New Years Eve Countdown Cupcakes

By Kirsten Hatch

The clock is ticking on figuring out what you’re making for your New Years Eve party. We recommend these Countdown Cupcakes to wind down the year the right way.

You can start by making any flavor combination of cupcakes and icing that you want in your kitchen at home. You can choose a classic family favorite (double chocolate, anyone?) or whip up something that feels particularly elegant and New Years-y, like red velvet.

Or if, like us, you’re running down on time, you can always pick up some pre-made cupcakes from your local grocery store.

For this New Years Eve dessert you’re going to need:

If you decide to pick up cupcakes from the store, congrats, you can start the decorating process right away! If you’re making your own cupcakes, you can save yourself a little time by decorating your cookie clocks while the cupcakes are baking or chilling.

Start by separating your sandwich cookies as carefully as possible. You want all of the icing to end up on only one of the cookies.

Once you’ve split apart enough of the cookies to decorate all of your cupcakes, use your edible marker to draw the numbers onto the circle of icing on the cookie. You can either write out each of the twelve numbers, or just fill in the 12, 3, 6, and 9 spots and use some black sprinkles to create the remaining ticks and the clock hands.

A tip for at-home bakers: Remember to wait for your homemade cupcakes to completely cool before you try icing and decorating them. If you get impatient, your icing could melt and your cupcakes could rip apart. However, once your cupcakes are cooled and iced, you can move on to the next step.

Now that your cupcakes and cookies are ready, you can continue the decorating process. Pick up your cupcakes one by one and dip the edge into a bowl of your chosen sprinkles. The goal is to rim only the edge of your cupcake with sprinkles, like rimming a glass with sugar or salt (or sprinkles).

If you’re looking to create a classy, monochrome cupcake, go ahead and use more of your black sprinkles. If you’d like your cupcakes to be fun and colorful like Times Square at midnight, try some Rainbow Nonpareils or Pastel Confetti.

Gently place your cookie clocks on top of your cupcakes by pressing the bottom edge into the icing at an angle to hold the cookie up. Congrats on beating the clock!

We hope you savor every second of your Countdown Cupcakes and the upcoming new year!

new years eve dessert toppings sprinkles cupcakes

Need a different size or can’t find what you’re looking for? Be sure to visit our Amazon page for more options. Search by color or candy type to find exactly what you need!