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Twice Upon a Cupcake

December 23, 2020 by Elana Lepkowski Leave a Comment

Christmas Tree Cupcakes // magicaltreatsathome.com

Where can I find the original treat?

  • This holiday treat was found at the Main Street Bakery inside the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World.

During the holidays your baking is allowed to be… extra. And today we’ve got an “extra” cupcake. As in, there is a cupcake sitting on top of another cupcake. See? Extra.

Christmas Tree Cupcakes // magicaltreatsathome.com

Actually, there is a cupcake sitting on top of a cupcake with a hidden Mickey cake ball inside. Sooooo extra. And let’s be real. This is fun to make, but there’s a lot of components. You can definitely make just some of these parts, but if you’re missing Disney treats on Main Street this holiday season, then this is a fun project.

Christmas Tree Cupcakes // magicaltreatsathome.com

The recipe below is broken down into three components: cake balls, confetti tree cupcakes, and the surrounding base for the cupcake. These can be done simultaneously, or broken up into steps over days depending on how much time you have. I’m also noting that usually, I make the red velvet cake balls with cream cheese icing, but I found that regular American buttercream works better here (it doesn’t “weep” like the cream cheese does when molding and freezing).

Christmas Tree Cupcakes // magicaltreatsathome.com

The only thing I deviated from in the original treat was the sugar light bulbs. For a home baker, I thought going through this step would feel like overkill. Instead I piped out buttercream lights, refrigerated them, and used for the lights. Then, my 6 year old looked at the trees and asked “why didn’t I just use M&Ms?”, and honestly, I would have just done that had I thought of it. So, I’m recommending that for convenience here as well.

Kids can help in all parts of the baking and decorating stages here. My kids mostly liked adding the M&Ms to their half trees (in the picture below I piped some frosting onto an extra confetti “tree” cupcake and let them decorate and eat that part).

Christmas Tree Cupcakes // magicaltreatsathome.com
You can also make a single tree cupcake too!

Now, the hidden Mickey part of these is probably the hardest of these cupcakes. And what is the secret to getting a hidden Mickey every time you make a cut? Simple! You actually create a ring, or halo, over the ball in the center. Then no matter where you make the cut to reveal the hidden Mickey, you’ll get one! They are tricky though, and as you can see, mine were prone to separate when baking. My suggestion is that you really seal the ball and the ring together. I had placed mine just on top, and the cake batter pushed the ring up a bit. You could also pin them together with toothpicks and take the toothpicks out when done baking (and PLEASE remember to do that as I do not want you to harm your mouth eating treats!).

Christmas Tree Cupcakes // magicaltreatsathome.com

Anyway you decided to make these, whether the full cupcakes, just the trees, or without the hidden Mickey centers, these are a delightful treat to have this holiday week.

Happy baking, happy holidays, and I’ll see you all in the New Year!

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Christmas Tree Cupcakes // magicaltreatsathome.com

Twice Upon a Cupcake

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  • Author: Elana Lepkowski
  • Yield: 4–6 Twice Upon a Cupcake cupcakes 1x
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Description

A decadent holiday cupcake has TWO hidden treats inside that are revealed when you cut through the cupcake. Did you find the hidden Mickey? A Walt Disney World inspired treat.


Ingredients

Scale

For the Buttercream and decorations:

  • 1 pound powdered sugar, sifted
  • 1 cup butter, room temperature
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • 1 tablespoon cream
  • green food coloring (I used Americolor Leaf green)
  • Optional food coloring if making buttercream light decorations: red, yellow, blue
  • Red, yellow, and blue M&Ms for lights

For the red velvet hidden Mickey center:

Adapted from Dessert for Two

  • 95 g (3/4 cup) flour
  • 4 teaspoons cocoa powder, unsweetened
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup coconut oil or neutral oil
  • 2 tablespoons warm water
  • 1/2 cup (99 g) granulated sugar
  • scant 1/4 cup (57 g) Greek yogurt
  • 1 egg
  • Red food coloring (see notes below for type and amounts)
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla

For the Cupcakes (and Sprinkle Funfetti Tree Cupcakes):

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
  • 3/4 cup (150 g) granulated sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 1–1/2 cups (180 g) all purpose flour
  • 1–1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup green and red sprinkles

