Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Christmas Cupcakes: An Alternative To Traditional Holiday Cakes

By Anya Shiela Richards


Baking delicious Christmas cakes is an integral part of Christmas holiday traditions in nearly all cultures and giving home-baked cakes to friends and family is an old holiday custom. Many families have their own special Christmas cake recipe. This year, consider replacing the traditional Christmas cake with cupcakes. There are many advantages to this. You'll be able to bake (and enjoy) several different types of cake. Adapt your traditional Christmas cake recipe and make cupcakes instead and / or use as many of the numerous cupcake recipes available to create a variety of luscious Christmas cupcakes.

Whatever cupcake recipe you use, you can shape the cupcakes into Christmas holiday forms, such as elf faces, snowmen shapes etc. Or you can simply frost the cupcakes and add Christmas cake decorations on top. Unlike a regular Christmas cake, when you make Christmas cupcakes, you can vary the cake decorations you use; no need to stick with one design. Decorate one batch of your cupcakes with hard sugar candy canes, another with little angel figurine toppers etc. Making cupcakes also allows you to decorate them according to who will be eating them. Use cute Santa designs and Christmas stocking toppers for Christmas cupcakes reserved for children. The teenage crowd usually appreciates both the taste and aspect of Christmas ornate cupcakes and Silent Night cupcakes. For adults, bake cappuccino chocolate cupcakes, almond cupcakes with orange icing or simply use your favorite Christmas cake recipe to make cupcakes. As you can see, replacing one big cake with several different flavors of Christmas cupcakes is an easy way to keep everyone happy.

Throw in toppings which you think will enhance the flavor of your cakes. If it's the first time you are making cupcakes, follow a basic cupcake recipe. But overall, they are easy to bake and lots of fun too. You can add some cocoa to make chocolate cupcakes, and for an even richer taste use nutmeg or ground ginger.

You can make Christmas cupcakes using any of the flavors you use for regular cake, or you can be creative and incorporate ingredients to make your favorite flavors. When experimenting with new flavors, however, remember that moderation is important. In general, when baking cupcakes for small children, use milk or fruit juice as the liquid ingredient in the batter and flavor the cupcake with vanilla or chocolate. Your adult guests will love the taste of Margarita cupcakes made with some lime and Tequila.

Below are some of the reasons why you may want to make Christmas cupcakes instead of a traditional Christmas cake:

Cupcakes are exceedingly easy to make; you may use a box of basic cake mix, recipes from your favorite cookbook or do an online search for Christmas cupcake recipes (there are pages and pages of cupcake recipes and cake decoration ideas online).

Again, Christmas is a family holiday, and one fun way of getting the whole family together is to have a Christmas cupcake decoration session.

Finally, cupcakes make perfect Christmas gifts for family, friends and business colleagues. Keeping a batch of beautifully decorated Christmas cupcakes at home during the holiday season means you will always have something to give unexpected guests who drop by - or, why not, show your appreciation by giving a special Christmas cupcake to your mailman, milkman etc!




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