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