Buddy The Elf's Favorite Christmas Cupcakes (2024)

Celebrate the four elf food groups with Buddy the Elf’s favorite Christmas cupcakes! These colorful and creative cupcakes are a blast to make with the kids, are great for Christmas movie nights, and are as much fun to decorate as they are to share.

Why We Love Elf’s Favorite Cupcakes

• Fun To Make With The Kids – The kids will have so much fun helping to make these Christmas cupcakes to share and chatting about Buddy’s favorite treats while they do it! Since they are designed to look like an elf’s favorite meal, the decorating doesn’t have to be perfect to look great, which is way fun for kids.
• Make It For A Christmas Movie Night – Of course these cupcakes are perfect for a Christmas movie night, they are based off elves favorite food groups!
• Unique Treat For Christmas Parties And Potlucks – These cupcakes stand out at a party in a good way that will get your family and friends talking!

Ingredients For Elf’s Favorite Cupcakes

Ingredients For The Cupcakes

• 15.25ounceswhite cake mixwe used Duncan Hine’s perfectly moist
• 1cupflour
• ¾cupwhite sugar
• 1teaspoonsalt
• 4largeeggs– whites only
• 1cupsour cream
• 2tablespoonsvegetable oil
• 1tablespoonmaple syrup
• 2teaspoonsvanilla extract
• 1cupwater

Ingredients For The Frosting

• 1cupshortening – like Crisco
• 1cupbuttersoftened to room temperature, salted is fine for this recipe
• 4cupspowdered sugaralso known as confectioner’s sugar
• 3tablespoonsmilk – we used 2%, you can use what you have on hand
• 1tablespoonmaple syrup – real maple syrup will give you a lote more flavor then imitation maple syrup or a pancake syrup
• 1teaspoonvanilla extract
• yellow food coloringwe used gel, I used Wilton’s gel food coloring in copper, but you can use any yellow food coloring you have.

Optional Toppings

See the notes in the recipe card for more ideas.

• mini marshmallows – I used the tiny style marshmallow bits, but regular mini marshmallows work too
• mini chocolate chips
• mini M&M’s
• sprinkles

How To Make Elf’s Favorite Cupcakes

Making And Baking The Cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line cupcake liners in pan and set aside.
2. To a large mixing bowl add the cake mix, flour, granulated sugar and salt. Mix well until combined.

3. Separate the eggs and place just the egg whites in a medium sized bowl. Add the sour cream, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, maple syrup, and water to the egg whites. Mix until combined.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in the large mixing bowl. Stir until a smooth cake batter forms. Pour cake batter into the cupcake liners in the cupcake pan, dividing evenly between about 18 cupcakes wells.

5. Place the cupcakes in the oven. Bake for 17-18 minutes or until cooked through. The tops of the cupcakes will be lightly golden brown. Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting or the frosting will melt off. You can place them on a wire rack to cool.

Making The Frosting

1. In a clean large mixing bowl, add the butter and shortening. Cream together butter and shortening with an electric mixer until smooth, about 3 minutes.

2. Add the powdered sugar to the butter mixture a cup at a time, mixing on low well in between each cup until the frosting begins to thicken. Then add the milk and vanilla extract and mix again with the electric mixer until combined.

3. Place a little of the food coloring in the frosting and mix with an electric mixer until combined. Keep adding food coloring until you get your desired color.

4. Load the frosting tip into the end of the frosting bag. (see notes in the recipe card at the bottom) Fill the bag with frosting. Pipe frosting to look like spaghetti all over the tops of the cupcakes. Top with sprinkles and candies to decorate, then enjoy!

Variation Ideas

Get Creative With The Toppings – I used toppings that I remembered Buddy adding on top of his cupcakes, but don’t feel limited! You can use any chopped up candy, holiday candy or decorations that feel like they belong at the holidays. Buddy the elf loves all sugar for breakfast, so using things like holiday gumdrops, fun holiday sprinkles, or other seasonal candies you may find just add to the fun!

Simplify The Cupcakes – This recipe ended up with a few more ingredients then I originally meant, but that maple flavor I think makes it worth it as it makes it more like the Elf movie. You could simplify and make the cupcakes according to the package and use the frosting recipe to decorate. Note that if you make the cupcakes according to the box you may have a few less cupcakes.

How Long Will Elf’s Favorite Cupcakes Last?

Expect these cupcakes to last for 4-5 days. Store the cupcakes in a covered container in the refrigerator. It’s ok if they are on a platter to share for around 3-4 hours, but beyond that they should to be refrigerated.