Here Comes Santa Clause

It's Christmas Eve and my favorite time of year. Trading presents, getting to see friends and family, eating lots of good food and watching great Christmas movies. My favorite Christmas movie of all time is The Santa Clause with Tim Allen. It's a movie that I could watch every year and always laugh at the same parts.  This movie goes with this cupcake better than any other cupcake I've ever made could go with a movie! First here is a little video to put a smile on your face!

I got this idea from Hello, Cupcake, but I added a few things to make it my own. For this cupcake you are going to need a regular size cupcake for Santa's body and a mini cupcake for his head.

First, I started with his body because it's a little more simple than his head. I iced the regular sized cupcake with red icing and then dipped it into red decorating sugar. I then got two green gumdrops, put a little icing on the bottom of each one and stuck one on either side of the cupcake to make it look like his hands/mittens. Then I began working on his head. His head will take a little longer and you will need a few more materials. I covered the mini cupcake in icing and began working on his beard which is made out of white gumdrops, and also his hat which is made out of red gumdrops. I rolled the white gumdrops out on a cutting board, and continuously added white decorating sugar to it as I rolled it out because if you don't then it will stick to your rolling pin. I also did this with the red gumdrops but used red decorating sugar so it would blend in. Once I rolled the gumdrops out I cut a beard shape out of the white gumdrops and a Santa's hat shape out of the red gumdrops. I put the gumdrop beard on the cupcake and then added the gumdrop hat (if the gumdrop hat is a little flimsy then stick in the freezer for a few minutes to make it  more stiff). Then I piped icing around the edge of the hat and at the tip of the hat. I added his eyes which are little dots of melting chocolate and his nose which is also melting chocolate. Finally, I iced his cheeks with pink icing and he became Santa Claus.

This is my last blog for the Christmas holiday and then I will be making more cupcake designs to write about. I hope you have enjoyed all these Christmas cupcakes and blogs and thanks so much for reading!

Only 1 more day 'til Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Candyland

One of my favorite things to do is to go into Yankee Candle and smell all the amazing Christmas candles they have. I have two favorite Christmas candles from there: Mistletoe and Peppermint. I love lighting these candles because it makes the whole room smell amazing. These candles are rather expensive (I definitely don't get them often) so I try to make them last as long as possible. 

These cupcakes are very easy to make and put together. All you need is peppermint, red dye, icing, fondant and of course a cupcake :)

I first mixed the red dye with the icing to get red icing and also mixed the red dye with the fondant to make red fondant. I iced two cupcakes, one with red icing and one with white icing. Then I started cutting the fondant. I cut two circles out of the white fondant and two circles out of the red fondant. One circle of each is a little bigger than the other. I then placed the smaller circle on the larger circle using a little icing to keep it in place. I then took two peppermints and placed each one into the middle of the fondant circles that I made. I then placed this on top of the each cupcake opposite of the color. White fondant on red icing and red fondant on white icing. Like I said these are extremely easy cupcakes so I have faith that you can do this!

Days til' Christmas: 3 days

Trim the Tree

Obviously the love of Christmas ornaments reaches everyone, whether person or animal!

I was asked to make 99 of these ornament cupcakes for workers at the church where my husband works and I was absolutely thrilled. They are such cute cupcakes and I knew people would love to get them as a gift. Who wouldn't want food as a present? :) I knew it was going to take some time to make but I was so thrilled and up for the challenge.

I got the idea for these Ornament cupcakes from the book Hello, Cupcake. I tweaked it a little, but I think they turned out really well. I started off with three different colors of icing: red, green and white. I iced the cupcakes and dipped them into the same color decorating sugar. I found out that it helps the color of the sugar to show up better when you dye the icing the same color as the sugar. Once I was done dipping them in the decorating sugar I then began to work on the white ornaments. I stuck a gumdrop at the top of the cupcake and then I started cutting fruit roll-ups into two different sizes of strips; one thicker than the other. I then put some icing into a baggy and cut the tip of it, and I then squeezed icing on the back of the pieces of the fruit roll up. Then I placed them on the cupcake, the thicker strip in the middle of the smaller ones. Finally, I placed mini yellow and green M&M's on the thick middle line with a dab of icing.

Next I got to work on the green cupcakes. I added the gumdrop to cupcake, but put it more toward the center (but not directly in the center) of the cupcake. Then I began to place mini yellow and red M&M's all over the cupcake. I used at least 7-8 M&M's.

Lastly, I decorated the red cupcakes. I had mixed some yellow fondant and cut it into strips like I did with the fruit roll ups on the white cupcakes. If you use fondant for this part then make sure to roll it out pretty thin. If it's too thick then it won't lay right on the cupcake. Once I cut the strips of yellow fondant I laid them on the cupcake the same way as the white cupcakes. The wider strip in between the two smaller strips. Once the strips were in place I then added red and green mini M&M's to the middle strip.

