Santa Face Cupcakes
Vanilla cupcakes decorated as Santa Claus, with a red buttercream hat, a fluffy white beard and a pink nose.
Recipe in testing: I'm cooking it in my TM7™ and will update the steps and the photo with my own.
The fluffy beard is a must. These vanilla cupcakes become little Santa Claus faces with a red buttercream hat, a white brim and pompom, a beard of piped white dots and a round pink candy nose. They take a bit of patience, so put on some Christmas music and give yourself about an hour to decorate the dozen.
The Thermomix® TM7™ mixes the vanilla batter in a few short steps before it bakes in the oven. Then the butterfly whisk whips one batch of buttercream, which you divide into three colors: white for the beard, red for the hat and a light peach for the face. A round piping tip does most of the work.
Made in the Thermomix® TM7™
Santa Face Cupcakes
Makes: 12 cupcakes
- Prep1 h 40 min
- Cook20 min
- Total2 h
- Serves12
Ingredients
For the vanilla cupcakes
For the buttercream
To decorate
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
- For the cupcakes, place the butter and sugar in the mixing bowl and mix 1 min/speed 4. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix 20 sec/speed 4.
- Add the flour, baking powder, salt and milk and mix 15 sec/speed 4. Scrape down the sides with the spatula and mix 5 sec/speed 4.
- Fill the liners 2/3 full and bake in the oven 18-20 min, until lightly golden and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool 5 min in the pan, then completely on a rack, about 45 min.
- Wash and dry the mixing bowl. For the buttercream, insert the butterfly whisk, add the butter and whip 1 min/speed 3.5. Add half the powdered sugar, put the measuring cup in place and whip 1 min/speed 3.5.
- Add the rest of the powdered sugar, the cream, vanilla and salt and whip 1 min/speed 3.5. Scrape down the sides and whip 30 sec/speed 3.5 more, until pale and fluffy.
- Divide the buttercream: leave half white, color one quarter red, and tint the last quarter a light peach with a tiny dot of red and yellow gel. Put the white in a piping bag with a 1 cm (3/8 in) round tip.
- With an offset spatula, spread a thin layer of peach on each cupcake. Spread red over the top third for the hat, then pipe a white line across its base for the brim and a dot at the top for the pompom.
- Pipe white dots all around the lower half for the beard and 2 smaller dots in the middle for the mustache. Press in 2 mini chocolate chips for the eyes and a pink candy just above the mustache for the nose.
Tips
- Peach takes very little color: start with a toothpick dipped in the gel. A pinch of cocoa powder also gives a warm skin tone.
- Red buttercream darkens as it rests, so color it first and let it sit covered while you spread the faces.
- Bake the cupcakes a day ahead and keep them covered at room temperature. Decorated, they keep 3 days in an airtight container in the fridge.
