Festive Christmas Tree Cupcakes Recipe with Buttercream
These Christmas tree cupcakes are so adorable!!! These Christmas cupcakes use the cake mix – but we doctor it up to make it even BETTER! The addition of sour cream makes these cupcakes thick, moist, and super rich. Once you try this method, you’ll be hooked. We’re also adding a few spices to the Christmas tree cupcake mix to impart some festive flavor. Then it’s the fun part – decorating! Watch the video to see exactly how to pipe out the buttercream in a tree shape and then add sprinkles. They’ll be a hit at your Christmas parties.
And be sure to make my chewy gingerbread cookies, Crumbl copycat sugar cookies, or mini cupcakes next time you and your kids need a sweet holiday treat!

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Table of Contents
What You’ll Love About Christmas Tree Cupcakes
- Delicious, light and fluffy spiced cake
- Adorable holiday dessert
- Fun for the whole family
- Stands out on a dessert table
- Easy to make
- Made with 8 basic ingredients plus a few spices and decorations

Ingredients
This Christmas cupcake is made with 8 basic ingredients plus a few spices and decorations:
- Cake mix – Use your favorite brand of cake mix. You’ll want either white or yellow cake.
- Spices – Cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger, allspice
- Sour cream – Use full fat for best flavor. The sour cream helps keep the cupcakes super moist.
- Eggs – Use high quality eggs for best flavor.
- Milk – I recommend using whole or 2% milk for the cupcakes and frosting for richest flavor.
- Vanilla extract– Use high quality vanilla for best flavor.
- Butter – Use high quality butter for best buttercream flavor.
- Powdered sugar – The powdered sugar creates a light and fluffy frosting for the Christmas tree light cupcakes.
- Decorations – Green food coloring, star sprinkles, Christmas sprinkles mix

How to Make Christmas Cupcakes
Let’s make these easy Christmas cupcakes! Here’s how to make them:
- Prep ingredients. Gather Christmas cupcake liners and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Mix spiced cake mixture. In a medium bowl, whisk together cake mix, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger and allspice.

- Beat wet ingredients. In a large bowl or stand mixer, beat together sour cream, eggs, milk, and vanilla.

- Combine wet and dry ingredients. Stir in flour mixture and beat.

- Divide batter. Divide the batter between 18 cupcake liners in a cupcake pan.

- Bake cupcakes. Bake tree cupcakes until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely on a cooling rack.

- Make frosting. In a medium bowl, beat together butter, milk, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Add in food coloring until it reaches your desired shade and add to piping bag.

- Decorate cupcakes. Pipe frosting onto cupcakes in a spiral motion, starting wide near the edge of the cupcake, and working your way to the middle and to the peak. Top with star and sprinkles.
TIP: This frosting crusts pretty quickly, so you may want to add sprinkles to each cupcake as you go, rather than waiting until all cupcakes are iced. Otherwise your sprinkles may bounce off the icing.

Christmas Cupcake Decorations
There are so many Christmas cupcakes designs out there (have you seen Pinterest?!) We kept this Christmas cupcake pretty simple and focused on making a tree shape out of the frosting and then decorating it to look like a Christmas tree.
Use whatever holiday sprinkles, candy, chocolates, or decorations you prefer.
Storage Instructions
Store Christmas cupcakes in an airtight container for 2-3 days.

More Sweet Treat Recipes
If you like Christmas cupcakes recipes like this one, you might also like some of these other dessert recipes:
- Apple Monkey Bread
- Chewy Gingerbread Cookies
- Crumbl Copycat Sugar Cookies (Use white icing with holiday sprinkles!)
More Holiday Recipes
If you like Christmas cupcake ideas like this one, be sure to try some of these other holiday recipes:

Helpful Tools to Make Christmas Tree Cupcake Recipe
- Wilton Buttercream Decorating Set – You need the Wilton M1 tip to create the frosting in a tree shape, but here’s the basic set if you don’t have anything.
- Gold Star Sprinkles – This set (slightly different than ones shown) has a mix of fun gold stars, balls, and other shapes.
- Christmas Sprinkles Mix – This has a variety of holiday-themed sprinkles and are also used in my chewy gingerbread cookies.

Festive Christmas Tree Cupcakes Recipe with Buttercream Frosting
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 18 cupcakes 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
Description
The most ADORABLE Christmas tree cupcakes! These Christmas cupcakes use cake mix – but we doctor it up to make it even BETTER! Easy to decorate.
Ingredients
For cupcakes:
- 1 box of white or yellow cake mix
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- 1 cup full fat sour cream
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla
For Icing:
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/4 cup milk
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla
- Green food coloring
For decorating:
- Wilton M1 tip
- Star sprinkles (I used the stars from this sprinkle mix: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Neon-Mix-Sprinkles-10-5-oz/633958516)
- Various other sprinkles for decorating
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Stir cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and allspice into cake mix, and set aside.
- Beat sour cream, eggs, milk, and vanilla together until smooth.
- Stir in cake mix and beat for another minute.
- Divide batter between 18 cupcake liners in muffin tins.
- Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Remove cupcakes from oven and let cool completely.
- Beat icing ingredients together untilย smooth, adding enough food coloring to reach desired color.
- Pipe icing onto cupcakes, using a spiral motion, starting wide near the edge of each cupcake, and peaking at the top.
- Top with a star, and sprinkles.
Notes
This post may contain affiliate links. They do not add any charge to you, but I will make a very small commission from them. I only link to products I use and recommend. Thank you for your support!
Recipe and Photo Credit: Recipe, photos, and video were take by Elise New from Frugal Farm Wife