Specialty Tools:

  • Tall baking cups
  • popover pan
  • piping bags
  • closed star tip (Ateco #847 used here)

Instructions

For the buttercream:

  1. First, make sure your powdered sugar is lump free. Sift if needed.
  2. Then, beat the butter and salt together for a minute until light and fluffy.
  3. Pour in the powdered sugar and slowly mix until they start to combine about 30 seconds. Then turn up the speed to high and beat together until mixture starts to become fluffy in texture.
  4. Add in the vanilla and cream, and beat on high an additional minute or two until desired texture is reached. If dry, add in an additional teaspoon of cream. Set aside covered with a damp, not wet, towel.

For the red velvet hidden Mickey center:

  1. Preheat oven to 350°f and grease and flour a 6″ round cake pan.
  2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
  3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the oil, warm water, granulated sugar, Greek yogurt, egg, red food coloring, and vanilla.
  4. Add in the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
  5. Pour into prepared baking pan and bake 20-25 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
  6. Let cool in the pan 5 minutes, turn out the cake onto a cooling rack, and let completely cool at least one hour.
  7. Then crumble the cake into pea sized crumbs and place in a mixing bowl.
  8. Add to the crumbs about 1/4 cup of the buttercream frosting. Mix well until combined.
  9. Next, roll out 4-6 small round balls, these will be the heads. Set aside on a parchment lined baking sheet.
  10. With the remaining cake pop dough, roll out thin snakes (you can use plastic wrap to help roll out the snakes). Form the snakes into rings and place on the balls. You can use toothpicks to hold in place. Press firmly to help seal the two together. Place in freezer until ready to use.

For the cupcakes:

  1. Set the oven to 350°f. Set out tall cupcake holders (you will not need a cupcake tray for the freestanding molds). Then, using tin foil, shape out a conical mold for the tree tops. (You can use a popover pan to hold the molds in place, or place the tin foil mold in a tall baking cup). Make sure there are no gaps or holes or your batter will leak. Optionally, you can also cook off some funfetti cupcakes in regular molds, freeze, and then cut to shape.
    Christmas Tree Cupcakes // magicaltreatsathome.com
  2. In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
  3. Next, beat in eggs one at a time until incorporated. Then add in vanilla and 1/4 cup of the milk.
  4. Mix in flour, baking powder, and salt, and then the rest of the milk. Set aside.
  5. Remove red velvet cake pops from freezer and place into freestanding baking molds. Spoon batter over cake pops until about 2/3 of mold is filled. Place in oven for 25-28 minutes.
  6. Next, add sprinkles to remaining batter and mix to combine. Do not over mix.
  7. Pour sprinkle batter into conical molds, and place in oven for 22-26 minutes. Both cupcakes can bake in the oven at the same time, but keep separate timers.
  8. When finished baking, let cool to room temperature. Funfetti cupcakes can be kept in the freezer for 30 minutes to firm up if they need to be cut to shape.

Decorating:

  1. If piping lights, remove about a half cup of frosting. Divide into three bowls and color one bowl red, another yellow, and lastly blue. Then transfer to small piping bags with a round tip. Pipe out circles onto a parchment lined baking sheet and refrigerate at least an hour to firm up.
    Christmas Tree Cupcakes // magicaltreatsathome.com
  2. If not piping lights and using M&Ms instead, remove about 1/2 cup of frosting into a plain tipped piping bag and pipe a circle on top of the base cupcakes. Place the funfetti trees on top of that. Then proceed to coloring all the remaining frosting green by adding 2-3 drops of gel food coloring into the frosting bowl. Mix well to fully incorporate the color and then transfer all of the frosting to a piping bag fitted with an closed star tip (I used Ateco #847).
    Christmas Tree Cupcakes // magicaltreatsathome.com
  3. Pipe out closed stars for the trees all over the funfetti cakes.
    Christmas Tree Cupcakes // magicaltreatsathome.com
  4. Next, if using buttercream lights, remove those from the fridge and place immediately onto the green frosting. If you using M&Ms, place those on the frosting. Repeat until all cupcakes are decorated.
  5. Enjoy!

