M&M Filled Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting Recipe

This M&M Filled Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting recipe is partnered post through Collective Bias on behalf of their client. 

My husband’s birthday is four days after Christmas, so he knows firsthand how difficult it is to have a birthday near Christmas. His entire life his special day has fallen into one of two categories – a combination birthday-Christmas present or an overload of presents in a short span of time. Not only that, he shares his birthday with his grandma and his cousin.

With his experiences in mind and knowing at least a dozen friends and family members with December birthdays, when we started planning to have a baby we intentionally avoided a December due date. We didn’t want our baby’s birthday to get lost in all of the chaos of the holidays. We wanted her to have her own special day or even month so that there wasn’t even the possibility of a combination cake or party.

As you know, our efforts spent planning were thwarted when Cakes decided to make her arrival 9 weeks early…three days before Christmas. Which means her first Christmas was spent in the NICU.

From day 1, I’ve been fighting to carve out her own special day amidst the other celebrations. Starting with her first birthday, I saw that having a birthday party so close to Christmas just wasn’t going to happen.

Our family has long been a fan of the showing love and appreciation for each other throughout the year, instead of saving it up for one day a year. For a child this is a pretty advanced concept, so we’re doing our best to make Cakes feel amazing on her special day.

Even without a big party, I’m finding there are plenty of ways to keep her happy and still celebrate the day. With her birthday undoubtedly falling during Christmas Break, I coordinate with her teachers to plan a small birthday celebration at school before vacation begins and on a day other than the Christmas party.

My little party planner loves being able to choose a theme and different dessert for the party at school and again for the family party. While we were at the store last week picking out a theme (Scooby Doo) for Cakes’ class party, she decided she wanted chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting. Wanting to allow her the freedom to choose her dessert, I purchased the ingredients but also some plain and peanut M&M’s to dress up the cupcakes a little.

I ultimately decided to move outside my comfort zone and make M&M Filled Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting, topped with more M&M’s! These were definitely a success and Cakes was super excited to share her “candy cupcakes” with all her friends!