Christmas Cupcakes

I really like decorating sugar cookies with royal icing, but I don't have a terribly steady hand with a piping bag and I have a very small oven, so making batches of cookies gets old fast. Still, I'd seen a cute idea about decorating a round cookie to make it look like a Christmas ornament. I decided to pair this with another technique I've been wanting to try: cupcakes decorated with fondant. Since delicious chocolate cupcakes (the same ones I made for July Fourth, by the way) are lovely and round, I just coated with buttercream, topped with circles of white fondant and had some fun with my aspic cutters (don't worry, I have never made and never plan to make aspic--but the cute little cutters are perfect for decorations.)

Plain cupcakes,
 frosted cupcakes (it's sort of like a crumb coat on a cake),
and one cupcake with its fondant on

I opted for classic red and green decorations with little yellow hangers that I dusted with gold luster dust. I think they came out really nicely! By the way, to get different sized circles, just use piping tips as cutters, it works like a charm.

After I made a few of those, I decided I was having far too much fun playing with fondant to keep repeating the same few patterns, so I fiddled around and made some Christmas-y ones with trees, candy canes, Santa hats, etc. I think the ornament ones look more elegant but the others are a ton of fun!