Notes

  • If cocoa powder is lumpy, sift before using.
  • If you are using grocery store food coloring, you will need about 1-1/2 teaspoons of red food coloring to get the cake a nice bright red. If you were using a gel paste from like Americolor, you will need about a quarter teaspoon or two big squirts from the bottle.
    Mickey Mouse Red Velvet Cake Pop // magicaltreatsathome.com
  • Cake crumbs should be small and no larger than a pea.
  • Cake balls should not be too wet or too dry to hold their shape properly. If too wet, add more cake crumbles. If too dry, add more frosting a small bit at a time.
  • M&Ms candies can be used instead of piping buttercream lights.
  • To prevent cake pop from moving inside the cupcake when baking, use toothpicks to hold together in place. REMEMBER TO REMOVE THE TOOTHPICKS BEFORE DECORATING.
  • Cupcakes will keep up to 4 days refrigerated in an airtight container. Let come to room temperature before eating.
  • Extra buttercream can be kept in an airtight container up to a week, or frozen up to 3 months.
  • Extra cake batter can be baked off for regular cupcakes. Reduce bake time by 2-3 minutes.

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @magicaltreatsathome on Instagram and hashtag it #magicaltreatsathome

Christmas Tree Cupcakes // magicaltreatsathome.com

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Filed Under: Recipes, Treats Tagged With: buttercream frosting, cake ball, cake pop, Christmas, christmastimetreats, cupcakes, hidden Mickey, holiday, Magic Kingdom, Main Street Bakery, red velvet, sprinkles, treat, vanilla, WDW

African Sunshine Cupcake (Sunflower Cupcake)

April 4, 2020 by Elana Lepkowski Leave a Comment

African Sunshine Sunflower Cupcake // magicaltreatsathome.com

Where can I find the original treat?

  • This treat was originally found at The Mara in Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge.

How is it already a week since our last recipe?! Time sure is strange right now, at least for all of us at home. But, another week, another Disney treat. And this week we’re traveling from our home base here in SoCal to Florida to make the African Sunshine Cupcake that was at The Mara in Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge!

This sunflower cupcake was a request from a follower on Instagram. So, just a reminder to everyone that if there’s something you’d like to make and you don’t see it here on the site yet, just ask us and we’ll see if it’s something we can make! I’ll also point out that even though the cupcake recipe makes 12 total cupcakes, the buttercream should decorate about 6, as the other remaining 6 cupcakes we’ll crumble and use for our cake pop recipe in a few days!

African Sunshine Sunflower Cupcake // magicaltreatsathome.com

This treat is a chocolate cupcake flavored with orange extract and topped with a layer of fudge, chocolate crisp pearls, and yellow and green vanilla buttercream frosting. They sure are a pop of sunshine! And don’t let all those individual petals scare you into thinking this is more of an advanced decorating project; it’s not! I’ve got a quick video I’ll link to on our YouTube page (yes, we have one but it’s a bit sparse!) and it shows the technique for piping on the petals. In summary, you’ll want to start the tip at the inner edge of the baking cup and fold up and over to create some height for the flower petals since you’ll want an area to catch all the pearls in.

While you might want perfect petals for your cupcake, kids can help mix the cupcake batter, and pipe their own petals for the flowers. It’s a good lesson in patience to slowly get the buttercream to come out!

African Sunshine Sunflower Cupcake // magicaltreatsathome.com

If you’re wondering where the name comes from, Disney states that South Africa is the 10th largest producer of sunflowers in the world. Now let’s make some buttercream sunshine!

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African Sunshine Sunflower Cupcake // magicaltreatsathome.com

African Sunshine Cupcake (Sunflower Cupcake)

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star No reviews
  • Author: Elana Lepkowski
  • Yield: 6 Sunflower Cupcakes 1x
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Description

Bring a little sunshine into your home with these orange-chocolate cupcakes topped with bright yellow and green vanilla buttercream surrounding a pool of fudge and crisp chocolate pearls. A Walt Disney World inspired treat.


