Christmas cupcakes - Christmas balls mini-cupcakes decoration ideas

Preparation time: 20min | Cooking time: 15min | Servings: 12 (mini cupcakes)

My daughter loves cupcakes and at this time of the year I have decided to make her a little surprise:)

She has just decorated a Christmas tree at school, so she was telling me how beautiful it was with all the Christmas balls (or boules or baubles, whatever you call them!). So one day, for her after-school snack I made these Christmas cupcakes. At first I wanted to make a decoration from fruits, but it was rather hard for the mini-cupcakes. Perhaps that could work better for the normal size ones. Anyway, a little bit of sweet treats during Holiday time will make no harm:)

We have invited my daughter’s friend to join us for an afternoon play time, so I have put all the cupcake balls into a Christmas tree mold. Girls were amazed! I regret I had no time to take a picture of their “wow” faces:) I must also say, I had hard time to stop them eating!

Ingredients

For muffins:

1/2 cup of flour
1/4 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of butter
4 tablespoons of milk
1 tablespoon of Greek yogurt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
pinch of salt
60g of chocolate
chocolate chips (optional)
colored sugar
Xmas sprinkles
desiccated coconut
fruit candies

For the cream:

3/4 cup of whipping cream (36-40% milk-fat)
1/2 cup of Mascarpone
1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar
1/2 cup of sugar

Did you know that the first decorated Christmas trees were adorned with apples, strings of popcorn, white candy canes and pastries in the shapes of stars, hearts and flowers?

Preparation

Step1 Preheat your oven to 400F/200°C. Melt butter and the chocolate in a small saucepan or heat-proof bowl in the microwave. Add eggs yolks, milk, yogurt and vanilla extract, then stir everything together.

Christmas cupcakes - Christmas balls mini-cupcakes decoration ideas step1

Step2 In a bowl, mix flour, sugar and baking powder. Add the mixture from step1 and stir with a spoon. Place the egg whites in a bowl and whisk until the egg whites are shiny and form stiff peaks. Add them to the cake preparation and stir gently until all ingredients are well combined. You can add some chocolate chips if you want.

Christmas cupcakes - Christmas balls mini-cupcakes decoration ideas step2

Step3 Spray the muffin cups (I used mini muffin cups) with oil or line with paper liners. Spoon the mixture evenly into the muffin cups. Bake muffins for 10-15 minutes (I always use a bamboo skewer to check if they are ‘dry’ inside).

Christmas cupcakes - Christmas balls mini-cupcakes decoration ideas step3

Step4 While muffins cook, prepare the cream. It is very easy to make and so yummy when homemade! Just remember to use a very well chilled cream that has 36 to 40 percent milk-fat content (heavy cream) or 30 to 36 percent (light whipping cream). Add whipping cream and sugar to a bowl and whip it using a mixer on medium speed. It is ready when soft peaks form – don’t over-whipe the cream as it turns to butter! You can taste it and adjust the amount of sugar. Personally, I don’t like it too sweet. When it is ready, add Mascarpone and stir everything well.

Christmas cupcakes - Christmas balls mini-cupcakes decoration ideas step4

Step5 Let the muffins cool down a bit. When ready, top each one with the cream from Step4 and form round forms. Then, place them in a fridge for 5-10 min, so the cream cools down and it is easier to make the decoration after. For the decoration I have used colored sugar, desiccated coconut and some Xmas sprinkles. I have used fruit candies to make the balls hangers. Enjoy!