These Easy Grinch Cupcakes are a great Christmas treat if you’re looking to depart a bit from the traditional Christmas cookies scene, or great for a Grinch movie viewing party! Perfect easy party cupcakes that start with a mix and are perfectly green to fit with your Grinch theme! This post contains affiliate links.
Let me tell you how organized I am — I had an idea for a Grinch cupcake, but I have a lot of posts planned and thought I might hold it until next year. I mentioned it to my husband who said, “You know there’s a new Grinch movie coming out this Thursday, right?” Nope! Sure didn’t. So then I bumped the post up the list to get in on the fun. In my defense, my youngest son isn’t quite at the age for a movie in the theaters yet. He prefers events where he can run amok. Plus, the last event we took him to he ate something that was stuck to the bottom of his shoe, so I can only imagine what he’d find to randomly eat in a movie theater setting. So we won’t be headed to the Grinch movie premiere, but we’ll definitely watch an earlier version of the Grinch at home and eat some of these cupcakes!
Grinch Cupcakes How-to
This recipe is a riff off of the Watermelon Cake and Tailgate Cake and is so crazy easy and then made Grinchy (not sure if that’s a word, but it is now) with sanding sugar and red heart sprinkles inspired by the look of these cookies here. Grab a box of white cake mix (I used Betty Crocker) and a box of lime Jello. Of the different Jello/cake combos I’ve tried so far, I have to say the lime is by far a fave. I obviously chose it to make it green, but it was super delicious. So grab your cake mix and box of Jello and dump it all in a bowl with water, oil and eggs.
Yep, no special ingredient layering here, just dump and go!
Mix it on low for two minutes. I let my 4 year old help with this project and he informed me that I don’t let him do enough of the steps himself like Daddy does. And absolutely true — my husband lets my son help with all home improvement jobs. I didn’t even put help in quotes because he truly lets my son do the work that he can and even made him a miniature toolbelt filled with real tools he can use. I on the other hand, nervously watch and hover over him in every step he does in the baking process. So point taken, I wanted to be chill too so I told my son he could do the mixer work all by himself. I didn’t mention to never take the mixer out of the bowl while it was still running though. Ever. So next time I’ll be chill but also give important instructions too. Side note: the carpeted kitchen looks amazing with its new green cake batter accents.
Fill up the cupcake tins — I will say these cupcake batter spoons you’ll see above are a game changer for filling cupcake tins, especially if you’d like to get the cupcake size pretty even. I used the blue size spoon and just guided the batter in and it was so easy. They’re pretty cheap and worth it to me for the time savings.
Time to decorate!
So I super admire people who pipe out some fab frosting designs. Earlier this month, I tested some Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes for a future post and I thought I’d use store bought frosting in a piping bag to top them and easy, peasy, done. Sooo … it’d been so long since I’d filled a piping bag that I didn’t roll it down at all and it was the hottest of hot messes. I was covered in frosting, my son was covered in frosting (this was not a concern for him at all though, lol) and the kitchen had chocolate fingerprints alllll around. This has been a hard week for our kitchen. So this time I went the easiest of easy frosting routes. Slap dash on your frosting (I used Pilsbury just plain vanilla). Don’t spend a bunch of time getting it smooth, just cover the cupcake at a thickness to your liking. Then put your sanding sugar in a bowl and dip the top of the cupcake in the sanding sugar and it will smooth out as you tap on the sugar. Voila! Top with a red heart sprinkle and you’re good to go.
I used this sanding sugar and the sprinkles here — both are Amazon Prime and can get here in two days if you feel so inclined. Now I like to use a lot of Baker’s Joy and no cupcake liner for the baking process. I’ve added a liner here for decorative purposes, but when you bake with a liner on, it tears off so much of the cupcake. I want to enjoy every morsel of cupcake without having to scrape the cake off the wrapper with my teeth like a wild animal. I didn’t link to a cupcake liner because I got these at Walmart for under a dollar — all the ones I saw on Amazon were so much more pricey and the print wasn’t close. If you have a Walmart in your area, check the seasonal baking display center aisle for these. Baker’s Joy is with the Pam in the baking aisle.
Hope you enjoy these! Click here for more easy Christmas desserts that start with a mix or if you’re ready to start on Christmas Cookies click here for my Christmas Cookies ebook that’s a one stop shop of an easy cookie platter where everything starts with a mix.
Thanks for stopping by!
Easy Grinch Cupcakes
2018-11-06 11:07:22
An easy Grinch cupcake that starts with a mix and is perfect for gift giving or a Grinch movie viewing party!
Photo by Jennifer WareHi, Friend! I’m so glad you’re here. I’m Carissa ~ wife, working mom of two boys and someone who’s always looking for ways to make things just a little bit easier...Read More
Mix it on low for two minutes. I let my 4 year old help with this project and he informed me that I don’t let him do enough of the steps himself like Daddy does. And absolutely true — my husband lets my son help with all home improvement jobs. I didn’t even put help in quotes because he truly lets my son do the work that he can and even made him a miniature toolbelt filled with real tools he can use. I on the other hand, nervously watch and hover over him in every step he does in the baking process. So point taken, I wanted to be chill too so I told my son he could do the mixer work all by himself. I didn’t mention to never take the mixer out of the bowl while it was still running though. Ever. So next time I’ll be chill but also give important instructions too. Side note: the carpeted kitchen looks amazing with its new green cake batter accents.
These are adorable! I need to make them with the kids!
Thanks friend!