Ingredients

Scale

For the cupcakes (adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction):

  • 3/4 cup (95g) all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup (45g) unsweetened natural cocoa powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup (100g) packed light brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup melted coconut oil or vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 1–1/2 teaspoons orange extract
  • 1/2 cup Greek yogurt, at room temperature

For the fudge:

  • 4 ounces sweetened condensed milk
  • 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the buttercream:

  • 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon heavy cream, milk, or nondairy milk
  • green gel paste food coloring (I used Americolor Leaf Green)
  • yellow gel paste food coloring (I used Americolor Lemon Yellow)

Chocolate crisp pearls for decoration

Specialty Tools:

  • piping bags
  • leaf tip
  • baking cups

Instructions

For the cupcakes:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with the baking cups. Set aside.
  2. Whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl until thoroughly combined. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar, oil, vanilla, and orange extract together until combined. Pour half of the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Then half of the Greek yogurt. Gently whisk until just combined. Repeat alternating with the remaining wet ingredients and Greek yogurt. Stir only until there are no visible white streaks of yogurt to avoid over-mixing the batter. This is a thin batter!
  3. Fill baking cups halfway with batter. Bake for 18-21 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before decorating. ** You will only need 6 for this recipe. Save the others for the cake pop recipe we’ll have in a few days!
    African Sunshine Sunflower Cupcake // magicaltreatsathome.com

For the fudge:

  1. While the cupcakes are baking, combine the sweetened condensed milk and chocolate in a heat safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds. Stir and microwave an additional 30 seconds. If chocolate is still lumpy, microwave an additional 15 seconds. Stir rapidly until smooth.
  2. Add vanilla extract in and stir to combine.
  3. Set aside in fridge while cupcakes continue to bake. You’ll want a pour-able, but thick consistency. See notes below for making ahead.

For the frosting and decoration:

  1. Cream the butter in a mixer until light and fluffy; about 1 – 2 minutes.
  2. Add in powdered sugar and mix until all the sugar is incorporated.
  3. Pour in vanilla and cream/milk and beat again for an additional 30 seconds. You want a stiffer buttercream to pipe the sharp edges of the leaf and flower petals. If buttercream seems too wet (flops off your spoon), beat in an additional 1-2 tablespoons of powdered sugar.
  4. Once desired consistency has been reached, scoop out 1/4 of the buttercream and put in a bowl big enough to mix it around in. Add in 2 drops of green food coloring for the leaves. Mix the frosting until no white remains and then transfer to a piping bag fitted with the leaf tip. Set aside.
  5. Grab your fudge and spoon a small circle of fudge in the center of each cupcake, leaving room to pipe frosting on the outside (about a 1/4″).
    African Sunshine Sunflower Cupcake // magicaltreatsathome.com
  6. Then, pipe 3-4 leaves on each cupcake starting from the fudge and moving to the edge of the wrapper, set aside. Remove piping tip, clean it, and fit onto a new piping bag.
    African Sunshine Sunflower Cupcake // magicaltreatsathome.com
  7. To the remaining white frosting, add in 2-3 drops of the yellow food coloring. Mix well until there are no longer any white streaks. Transfer the yellow buttercream to the new piping bag.
  8. Pipe sunflower petals around the edges of the fudge in 2-3 layers, piping over the leaves until desired number of petals have been created. You’ll want a small well to pour in the crisp pearls so keep that in mind when building your layers.
  9. Finish your cupcakes by spooning about a tablespoon of chocolate crisp pearls into the center of each cupcake. Enjoy immediately or refrigerate in an airtight container up to 3 days.

Notes

  • The remaining cupcakes can be tightly wrapped in clingwrap and frozen for up to 6 months or crumbled and saved for cake pops.
  • If fudge is made ahead of time, remove from the refrigerator at least an hour to hour and a half prior to cupcakes being cool for decoration. If fudge is still stodgy, scoop out a small ball and warm between your hands, forming a disc to top cupcake with.
  • If petal or leaf tips are not available, you can make a DIY tip with just a pastry bag. Cut an inverse V in the tip of the bag and continue with the same piping movements.
  • Any extra buttercream can be frozen for up to 3 months. Defrost in the refrigerator the day before needed and rewhip until spreadable.

