a mild cocoa cake, and the deep red with white frosting makes it look like Christmas without any extra decoration.

Vinegar, buttermilk and baking soda react together to give red velvet its soft, tender crumb, so don’t skip the vinegar.

Red velvet dries out fast, so check them a minute or two early and pull them when a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs.

For the snowflakes, pour melted white chocolate into a snowflake silicone mold or pipe it over a printed template on parchment, then chill until hard.

Stand them in the frosting right before serving, because white chocolate softens in a warm room.

Cream cheese icing goes in the fridge once the cupcakes are frosted, and they’re fine out for about two hours.

The pin is Saving Room for Dessert’s red velvet cupcakes, which makes 12 with butter and oil, one egg, half an ounce of liquid red food color, a tablespoon of natural cocoa, buttermilk, vinegar and baking soda, topped with a cream cheese icing and a white chocolate snowflake.

7. White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

The pink and white makes these look festive, and the tart raspberry keeps the white chocolate from being too sweet.

Flavor the frosting with freeze-dried raspberries ground to a powder, which gives strong color and flavor without making the buttercream runny the way fresh berries do.

Use real white chocolate with cocoa butter on the label, not candy melts, for the drizzle and the cake.

White chocolate burns and seizes easily, so melt it in 15-second bursts and stir between each one.

Fresh raspberries are pricey in December, so save them for the tops and use frozen ones for any filling.

Pat the berries dry before setting them on the frosting, or they slide off and leave pink streaks.

The pin is Chelsweets’ white chocolate raspberry cupcakes, which in the photo are white cupcakes piped with pink raspberry buttercream, drizzled with white chocolate, and finished with white chocolate chips and a fresh raspberry.

8. Christmas Tree Forest Cupcakes

A tray of these looks like a little forest, and the piping is easier than it looks.

Tint the buttercream with gel food coloring, which gives a deep green without thinning the frosting the way liquid color does.

The frosting needs to be stiff to hold the tall tree shape, so add more powdered sugar if a swirl starts to slump.

Chill the cupcakes for a few minutes between the base layer and the top swirl so the layers don’t squish together.

Greaseproof liners keep their color after baking, while plain paper ones go see-through and greasy.

Set them close together on a platter and tuck a few mini candy canes between them for the candy cane forest look.

The pin is Sweets & Treats’ Christmas tree cupcakes tutorial, a decorating guide rather than a cake recipe: pipe a green buttercream base with a large round tip, dip it in Christmas sprinkles, chill for 5 minutes, then pipe a tall swirl with a jumbo open star tip and finish with sprinkles and a gold sugar pearl, so bake any vanilla or chocolate cupcake you trust underneath.

9. Spiced Apple Cider Cupcakes

Apple and warm spice carry over from fall into Christmas, and these are a good choice when someone at the table doesn’t eat eggs or dairy.

Starting the oven hot and then turning it down partway through gives the cupcakes taller, domed tops.

For a stronger cider flavor, boil a cup of apple cider down to a quarter cup, let it cool, and beat a tablespoon or two into the frosting.

Let the brown sugar caramel cool and thicken before drizzling, or it soaks into the frosting instead of sitting on top.

A squeeze bottle makes neat drizzle lines.

Cut the apple slices for garnish last and brush them with lemon juice so they don’t brown.

The pin is Liv B.’s apple cider cupcakes with brown sugar caramel drizzle, a vegan recipe for 12 that gets its apple flavor from a cup and a half of applesauce rather than cider, spiced with cinnamon, allspice and ginger, baked 5 minutes at 425°F and then 12 to 13 at 350°F, and topped with a coconut milk and brown sugar frosting, a drizzle of the same caramel and a slice of apple.

10. Cherry Pistachio Cupcakes

Red cherries and green pistachios are Christmas colors without any food coloring.

Use shelled unsalted pistachios and grind them with a few spoonfuls of the sugar, which stops them turning into paste.

Fresh cherries are hard to find in December, so frozen dark sweet cherries work for the compote.

For the cranberry version, swap in cranberries and add more sugar, because cranberries are much more tart than cherries.

Cool the compote completely before filling the cupcakes, or it soaks into the crumb and makes it soggy.

Label them as containing nuts if you’re bringing them to a party.

The pin is Sugar Salt Magic’s cherry pistachio cupcakes, which makes 12 pistachio cupcakes from two-thirds of a cup of ground pistachios, flour, cornstarch, melted butter, eggs and buttermilk, fills them with a fresh cherry compote, and pipes vanilla and pistachio buttercreams on top with a fresh cherry.

For the rest of the dessert table, the Christmas desserts post covers the classics from yule log to trifle.

And for a cookie plate to go next to these, the unique and easy Christmas cookies post has ten that aren’t the usual five.