Grinch Cupcakes

Grinch Cupcakes are so much fun and festive with cake batter baked right into the cone. The kids will love them and they're perfect for the holiday season!

Looking for more festive holiday desserts? Here are a few more recipes for your holiday table: Ugly Sweater Cake, Snowman Cupcakes and Easy Christmas Brownies 3 Ways - Rudolph, Snowmen & Christmas Tree designs.

Why I love these cute Grinch cupcakes

• They're unique and a little different than traditional cupcakes or regular cupcakes. Great dessert for the Christmas season!

• You can impress your entire family with these adorable Grinch cupcakes that look like the Grinch stole Christmas.

• Kids absolutely love making these fun Grinch cupcakes. The cupcake cone makes them easy to hold and eat too.

• Easiest enough for a beginner baker since these festive Grinch cupcakes are made with a mix and store bought frosting.

• These Christmas cupcakes are perfect for a Grinch movie night!

What you need

Ingredient notes

• Ice Cream Cones - Use your favorite brand but make sure they are the cake cones (not the sugar cones or waffle cones).

• Cake Mix - We used a white cake mix for this recipe, but you could use any kind of boxed cake mix you like such as yellow, white, red velvet or pumpkin. Red velvet cupcakes would be super cute!

• Frosting - We used store bought red frosting (Funfetti brand) which works nicely in this recipe and is also quick and easy. We also used ready made black frosting for the eyebrows. For the green frosting, we made homemade vanilla buttercream frosting and colored it green.

• Green Food Coloring - We used food coloring gel in two different shades of green. 3 drops Electric Green, 1 drop Leaf Green - Americolor brand.

How to make easy Grinch Cupcakes

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix up the cake batter with an electric mixer according to package instructions. Stir in ⅓ cup holiday sprinkles.
2. Use a muffin scoop to scoop cupcake batter into greased muffin tins or cupcake pans. (You don't even need cupcake liners.) Make sure you don't over-fill them. You only need to fill the muffin cup ⅔ full.
3. Add an upside down ice cream cone on top of the batter in each muffin cup.
4. Bake cupcakes at 350°F for 20-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Let cool on wire rack.

5) Make homemade vanilla buttercream using hand mixer or stand mixer. Reserve 1 cup white buttercream. Color the rest green. (I used 3 drops Electric Green, 1 drop Leaf Green - Americolor brand.) Frost cupcakes with green icing using an offset spatula.

6) Place candy eyes on the green frosting.

7) For the hat: Use a piping bag fitted with a 1A pastry tip to pipe a swirl of red frosting on top of each cupcake.

8) Using a #21 pastry tip, pipe white buttercream around the base of the hat and on the tip. Pipe black icing eyebrows using a #352 pastry tip. Add sprinkles.

Expert tips

• Room Temperature Ingredients - For best results, always use room temperature ingredients for most baking projects. Chilled ingredients mix differently and affect the consistency of the recipe.

• Prepared Pan - It's very important to grease your cupcake pan very well to make sure your cone cakes don't stick. Use shortening or butter and rub it all over the inside of the pan, covering all the crevices. I used a generous amount of Crisco and they popped out perfectly after baking and cooling.

• Serving Suggestion for Cupcake Cones -If you're serving them at a Christmas party, place each cupcake in a clear plastic cup with a handful of M&M candies in the bottom of the cup to stablize the cupcake and also look cute (preferrably holiday colors).

• Peppermint Flavor Option - Add ½ teaspoon peppermint extract to green buttercream before frosting cupcakes.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How much batter do I put in the muffin pan? This is an important question. Make sure you don't over-fill them. You only need to fill the muffin cup ⅔ full.

Does the ice cream cone burn in the oven? Lots of people have asked this question and the answer is no. As long as you bake your ice cream cone cupcakes on the middle rack of a 350°F oven for about 22 minutes, they will not burn.

How do I store my cute Grinch cupcakes? Place cupcakes in the cupcake pan that you baked them in (after it's cooled). You can place a little bit of aluminum foil around the base of each cone to stablize them, if you wish. Preferably have someone hold them in their lap as you drive.

How do I transport my cupcakes? You can transport them the same exact way that you store them in the muffin pan. Then loosely cover with plastic wrap.

Can you make this recipe gluten free? Yes! Just substitute a gluten free cake mix and gluten free ice cream cones instead of the regular cake mix and cones.

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