One bite of these cupcakes, and even the grouchiest of Grinches will feel their heart growing three sizes. Just like our Santa pull-apart cake, all you need are boxed cake mix, homemade buttercream frosting, and food coloring to make this adorable Christmas treat. Get the kids involved, and turn these pull-apart cupcakes into a new holiday tradition while you’re watching your favorite movie version of this classic Christmas character.
Don’t be intimidated—these pull-apart cupcakes are wayyyy easier to make than you’d think. (Just watch the video a couple times 😉) If you’re not willing to put in the work on decorating with frosting, make our kranky treats or Grinchy cookies instead.
Made this recipe? Let us know how it went in the comments below!
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Ingredients
- 1
(15.25-oz. box) chocolate cake mix, plus required ingredients
- 1 1/2 c.
(3 sticks) butter, softened
- 6 c.
powdered sugar
- 5 Tbsp.
heavy cream
- 1 tsp.
pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp.
kosher salt
-
Yellow food coloring
-
Red food coloring
-
Green food coloring
-
Black gel icing
-
- Step 1Preheat oven to 350° and line 2 muffin tins with cupcake liners. Prepare cake mix according to box directions and divide batter between cupcake lines. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Let cool completely.
- Step 2In a large bowl, beat butter and powdered until combined. Add heavy cream, vanilla, and salt and mix until smooth.
- Step 3Scoop about 1 1/2 cup of frosting into a medium bowl and dye it red. Scoop about 1 cup of frosting into a medium bowl and leave it white. Scoop about a tablespoon of frosting into a small bowl and dye it yellow. Dye remaining frosting (it should be the bulk of it!) green.
- Step 4 Arrange 13 cups on a serving platter, docking each with white frosting, in the shape of the Grinch’s face. (Watch the video for help!) Pipe green frosting around the edges of cupcakes to outline face. Fill in the middle with frosting and use an offset spatula to smooth.
- Step 5Add 5 cupcakes on top of the face to create the shape of Santa’s hat. Pipe red frosting around edges to outline hat, then fill in the middle with red frosting and smooth with an offset spatula.
- Step 6Decoratively pipe white frosting on the bottom and at the end of Santa’s hat.
- Step 7Pipe 2 large yellow dots on face to create eyes, then draw face with black gel icing.
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