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @magicaltreatsathome on Instagram and hashtag it #magicaltreatsathome

African Sunshine Sunflower Cupcake // magicaltreatsathome.com

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Filed Under: Recipes, Treats Tagged With: buttercream frosting, chocolate, chocolate pearls, cupcakes, fudge, orange, sunflower, treat, WDW

Disneyland Holiday Cupcakes 2019

November 25, 2019 by Elana Lepkowski Leave a Comment

Disneyland Holiday Cupcakes 2019 // magicaltreatsathome.com

Where can I find the original treat?

  • This holiday time treat can be found at the Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe at the Disneyland resort.

I’m having a pretty hard time this year trying to narrow down what to eat treat-wise every week at the park; the offerings this year are just so good! One of my stops is always the Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe because the baked goods there almost never disappoint. Case in point, the Holiday Cupcake. Which is what we’re making this week!

Disneyland Holiday Cupcakes 2019 // magicaltreatsathome.com

With such a nondescript name, the “Holiday Cupcake” could be anything, and what it is, is a moist vanilla bean cupcake with a tight crumb, lightly sweetened two-tone frosting, delicate red and white sugar pearl decorations, edible silver stars, a peppermint-inspired white chocolate candy, and a surprise filling of red and green M&M’s candies. What a mouthful! What could easily be a treat too sweet to finish, is actually pretty balanced in that department and I think it has to do with the lightly sweetened frosting. Landing somewhere between an Italian buttecream and Ermine frosting, it’s light like whipped cream, but stable, and very lightly sweetened.

Disneyland Holiday Cupcakes 2019 // magicaltreatsathome.com

So, for this recipe I’m going with Ermine frosting, a boiled milk style frosting, which might not be a familiar name to some people, but it’s actually been around for some time. Ermine has a whipped cream like texture when made fresh, and was the original type of frosting for red velvet cakes before the ubiquitous cream cheese frosting took over. I love to use it on cakes as a filling and outer layer, and then decorate with American buttercream for decorations as I get the sharper edges I am looking for when I want stars and lines. I hope you try the combination, people I’ve served it to love the contrast in frostings!

The vanilla cupcake base utilizes vanilla bean paste so you get to see all the tiny vanilla bean seeds throughout the cake. It’s moist but holds up to cutting as you’ll need a bit of a tighter crumb for hollowing out the center to fill with candy.

Disneyland Holiday Cupcakes 2019 // magicaltreatsathome.com

And the decorations, well, here you can go as big and bold as you want. Or tone it down too. The sugar pearls and the edible stars can easily be purchased from Amazon or your local craft store like Michael’s. The peppermint inspired white chocolates can be made at home (I know these are definitely looking homemade!), but you could also sub in an actual peppermint here too, and I think that would look pretty.

Disneyland Holiday Cupcakes 2019 // magicaltreatsathome.com

Kids can help in a few ways here. My 2-1/2 year old helped me mix the cupcakes, fill them, and decorate. But I’d say maybe 5 and up could handle piping out the frosting too.

Decorating cupcakes in such a festive way has really gotten me into the holiday spirit this year. And I hope they bring a little magic into your home and kitchen too!

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Disneyland Holiday Cupcakes 2019 // magicaltreatsathome.com

Disneyland Holiday Cupcakes 2019

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  • Author: Elana Lepkowski
  • Yield: 12 Holiday Cupcakes 1x
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Description

The Holiday Cupcake is a festively decorated vanilla bean cupcake topped with two-toned, lightly sweetened ermine frosting, with a candy filled surprise center. A Disneyland-inspired treat.


Ingredients

Scale

For the cupcakes (adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction):

  • 1 and 2/3 cup (210g) all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup (115g) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
  • 2 large egg whites
  • 1/4 cup (60g) Greek yogurt
  • 3/4 cup (180ml) milk (or non-dairy milk)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste

For the frosting (adapted from Wilton):

  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup cream
  • 1 cup butter, softened (2 sticks)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the decoration:

  • green food coloring gel (Leaf green from Americolor used here)
  • red sugar pearls
  • white sugar pearls
  • silver edible stars
  • 1 cup white melting chocolate wafers
  • 1 ounce red candy melts
  • red and green M&M’s (~72)

Specialty Tools:

  • holiday cupcake liners
  • 3/4” round cutter (I use one from this set)
  • pastry bags
  • Wilton 2A pastry tip
  • hemisphere mold

Instructions

For the cupcakes:

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line muffin pan with 12 cupcake liners. Set aside.
  2. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt butter in the microwave. Whisk in sugar – mixture will be gritty. Whisk in egg whites, yogurt, milk or milk substitute, and vanilla bean paste until combined.
  3. Slowly mix dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until no lumps remain. Batter will be thick.
  4. Divide batter among 12 cupcake liners and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool.

