Dec 3, 20173 min read

How to Make Grinch Cupcakes – without using food colouring

In collaboration with Harper Collins Merry Grinchmas.

Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas is one of my favourite Christmas movies and books. We read the book every December, usually several times during the build-up to Christmas. It’s an entertaining story and also has a really great message!

As fans of the movie know that at the end of the film, the Grinch realizes that Christmas isn’t all about presents. And with that thought, his heart grows three sizes bigger. The Grinch is happy and full of love when it finally clicks that Christmas is about family, friends, and celebration.

This message of love is a great one for kiddies, who can often get wrapped up in what presents Santa is bringing for them. And maybe forget about the true meaning of Christmas. And that true meaning can’t be bought in a store.

This year we are joining in Merry Grinchmas with Harper Collins as they are celebrating 60 years of the Grinch!! They have a wonderful Grinchmas Online Hub that’s full of exciting things. There is fun interactive content, competitions, Christmas themed good deeds for family and friends, lesson plans, free downloadable activities, the opportunity to create a Merry Grinchmas card and more!

Our contribution to the Grinchmas hub is a recipe for Grinch Cupcakes – without using food colouring. As you know we are big fans of natural ingredients in my house. So adding green food colouring to create a Grinch look isn’t something I wanted to do. Instead, I have an alternative that uses whole food ingredients and leaves out the colours!

Grinch Cupcakes

For making Grinch Cupcakes, I use my Queen Cakes recipe. They are light, fluffy and delicious. You can add a handful of chocolate chips to the recipe or you can substitute any cupcake recipe that you’d like.

In a nutshell, we make the cupcakes then decorate them with icing sugar to look like snow. Then we add a loving Grinch to the top of each cupcake.

Because I love the positive message of The Grinch movie, I chose a happy Grinch face and created this Grinch Printable. You can download and print the sheet by clicking the link. There are 30 Grinches per sheet.

This is a super easy recipe and a super-easy craft to do with the kiddies. Easy activities are my favourite kind!! 🙂

Use Christmassy cupcake liners & plates to make it even more festive!

Ingredients

8oz / 227 g butter or margarine

11oz / 300g Self Raising Flour

8oz Caster Sugar

4 Eggs

* The recipe makes roughly 20 small cupcakes / 15 large cupcakes. You can double or triple the recipe as need be.

Method

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time while mixing.
Sieve flour and gradually fold into the mixture.
Scoop some batter into cupcake liners, staying slightly below the cupcake liner level.
Bake for 13-14 Minutes at 190c Fan Oven.

Grinch Toppers

Print off my loving Grinch Printable – there are 30 Grinches per sheet.
Cut out each Grinch.
Tape each Grinch onto a cocktail stick. You can have the Grinches one-sided or tape a Grinch back to back so it’s a double sided decoration.

Assembly

Once the cupcakes are cool, sprinkle them with icing sugar to make a snow like toping. Then simply pop a Grinch topper into each cupcake.

The kids love to take part in all aspects of this – from stirring the batter to cutting out & sticking the decorations onto the cupcakes. But their favourite part is eating the cupcakes when they are done!!