Red Velvet Elf Cupcakes

Get help making festive, holiday "elf" cupcakes by using foolproof Betty Crocker® cake and frosting.

Ingredients

• 1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® devil’s food cake mix
• 1 1/4 cups water
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3 eggs
• 1 bottle (1 ounce) red food color
• 1 container Betty Crocker® Rich & Creamy cream cheese frosting
• 24 small red gum drops, cut in half
• Semisweet chocolate chips
• 6 rolls Betty Crocker® Fruit Roll-Ups® chewy fruit snack, any flavor (from 5-ounce box)
• 6 dried apricots halves
• 1 tube (7 ounces) Betty Crocker® red cookie icing
  

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F (325 degrees F for dark or nonstick pans). Place paper baking cup in each of 24 regular-size muffin cups.
2. In large bowl, beat cake mix, water, oil, eggs and red food color with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.
3. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups (about 2/3 full).
4. Bake for 18 to 23 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
5. Cool for 10 minutes; remove from pan to cooling rack. Cool completely.
6. Frost cupcakes with cream cheese frosting; reserve 1 tablespoon frosting.
7. Cut each apricot into 4 pieces; place 2 pieces on each side of cupcakes for ears.
8. Cut each fruit snack into 4 triangles. Place one triangle on top of each cupcake, folding pointed end over to form hat.
9. Attach one gumdrop to pointed end of hat using reserved frosting.
10. Use remaining gumdrops for nose and chocolate chips for eyes. Pipe mouth with red decorator frosting.

Make the Most of This Recipe: If you have only one 12-cup muffin pan, cover and refrigerate the rest of the batter while baking the first batch. Then bake the rest of the batter in the cooled muffin pan, adding 1 or 2 minutes to the bake time.

Nutrition Information: 1 Serving (1 Cupcake) Calories 240 (Calories from Fat 80), Total Fat 9g (Saturated Fat 2g, Trans Fat 1g), Cholesterol 25mg; Sodium 250mg; Total Carbohydrate 37g (Dietary Fiber 0g, Sugars 25g), Protein 2g

Exchanges: 1 Starch; 1 1/2 Other Carbohydrate; 1 1/2 Fat

Carbohydrate Choices: 2 1/2

*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Recipe and photo credit: Betty Crocker.