Recipe: Christmas Holly Cupcakes {Coles Packet Cake Mix Hack}

Summary:  These so remind me of vintage Christmas cards and chocolate box kittens and little plum puddings. They are so pretty but really simple to decorate, the only piping you need to do is the holly leaves. This was my first time using a leaf tip and I think the leaves came out pretty nicely. Click here to see someone piping leaves. My pro tip (actually leared from a professional) is to practise a few leaves on some clean baking paper first and once you have the knack you can scrape the icing back into the piping bag. And if you want to avoid piping altogether, you can use chopped up mint leaf lollies instead. These use this frosting method but instead of sprinkles on top, I used castor sugar and iridescent edible glitter give the top of these cupcakes a gorgeous snowy look. I went with chocolate cake and vanilla buttercream but you could mix it up, I have a whole list of cake mix hacks in various flavours at the bottom of this post. If you are travelling with these, I reccomend a cardboard cupcake box. They are a couple of dollars at the cake supply store and you never have to worry about taking a container home – plus it’s a lovely presentation. You can also get cupcake boxes that hold other quantities (6, 4, 2 or a single cupcake) if you would like to give these as gifts or share them at several events. 

Ingredients

• 1 Coles 75c chocolate cake mix
• 2 tblsp cocoa powder
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup sour cream
• 3 tblsp vegetable oil

Frosting & Topping

• 250g salted butter, softened
• 500g icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2-3 tblsp milk
• 24 red M&M’s or similar candy
• Green food colouring
• Castor sugar, for dipping
• Food safe glitter, optional

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 160C and line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper patty pan liners.
2. In a large bowl, add the cake mix followed by the cocoa, eggs and sour cream and oil. Whisk together until smooth and glossy. Divide the batter between the 12 patty pans.
3. Bake for 15-18 minutes (mine are always perfect at 17 mins) or until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool completely on a rack before frosting.
4. To make the frosting: Add the softened butter to the bowl of a stand mixer (or a bowl & electric beaters) and beat until the butter is pale.
5. Add half the icing sugar and half the milk and beat on low until incorporated. Add the remaining icing sugar and beat on low until incorporated. Beat on high for at least 5 mins, until smooth and fluffy.
6. Separate off a half cup of frosting for the holly leaves and tint green. Once you are happy, add the frosting to a piping bag fitted with a leaf tip and set aside.
7. Use my ‘no piping’ method to apply the icing and then dip the frosting into a mixture of castor sugar and edible glitter.
8. Pipe two leaves on each cupcake and finish with two candies as berries.