Cherry Cupcake Cross Stitch Pattern

About this cupcake cross stitch pattern

The frosting rises in a big swirl shaded in white and cream, with a few sprinkles and a shiny red cherry on its stem at the top. Below it, the wrapper has pink and mauve stripes. A bold black outline runs around every shape, in the cute kawaii food style, so it looks crisp from across a kitchen.

It’s an easy gift for anyone who bakes, and small enough for a breakfast nook or a kitchen shelf. Our food collection has more food designs to frame with it. Our cute patterns round-up has more designs like it.

What you need

• Fabric: 14-count Aida in white, cut to at least 11“ x 12“ (3“ around the design for hooping and framing).
• Thread: 20 DMC colors, about 20 skeins in total, stitched with two strands. The main colors are 310 Black (809 stitches), B5200 Snow White (650), 3716 Rose – Very Light (643) and 3866 Mocha – Ultra Very Light (564).
• Needle: a size 24 tapestry needle.
• Stitches: full cross stitches only, with no backstitch.

Difficulty and stitching time

It’s rated Beginner. There’s no half stitch or backstitch, and black and Snow White alone cover 1,459 of the 3,652 stitches. The 20 colors sound like more than a first pattern usually has, but many are tiny accents, so the extra work is in sorting floss, not in stitching.

Expect roughly 35 to 60 hours at a steady 60 to 100 stitches an hour.

Tips for stitching this pattern

• Outline before you fill. With the 809 stitches of 310 Black in place, you can see at a glance where the frosting shades (3866, 951, 950 and 739) stop and the wrapper stripes (3716, 3687, 3688 and 3727) begin.
• Shade the frosting in bands. The swirl is built from white and cream tones laid next to each other. Work one tone at a time across the whole swirl so the piped look stays even.
• Add the tiny accents last. Six colors are used fewer than five times each, including BLANC White and 3865 Winter White. Place them once everything around them is finished.

Size, fabric and framing

On 14-count Aida the finished design measures 4.6“ x 5.5“ (11.7 x 14.0 cm). On 16-count it comes out at 4.0“ x 4.8“, and on 18-count at 3.6“ x 4.3“. For the 14-count version, an 8“ x 10“ frame leaves room for a mat.

It’s taller than it is wide, so it suits a narrow frame beside a cabinet, or a 6-inch hoop on a kitchen hook.

What’s in the free PDF

• A cover page and a one-page overview with a preview of the design
• The chart, split across as many printable pages as you choose, in color or black and white, with a symbol for every DMC color, center lines, a mini-map showing which part of the design each page covers and a color key on every page
• The thread list: DMC number, color name, number of stitches and skeins to buy for each color
• The finished size on 11-, 14-, 16-, 18- and 28-count Aida