Christmas Cutout Cupcakes – Helping Little Hands

Hi Sugar Bee Readers, I’m Polly from Helping Little Hands.  You’ll find all sorts of crafting on my blog.  I dabble in sewing, T-shirt crafts, kids crafts, art, quilting, and of course baking.  I try to keep my projects pretty do-able, even for beginners because everything I do, get’s done with my four kids’ helping hands in the middle of it.

With four small children in the house, cupcakes are always a hit, especially if they’re cut.  I’ve experimented quite a few times with Cut-Out Cupcakes for other occasions, so I thought we’d make some Christmas ones this year.

Here are a few reasons I LOVE cut-out cupcakes:

• They’re fun!  Kids love seeing the shapes.
• They’re easy.
• They don’t require very much frosting.
• The frosting is inside the cupcake…make it less likely the kids will lick of the frosting and leave the cupcake.
• They’re less messy.  Since the frosting is not on top, your child’s face won’t get frosting all over it, and if they get dropped there’s not must frosting showing to get on the carpet, floor, shirt, etc.
• They’re easy to transport.  You don’t get frosting all over your car, shirt, etc if you have to transport them to school or a party.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Cupcakes (See note below about baking.)
• Knife (serrated works best)
• Frosting
• Sprinkles (optional)
• Small cookie cutters

This is one of those projects that evolved as I was making them.  I’d planned on making several different colors of frosting to match the different cut-out shapes.  Then I thought of the sprinkles and it make this project even easier, since I could stick to one color of frosting, although I had some extra chocolate frosting on hand for the gingerbread men.

You need a rounded top on your cupcake to do this.  When I bake the cupcakes, I fill the baking cups up a tad more than usual.  Then I bake them on a lower temperature than the directions for a longer time.  I usually bake them at 325 degrees.  You’ll want to keep an eye on them, but it usually takes 3-5 extra minutes of baking time.

Cut the top off.

Stamp out a shape with a cookie cutter.

Spread frosting.

Dip in sprinkles.

Pop the top back on.

Have fun being creative with different shapes and colors.

I think a mixture of chocolate and yellow cake is fun, although I think chocolate cupcakes are my favorite for these.  The chocolate just contrasts so nicely with the frosting.

I had some extra chocolate frosting from another cupcake project, so I used that for the gingerbread men.

And I thought some white and blue sprinkles dressed up the snowflake nicely.

And a quick tip about getting those stripes for the candy cane…after frosting the cupcake, I stuck two plastic forks into the frosting.  I broke off the handles, so they’d balance on the cupcake.  You’ll need to press them in a tiny bit to keep the sprinkles from going under.

Then sprinkle, and remove the forks.

The stripes aren’t perfect, but effective enough.

You can serve them on their own, or along with the shapes you cut out.

And of course you don’t have to stick to Christmas.  The possibilities are limited only by your selection of small cookie cutters.

Thanks so much for taking a look.  I’d love to hear from you if you try making some of these.  Please stop by my blog for lots of fun Christmas and gift ideas all month long.

A few favorites from last year were these Easy Mini-Book Ornaments Tutorial…

…and this Painted Nativity Tutorial.