Pretty Ornaments!

Guess what I get to do tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!

SET UP THE CHRISTMAS TREE!!!

So in honor of that loveliness here are some pretty Ornament Cupcakes, with the "How To" Courtesy of Star Telegram:

Edible Ornaments
Makes 24 cupcakes
24 vanilla cupcakes in assorted green, red and white paper liners
2 cans (12 ounces each) vanilla frosting
1/2 cup each green, light green, red, yellow and white decorating sugars
24 yellow spice drops
Black licorice laces, cut into 24 (1 1/4 -inch) pieces
24 thin pretzel sticks
Assorted colored fruit chews and leathers, such as Laffy Taffy, Airheads, Starbursts
Red licorice laces
1 cup M&M Minis
Cinnamon Red Hots
1. Spoon 1/2 cup vanilla frosting into a self-closing plastic bag, pressing out excess air; seal and set aside.
2. Place decorating sugars in separate small shallow bowls.
3. Spread tops of all cupcakes in remaining vanilla frosting, mounting it slightly. Roll top of each cupcake in one of the sugars to coat completely.
4. Make top of ornament by poking a hole in each end of each spice drop with a round toothpick. Bend one black licorice piece in half and insert both ends into one of the spice drop holes to make a loop. Insert one end of a pretzel stick in the hole in the other end of the spice drop. Press the other end of the pretzel stick all the way into a cupcake. Repeat with remaining cupcakes.
5. Roll out fruit chews on a piece of wax paper to 1/8 -inch thickness. Use clean scissors to cut the fruit chews and leathers into decorative pieces. Arrange these with red licorice laces to make strips, bands and other designs on the cupcakes.
6. Snip a tiny corner off the bag with vanilla frosting and pipe dots in different patterns over the cupcakes, atop the fruit chew designs. Press M&M Minis and Red Hots into frosting. Place cupcakes into small boxes or arrange on a platter.
— June Naylor

Photo Credit: Rachel From Cupcakes Take The Cake's Flickr Via Star Telegram