Pies or Cupcakes? How About BOTH With These Cuties!

Okay, these cupcakes are less on the Nerdy Nibbles side and more on the super duper cute side! Thanksgiving is so much fun, but can be overwhelming for some kids (at least mine anyway.) They’re not super picky, but the more traditional foods just aren’t fun for them. I wanted to make a super fun dessert that I know they’d LOVE and my kids really love cupcakes. But how do I keep it holiday themed? Enter these little Holiday “Pies!” This recipe is inspired by my FAVORITE cupcake cookbook series Hello, Cupcake. Every recipe in there is SO MUCH FUN!

Start with 24 of your favorite cupcakes. I used Pillsbury Golden Butter cake mix. I have a “doctored” recipe to make store bought taste like homemade at the bottom of the blog. It’s my go-to cupcake recipe! You’ll also need 2 can of Pillsbury vanilla frosting and lots of M&Ms. My family loves dark chocolate and I thought they’d pair nicely with the vanilla frosting and buttery cupcake. Spoiler alert: I was right! 😉

Scoop both cans of frosting into a bowl and add 3-4 drops of yellow food coloring plus 1 teaspoon cocoa powder. This is how you get the light brown pie shell color. Easy!

Next comes the most time consuming task. Sorting your m&ms by color! Get your kids involved and you can even make it a game. My kindergartener loves sorting and counting so this was right up his alley.

Frost a thin layer across the top of each cupcake, leaving a 1/4″ edge. Easy frosting trick: use a ziploc bag! Fill it with frosting and snip a corner for a ready-to-use (and then toss!) frosting bag.

Place your m&ms on the top of the cupcake with the writing side down. I used 22-25 per cupcake. These candies will resemble your fruit pie filling. Start by piping lines across the top of the candies. Turn your cupcake about 1/4 and pipe lines across so they’re in a diagonal pattern. This is the lattice pie shell on top!

Pipe a couple of thicker lines around the edge for your pie crust. So. Darn. Cute. I can’t get over it.

I mean, just look at these guys! Repeat on all your cupcakes.

These Holiday Pie Cupcakes are perfect for your Thanksgiving dessert!

To make your store bought cupcakes taste homemade simply add:

• 4 eggs in place of what it says on the box
• 1 cup buttermilk (store bought is best) in place of the water on the box
• Same amount of oil

Bake the cupcakes at 350 degrees for 12-16 minutes. They’re fluffy, rich, and simply delicious!

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Happy Thanksgiving!