Winter is honestly my favorite time of year–the peace and stillness of a cloudy, snowy winter day is unmatched, and we’ve got the added benefit that everything is dead so it’s the only season I don’t have allergies….nothing but paws-itive vibes there. To celebrate the end of my birth month, I wanted to go out with a bake so adorable you can bear-ly stand it. Enter: polar bear cupcakes so cute they’re gonna run straight out of hibernation and right into your heart (or stomach). Bear with me, the puns are flowing faster than an iceberg.
Snow surprise, these are super fun to make, and relatively sinchy! I made a chocolate orange cupcake with orange cream cheese protein frosting (recipe below); I figured chocolate was totes appropes because polar bears actually have black skin. Their fur is also translucent and colorless, but it appears white due to the reflection from the sun…which begs the question…at night, can you even see them at all? Because if you can’t, it’s probably too late. Ahem. THESE polar bears won’t eat you, you get to eat them! Which might be frowned upon by conservancy groups, but in attempt not to get too ~polar~izing, I’ll just stick with the tutorial.
Let me break the ice with everything you need:
- Large round black sprinkles and skinny black sprinkles
- A #12 round tip
- A grass or fur tip
- Angled spatula
I have a video tutorial below, but here is a step-by-step photo tutorial as well. No chilling experiences necessary when you’ve got both to back you up.
Recipe and Instructions
Gluten free chocolate orange cupcakes with protein orange cream cheese frosting
A beary cute cupcake collection!
Ingredients
CUPCAKES*1 box of gluten free chocolate cake mix (I used King Arthur)
*1 1/3 cups fat free milk
*1 tsp orange extract
*2/3 cup (152 g) fat free Greek yogurt
*4 eggs
FROSTING
*226 g (1 cup) vanilla Greek yogurt, strained overnight
*8 ounces 1/3 the fat cream cheese at room temp
*12 ounces Lakanto powdered monkfruit
*4 ounces Quest vanilla milkshake protein powder (cuts the sweetness of the monkfruit and makes a nice, stiff, spreadable frosting; omit and use all monkfruit if desired)
*2 tsp clear vanilla
*1/2-1 tsp orange extract
*1/4 cup milk
*1/4 tsp citric acid if you like less sweet frosting
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 and line muffin tin with cupcake wrappers.
- Whisk cake ingredients together in a stand mixer on low for 60 seconds before switching to medium-high for two minutes.
- Pour batter evenly into tins and bake for 20-24 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean from the center.
- Allow cupcakes to cool fully before frosting.
- To make frosting, whisk cream cheese and yogurt for 3 minutes before adding in half the powdered monkfruit, protein powder, extracts, citric acid, and milk.
- Add in remaining monkfruit mix fully.
- You will need to crumb coat your cupcakes with plain white frosting before piping.
- To decorate cupcakes, follow along with the photo gallery or video tutorial above, and view recommended products at the top of the blog.
- Keep cupcakes covered and in the fridge. They are best served at room temp, so remove from fridge 30 minutes before eating. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Macros22 servings
173.5 cal/23.9 c/4.3 f/9.8 p per slice
Kate Bakes Cakes 