Everything about Christmas puts me in a good mood. I love getting all of our decorations out of the attic and putting up the Christmas trees with my husband and kids. We play Christmas music as we decorate and everyone sings along.
We always have extended family visiting over the holidays. My husband’s family is in town for several days before Christmas, and mine is in town for several days after. It’s nice to be able to have a lot of quality time with each family, but means I have a lot of meals to plan.
Since it’s Christmas, I love to make many of my nicer dishes for our families. But because many of those meals are things the adults like, I try to make sure I have kid-friendly options ready as well.
For the kids’ dessert this year, I decided on something that was super easy to make and that I know the kids will all love – cupcakes!
To make our holiday cupcakes, I used this kind of cake mix and this icing. The mix is easy to use and always makes a wonderfully moist, delicious cake. The frosting is my favorite for cupcakes because it tastes amazing and is the perfect consistency for bakery-style swirls.
The bakery-style swirls are easy to make. Just use a large icing tip and an icing bag, and follow these easy directions:
1. Snip off the end of the icing bag and drop the icing tip down into the bag. Pull the tip lightly to make sure it fits snugly in the end of the bag.
2. Place the bag down into a tall cup or glass and fold the top of the bag down around the outside of the cup.
3. Spoon your frosting into the icing bag. Once you have the bag ¾ full, unfold the bag from the cup and pull the top of the bag back up. Shake the bag gently so the frosting sinks to the bottom of the bag. Twist the top of the bag so frosting does not squeeze out the top.
4. Start frosting your cupcakes from the center.
5. Using light pressure on the icing bag, squeeze frosting out in a circle around the outside of the cupcake.
6. Complete the circle, then swirl a smaller circle inside the outside circle.
7. Once you’ve gotten to the middle of the cupcake, squeeze a little more frosting out while pressing down on the bag. Then stop squeezing the frosting and pull the bag up and away from the cupcake.
8. Add sprinkles and toppings quickly before the frosting dries and crusts over.
Enjoy!
