Ideas for Decorating Your Christmas Desserts

I want to start this post with an apology.  I fully intended to write about our traditional Christmas morning cinnamon rolls, but two of my kids and myself have had the flu this week.  Hopefully I'll feel well enough tomorrow so we can have them Christmas morning.

In lieu of those oh-so-yummy cinnamon rolls, I will briefly give some ideas for decorating your Christmas desserts.  To give credit where credit is due, I got these ideas from the books Hello, Cupcake! and What's New, Cupcake?

I made these super cute snowmen for my daughter's class Christmas party.

Though you can't see it in the picture, I dipped the tops in sugar to look like snow.  They eyes and mouths are chocolate chips pressed into the frosting upside down.  For the nose, I bought orange slice candy and cut them into shape.  One of my own tips on this:  dip the cut edges in sugar so the candy does not stick to your fingers while you're trying to work with it.  For the hats, I cut Famous Chocolate Wafers into hat shapes and pressed them into the frosting.  A little green frosting and red chocolate-covered sunflower seeds provided the finishing touch.

Now some of you may be thinking, "Where will I get chocolate-covered sunflower seeds?"  I found them in the WinCo bulk bins!!  That's also where I bought the orange slice candy.  The great part about buying decorating ingredients from the bulk bins is that you can buy just the amount you need--it only takes 3 orange slices to make 24 snowman noses so you can just buy 3!  If you can't find these ingredients, be creative!  Use mini M&M's instead of sunflower seeds and orange Starbursts instead of orange slices.

For the twins' first birthday, I made panda bear cupcakes.

The arms and legs are chocolate sandwich cookies, such as Oreos, cut in half.  The fur is made from those same cookies that have been crushed.  The noses are brown jelly beans (also from the bulk bins).  I'm having a moment of Mommy Brain and can't remember the name of the candy I used for the ears--chocolate-covered caramel.  If you know the name, please leave it in the comments.  The eyes are mini chocolate chips. All the remaining features are made of frosting.

You can turn these pandas into Christmas polar bears with a few simple substitutions.  (Since I've been sick and I don't actually have photos of polar bear cupcakes, you'll have to use your imagination.)  For white ears, use white lifesavers.  Instead of chocolate sandwich cookies, you can use Golden Oreos for the arms, legs, and fur.  You can even add a red scarf made out of a Starburst (microwave a few seconds to soften, roll flat, and cut with sharp knife).

Once again, my sincerest apology for this last-minute, semi-Christmasy post.  We'd like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas!!