Now you have 3 fun and different Ornament cupcakes! These may seem a little difficult but you can't mess up, and you should add your own touch to them to make them your own. Your guests will absolutely love these and want to make some themselves :)

Days 'til Christmas: 7

Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly

We all have certain things that we immediately think of when Christmas comes around. This is one of those classic clips from a movie that defined Christmas for a whole generation, and it's a perfect way to begin this blog about my holly cupcakes.

I know a lot of the cupcakes I make look difficult and can be difficult to recreate, but the holly cupcakes are one of the most simple. One of the nice things about these cupcakes is there is no mixing the icing to get a certain color. I covered the cupcake in whipped vanilla icing. Also, you can make the holly cupcakes with regular size cupcakes or mini cupcakes because it looks cute on either one. I then drew out the templates for the holly leaves making sure that each cupcake got 3 leaves. I used green melting chocolate (you can this at Michael's) and began to go over the templates. When I finished going over the templates I put the leaves in the freezer for about 15 minutes or until they were hard enough to peel off the wax paper. I then peeled them off and put the chocolate leaves on the cupcake all leading to a point in the center of the cupcake. Finally, I used mini M&M's for the berries of the holly and put 3 in the center and then I was done. Like I said, these are very simple so if you are looking for a fun Christmas cupcake that doesn't take a lot of time then these are perfect!


I hope you enjoy this blog and it gets you in the mood to watch A Christmas Story! Merry Christmas!!

Days 'til Christmas: 11 days

All I Want For Christmas

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'  Acts 20:35

Everybody knows that getting presents is one of the best things about Christmas. The one thing that's even better though is to be able to give them.  There is nothing better than seeing someone's reaction as they open up a surprise at Christmas. This year Ryan (my husband) and I got the chance to give a Christmas gift to someone who otherwise might not have had a Christmas at all through a program called Operation Christmas Child. This program sends gifts to under privileged children around the world. We got to pack a shoe box full of gifts to send along with the message of Jesus. We already can't wait to do it again next year!

In honor of all presents given or received this year I decided to create some "present" cupcakes. I decided to make 4 different present cupcakes. A red present, with a white ribbon, a green present with white ribbon, a white present with red ribbon, and a green present with red ribbon. I first started with the icing and mixed all the colors I needed and covered the cupcakes in icing. Then I began rolling out the fondant. I tried not to roll it out too thin because then the loops on the bows wouldn't stay up very well. I created two piece of equal length fondant and then crossed them on top of the cupcake. Then I started on the bow. I used two more equal lengths of fondant and I looped them both and then pinched them together in the center. Then I took a single shorter piece and wrapped it around the center of the two loops. Finally, I used two more equal lengths of fondant to create the tails of the bow. I made sure to cut the ends to look like ribbon as you can see in the picture. To assemble the bow on the cupcake I first used icing to secure the tails of the bow on the crossed pieces of the fondant. Then I used a little more icing to secure the bow on top of the tails. This might seem a little confusing but you can look at the pictures to follow.

These turned out so cute I almost wanted to put them under our tree, but then I remembered they were just cupcakes :)

Days till Christmas: 17 days

Buddy The Elf

We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corn and syrup. 

- Buddy the Elf

So everyone has a favorite Christmas movie. There are plenty to choose from that's for sure. You have The Santa Clause, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer (claymation version), White Christmas, It's A Wonderful Life, Home Alone and many many more. There is only one movie that I think has the best description of an elf and that would be the movie Elf with Will Farrell and Zooey Deschannel. It's my favorite Will Farrell movie and of course it has to do with Christmas which makes any movie good :)

This cupcake was a lot more difficult to make compared to my last one I blogged about. This one has a few more materials that you need and takes a little more of your time. What I do first when making a more difficult cupcake is get everything I need and put it out on the table. That way I don't have to search for it when I need it.

I first iced the cupcake with a light pink icing and then set it aside to work on the hat. They hat is made out of graham crackers but you could also use famous wafer cookies. I warmed up the graham to cut it into two triangle and then put melting chocolate where you want them to stick together. Then I put it in the freezer for a good 15 minutes. As I waited for that to freeze I worked on the face of the Elf. I used white icing with crushed mini m&m's for the eyes, a pink jelly belly for the nose, red icing for the mouth, and pink Laffy Taffy for the ears. Once I was done putting the face together I went back to work on the hat. I cut a rectangle from a green apple airhead for part of the hat. I then stuck two pretzel sticks to the back of the hat with melting chocolate and then returned it to the freezer. The pretzel will help to keep the hat in place on the cupcake. After those were frozen to the graham I then began to ice the hat with leaf green icing. Then I stuck the green airhead to the bottom of the hat and then sprinkled sprinkles on the icing. Once I was done with the hat I simple pushed hat into the cupcake allowing the pretzels to go all the way into the cupcake. It should hold it pretty securely.

Remember to have fun with any cupcake you make. It's great to see the outcome once you are done but even better when you get to eat it :)

Days until Christmas: 21