Snowman Cupcakes – Texanerin Baking

November 27, 2023

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These snowman cupcakes are tremendous straightforward, have probably the most superb, fluffy vanilla, orange, almond or coconut cupcake base, and are topped with cream cheese frosting and an easy-to-make snowman face. They are often made historically with all-purpose flour or with gluten-free flour.

The cake base

At present’s recipe is an adaptation of the superb King Arthur Flour birthday cake recipe I utilized in my Christmas Tree Cake and Matcha Cake Recipe. I’ve made a couple of tweaks, utilizing much less sugar and including a burst of taste with almond or orange extract and zest.

That is, palms down, my favourite non-chocolate cupcake recipe. It’s nonetheless splendidly candy, even with out the additional sugar, and also you gained’t even discover it’s lacking.

Right here’s their unique recipe, and you may see a video of them (that’s not me beneath!) making the cake batter beneath.

Elements

For the cupcakes:

Flour – you may have the choice to make use of common all-purpose flour, white entire wheat flour, or for those who’re gluten-free, King Arthur Flour Gluten-free Measure for Measure Flour.

Baking powder + salt – it’s essential to make use of baking powder as an alternative of baking soda.

Eggs – this recipe requires 4 eggs, and substituting with an egg replacer isn’t advisable. Beating the eggs with sugar contributes to an airier cake, a end result that can’t be achieved with egg replacers.

Granulated sugar – no sub right here.

Almond or orange or coconut + vanilla extract – for those who simply need vanilla, use all vanilla extract as an alternative of a mixture of almond or orange or coconut and vanilla.
When you’d like orange cupcakes, be aware that you just’d want to make use of orange extract, not orange juice. The quantity of extract known as for is so small that utilizing orange juice would have zero impact on the style. And utilizing an quantity giant sufficient to have an effect on the style would negatively impression the cake’s construction.

Milk – you need to use no matter you’d like. Even canned coconut milk works if thinned to a consistency much like common milk. Observe that utilizing coconut milk might add coconut taste to the cake.

Oil – go for an oil that is still liquid at room temperature, similar to vegetable oil, canola oil, or a light-weight olive oil. Remember that olive oil has a definite style, which might in all probability be noticeable within the last product.

Butter – for a dairy-free model of the cake base (be aware: the frosting isn’t dairy-free), you possibly can substitute extra oil for the butter. Use 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon of oil rather than the desired quantity of butter + oil. I attempted it out, and it really works nice. The flavour is best with butter, although.

Orange zest – for those who’re utilizing orange extract as an alternative of almond or coconut, then including orange zest is extremely advisable.

For the frosting:

Cream cheese – that is for the frosting. No subs are potential if you wish to make cream cheese frosting. Similar with the opposite substances for the frosting listed beneath.

Butter – be certain that it’s room temp in order that it’s straightforward to beat in with the cream cheese.

Powdered sugar – if it’s tremendous lumpy, you would possibly need to sift it or blitz it in a high-speed blender to get it gentle and powdery once more.

For the ornament:

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Mini chocolate chips – for the mouth.

Common-sized chocolate chips – for the eyes.

A carrot – you peel and minimize this up into tiny carrot noses! If that weirds you out, you can use chewy sweet, like YumEarth’s Natural Chewys.

Glowing white sugar (also called sanding sugar) or shredded coconut – I needed to keep away from utilizing glowing white sugar as a result of it typically has bizarre substances in it. However I went with it as a result of the cupcakes got here out so cute with them.
And naturally, solely as I used to be engaged on scripting this put up, I noticed that unsweetened shredded coconut would work nice. I don’t imply the lengthy strands, however one thing like this.

After which as an alternative of almond or orange extract, use coconut! I made a fourth batch, and it labored nice.

Choose cake combine?

When you don’t need to make the cupcakes fully from scratch, you need to use a cake combine. I consider all cake mixes give instructions on the way to bake them as cupcakes.

So comply with the preparation and baking directions in your field, after which come again right here to assemble the cupcakes.

Learn how to make the cupcakes

Creating these cupcakes requires just some further minutes in comparison with a one-bowl recipe. Belief me, the additional effort is completely worthwhile!

That is very true for many who comply with a gluten-free weight loss plan, because it’s arduous to discover a extra scrumptious vanilla or orange gluten-free cake recipe wherever else. 🙂

Start by combining your dry substances for the cupcakes.