For the frosting:

  1. In medium saucepan, stir together sugar, flour and salt. Whisk in cream until smooth. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until very thick, about 5-7 minutes. Remove from heat and pour into medium bowl; press plastic wrap over top of mixture and sides of bowl to seal completely and prevent a skin from forming. Let cool to room temperature, about 1 to 1-1/2 hours.
  2. In a stand mixer, beat butter at medium speed for 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Slowly drizzle cream mixture into whipped butter and beat until smooth, scraping down bottom and sides of bowl often. Add vanilla and beat 3 more minutes, or until frosting reaches the consistency of whipped cream.
  3. Remove 2/3 of the frosting and spread it into a large piping bag, fitted with a Wilton 2A tip, on one side of the bag. Set aside.
  4. To the remaining frosting, add one drop of the leaf green food coloring. Whip until all the frosting is green.
  5. To make the two tones frosting, you’ll need to spread the green frosting inside the pastry bag on top of the white cream, so that it is in two layers. Twist the bag and push the frosting towards the tip. Pipe some of the frosting out in a swirl until both colors have appeared. Set aside.

For the decorations:

  1. At least one hour before decorating the cupcakes, melt the white chocolate in the microwave inside a microwave safe bowl, like glass, for 30 seconds. Stir and microwave again for an additional 30 seconds. Keep stirring and microwaving in short bursts of 15-20 seconds until melted and smooth. Use can alternatively use a double boiler for melting. Repeat for the red candy melts and transfer them into a small pastry bag. Cut a small amount of the tip off the end.
  2. Pipe the red candy melts as lines mimicking peppermint candy swirls inside the round molds. Then pour the white chocolate over the red and, using a toothpick, swirl the two together. Refrigerate about 45 minutes to an hour. Then pop out the candies and set aside.
  3. Take the 3/4″ cutter and press firmly into the center of the cupcake. Twist and lift the cutter to remove the center. Repeat for all the cupcakes. Save the insides for cake pops, or eat them if you wish!
  4. Fill each center of the cupcake with 6 red and green M&M’s candy. Set aside and repeat with the other cupcakes.
  5. Next, pipe out a swirl of frosting on each cupcake, and then sprinkle the edible silver stars on top. Place red and white sugar pearls on the frosting.
    Disneyland Holiday Cupcakes 2019 // magicaltreatsathome.com
  6. Finally, place a peppermint inspired white chocolate (or real peppermint if you choose) on the cupcake. Enjoy!

Notes

  • If you cannot find vanilla bean paste, you can substitute vanilla extract 1:1 and scrape in some vanilla bean seeds from half a pod, or leave out the seeds entirely.
  • Store cupcakes in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days and in the refrigerator up to 7.
  • The cream mixture can be refrigerated up to three days and brought to room temperature before mixing into the butter.
  • Ermine frosting can be refrigerated up to 3-4 days in an airtight container. It needs to be whipped again before using. If frosting is too cold when whipped it will appear to break. But don’t worry! Keep whipping for several minutes and it will combine and become smooth again like whipped cream.

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @magicaltreatsathome on Instagram and hashtag it #magicaltreatsathome

Disneyland Holiday Cupcakes 2019 // magicaltreatsathome.com

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Filed Under: Recipes, Treats Tagged With: christmastimetreats, cupcakes, ermine frosting, holiday, jolly holiday bakery cafe, M&Ms, treat, vanilla, white chocolate

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Hi! My name is Elana, and that’s me shoving a Mickey Mouse shaped treat in my face. I love the treats at Disneyland. A lot. So much so I’ve dedicated an entire website to making all my favorites, and hopefully yours too, out of my home kitchen. My aim is to create Disneyland-inspired treats, with easy to follow directions, and many recipes geared towards getting the kids in the kitchen to help too! Because putting sprinkles on things is F-U-N.

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