While Love Actually is my favorite holiday movie, The Grinch (the Jim Carrey version) is a close second. I love it so much it inspired me to make these Grinch cupcakes!

I watch it every holiday season and I love it every time.

My favorite part is when the Grinch’s heart grows 3x, so I centered the flavor and decoration of these cupcakes around that.

Picking the Right Cupcake Flavor for These Grinch Cupcakes

I was super torn over what color these cupcakes should be. Red or green?!

Luckily the decision just came down to the color, because I knew I wanted to use my red velvet cupcake recipe for this.

I ended up making a batch of both green velvet and red velvet and then decided to go with red velvet. It had a better contrast with the green cream cheese frosting.

I also thought it did a better job signifying the love and Christmas cheer that the Grinch has at the end of the movie.

Decorating These Grinch Cupcakes

All jokes aside about how delicious these cupcakes are, the Grinch’s growing heart is the inspiration for the decoration of the cupcakes.

I used a set of heart shaped cutters to cut out three different sized hearts with red fondant.

I don’t work with fondant much, so I usually just use pre-made fondant I order on Amazon. If you feel really adventurous, you can definitely make your own!

However, you don’t need much for this design. You only need to cut out 12 hearts, which uses about 1/2 cup of fondant.

Pre-made fondant worked great for this. I usually use Wilton or Satin Ice fondant for small decorations like this.

I cut out my fondant hearts and set them aside for about an hour before adding them to the cupcakes.

This gives them a chance to firm up, so they can keep their shape once you press them into the frosting.

Making the Grinch’s Fur with Buttercream

I used a large grass tip to make the fur on these Grinch cupcakes. I prefer using the Wilton 234 frosting tip, which is quite a bit larger than the classic grass tip.

I love it because it lets you pipe the fur so much quicker! However, if you only have the smaller grass tip on hand, that will work just fine! It just will take a bit more time.

When piping buttercream, the heat from your hands can transfer into your buttercream.

This can change the consistency of your frosting and make it thinner. It also can deepen the color of your buttercream if it’s colored with food coloring.

It sounds wild, but it happens to most people! Luckily my hands are almost always cold, but even I get some heat transfer.

If you find this is happening to you, you can wrap either a thin kitchen towel or a paper towel around your piping bag.

This will help protect your frosting and minimize the transfer of heat from your hands.

Adding a Pretty Sprinkle Base to These Grinch Cupcakes

I’m sure you also noticed the pretty sprinkle base that all that green cream cheese frosting fur is sitting on top of.

This step is totally optional, but I think it really adds to the finished look.

The technique is super simple. You just pipe a dollop of frosting onto each cupcake, and then dunk them into a bowl filled with a pretty sprinkle blend.

This sprinkle blend had a nice variety of greens and blue, and for some reason it felt Grinchy to me.

If you need to refresh your sprinkle collection, or want to try out a fancy sprinkle blend, I highly recommend trying these!

Let Me Know What You Think!

If you make these Grinch cupcakes, I’d love to hear what you think of it! Please leave a rating and comment below.

And don’t forget to tag me @chelsweets and use the #chelsweets so that I can see your amazing creations on social media.