Subsequent, whisk collectively the eggs, sugar, almond or orange extract, and vanilla extract till the combination thickens and turns a light-weight gold colour, normally taking about 2 minutes.

Gently fold the dry substances into the batter.

Heat the milk and zest till it’s on the verge of simmering. Take away from warmth and incorporate the butter and oil.

Though heating the milk and beating the sugar and eggs would possibly appear to be an additional 3 minutes of effort, it’s an important step. Scalding the milk helps remove whey protein, which may weaken gluten and impression the rise of yeast dough and muffins.

I usually make these cupcakes with cashew milk and gluten-free flour, and I puzzled if this step mattered, given the absence of gluten and whey protein. Nonetheless, I discovered that skipping this step resulted in cupcakes that had been noticeably much less ethereal. The rationale behind this discrepancy stays a thriller to me, and I’d recognize any insights from those that would possibly know. 🙂

Pour the batter into the ready cupcake liners; you’ll discover loads of small bubbles within the combination. Bake!

Frosting

Whereas your cupcakes are baking, put together the frosting.

I used my More healthy Cream Cheese Frosting. It’s a standard recipe however with fairly a bit much less sugar.

Surprisingly, nobody even notices the distinction! This has been my trusted go-to frosting recipe for years, and it by no means fails to please.

Learn how to enhance the snowman cupcakes

Unfold a good layer of white frosting over every cupcake.

There’s sufficient frosting for 1.5 tablespoons (23 grams) per cupcake. You’re simply slathering it on, not piping it on, in order that’s a lot.

Then sprinkle with glowing sugar or unsweetened shredded coconut, add the carrot nostril, mini chocolate chips for the mouth and common chocolate chips for the eyes.

Glowing sugar choices

I take advantage of India Tree, however listed below are a couple of choices.

India Tree White Glowing Sugar – incorporates sugar and carnuba wax. Bought in a 33-ounce container at $0.44 per ounce on the time of writing.

King Arthur Flour Glowing Sugar – simply sugar and carnuba wax. However .86 per ounce for those who order from the King Arthur web site and $1.80 per ounce from Amazon. Yikes.

Wilton White Glowing Sugar – incorporates sugar, shellac, and carnuba wax and is produced from genetically modified sugar substances. Bought in an 8-ounce container at $0.51 per ounce. Shellac is also called confectioner’s glaze and is produced from the secretion of feminine lac bug. Yummy! 😬

Yield

This yields 24 cupcakes, however you possibly can simply halve the recipe. And even higher, bake up the total quantity of cupcakes and save them for wet days!

Storage and freezing

The cupcakes freeze nice with or with out the frosting. However don’t freeze them embellished except you’re simply freezing leftovers.

When you try this, take away the carrot nostril. It gained’t freeze nicely.

Don’t enhance, freeze, thaw after which serve. For greatest outcomes, enhance on the day of serving and solely add the carrot nostril shortly earlier than serving.

Gluten-free model

Whereas the photographer used all-purpose flour (and I examined this recipe to verify it really works with that), I take advantage of King Arthur Flour Gluten-free Measure for Measure Flour when making these cupcakes, and the looks, style and texture are similar.

My quest for the final word gluten-free vanilla cupcake is full! This cupcake is superb, and that’s saying rather a lot coming from somebody who sometimes favors chocolate over vanilla.

Some gluten-free vanilla cupcakes style nice proper out of the oven however steadily turn out to be denser all through the day. Different recipes end in an odd texture from the beginning. I can’t emphasize sufficient what number of disappointing recipes I attempted earlier than discovering this one.

I’ve but to experiment with different manufacturers on this recipe, so I can’t assure related outcomes. For optimum outcomes, I extremely advocate utilizing King Arthur Flour!

Almond flour, coconut flour, or any substitutes not supposed as a 1:1 alternative for all-purpose flour won’t yield the specified outcomes.

In my Gluten-free Pie Crust recipe from final week, I talked about how a lot better Bob’s Pink Mill 1-to-1 Gluten-free Baking Flour is in that recipe. At present’s, it’s the alternative.

The cupcakes work with Bob’s Pink Mill, however the texture is a lot better with King Arthur. I extremely advocate having a bag of each. 🙂

Different Christmas recipes

That’s it! When you attempt these snowman cupcakes, I’d love to listen to about it. Please go away a remark or snap a pic and tag #texanerin, so I can be sure you see it. Thanks. 🙂

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Prep Time: 25 min
Cook dinner Time: min
Prepared in: 25 min
Yield: 24 cupcakes