Easy Grinch Cupcakes (Buttercream Icing)
Cute and easy grinch cupcakes recipe and tutorial for Christmas, homemade with simple ingredients. Decorated with green buttercream icing, sprinkles and candies. No fondant required for these DIY holiday cupcake toppers.
Servings: 24 Cupcakes
Calories: 350kcal
Ingredients
- 24 Chocolate cupcakes
- 5 cups Buttercream icing Colored green
- 24 Truffle balls Such as Lindt balls or Ferrero Rocher balls, Unwrapped
- 48 Yellow m&m candies
- 1 cup Black icing Can use store-bought black icing too
- 2 tablespoon Black sprinkles Make sure they are long jimmies
- 1 tablespoon Red heart sprinkles
Instructions
- Bake cupcakes and allow them to cool completely.
- While the cupcakes are baking and cooling, prepare the frosting.
- Spread a thin layer icing on top of the cupcake.
- Place a truffle in the center and press gently to secure it in place.
- Fill a piping bag with green icing and attach the grass tip (Wilton Tip # 233).
- Start piping from the bottom of the cupcake and work your way upwards until sides and top are fully covered in "fur." The general motion is to hold your piping bag at a 45 degree angle and then squeeze the bag until icing comes out. Then, pull away gently and let the "shags" fall.
- Draw black eyeballs on all the yellow m&m candies with an edible marker.
- Stick two m&m candies near the top of the cupcake for the eyes.
- Stick long black sprinkles on top of the eyes. These will be the eyebrows. Use tweezers (that you only use for handling food) to make this easier. Instead of sprinkles, you can pipe lines to create an angry furrow.
- Stick a single red heart sprinkle on the side of the cupcake.
- Use black icing and a small round tip to pipe a dot for the nose in the middle and a wide mouth near the bottom.
- Stick a Santa hat topper on top, if you like. Enjoy.
Notes
- The heat from your hands can warm the icing and make it runny and harder to pipe. Just chill the icing in the refrigerator for 20 minutes and it will be good to use again.
- I used chocolate cupcakes but some other festive choices would be gingerbread, red velvet or green vanilla cupcakes.
- Don't skip on the truffle ball. That gives it height to create the best elongated Grinch face.
- Santa hats are optional. You can either pipe them with red icing or stick a pre-made hat topper.
- Read additional tips and variations above.
- Leftovers can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
Calories: 350kcal | Carbohydrates: 57g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 227mg | Potassium: 57mg | Fiber: 0.3g | Sugar: 45g | Vitamin A: 22IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 57mg | Iron: 1mg