Sweetest Present to Give: Christmas Cupcakes Bouquet

Sometimes it is tough to think of a Christmas present for someone special but everyone loves to eat in general, so what is better than receiving a bouquet of edible poinsettias on Christmas? Even better is that they are actually cupcakes! I didn’t take enough pictures to document the entire decorating process, so I’ll try to describe what I did as detail as possible.

To make the Christmas cupcake bouquet, you will need:
A dozen cupcakes, quantity depending on the size of your basket (in any flavor you like with red frosting) Mine are chocolate and red velvet.
Coloured fondants ( I made my own, described here or you can also buy store bought fondants)
Various cookie cutters
Colouring gels (optional)
Cutter/exact-o-knife
Paintbrush (optional)
Royal icing (optional)
Rolling Pin
Red tissue papers
Skewer sticks
Green Basket
Styrofoam ball or half dome (if you can find it)
Scrap/Newspapers
Plastic Gift Wrap
Red Ribbons

Instructions:
1. Knead in the colour gel into the homemade fondants so you have batches of various colours for the decoration. If using store bought fondants, this process can be omitted.
2. Roll out your base fondant (in colours that are different than the decorations you’ll be putting on it) to about 1/8” thickness and cut out circles by using a circular cookie cutter (b) (slightly larger than the size of your cupcake).
3. Make your fondant decorations and “glue” them onto the fondant circles using little bit of water (I used a clean paint brush).

- For candy cane: I roll two strands of fondant in red and white, combine, and roll them together so they twist into one.
- For holly leaves: I cut out a long strip of metal sheet approximately 1 inch wide and made my own leaf cutter (e), or you can also use a clean  exact-o-knife and cut out the shape freehand. Lightly mark the fondant leaves with exact-o-knife for veins.
- For the penguin, Santa, snowman and Rudolph, I use a small circle cutter for the face (the other side of (a)), stretch it longer for an oval shape and add in other fondant details like you’re playing with playdoh.
- For Santa’s carriage, I cut the shape freehand using exact-o-knife, and use royal icing to add in the details on top.
- For the bell or Christmas tree, I piped royal icing as embellishments or you can roll out thin strips of white fondant as substitute.
- For the wreath, use a scalloped circular cookie cutter (a) and cut another circle inside using the end of the piping tip (c). Add embellishments on top.
- For the gingerbread man, it will help if you have a tiny cutter (d) otherwise cut freehand using exact-o-knife and add in red scarf out from red fondant. Add scarf details with royal icing or white fondant.

4. After you’ve finished all your fondant decorations, frost your cupcakes with red frosting (made by adding a lot of red colouring gel into the frosting to create the intense colour).
5. Carefully place your completed fondant decoration circles onto the frosting of your cupcakes.


For the basket:
6. Weave in a strand of red ribbon closer to the rim of the basket and taped with invisible tape.
7. With a separate strand of red ribbon, tie a bow and glue onto the part where it is taped.
8. Slice the Styrofoam ball into a half dome 
9. Stuff enough scrap or newspapers into the basket, so that there’s enough height for the half dome to be placed on (Ideally, the diameter of the dome should be almost the same as the diameter of the basket).
10. Poke the bottom of each cupcake with a skewer stick and place evenly around the half dome.
11. Cut out pieces of square tissue papers (approx. 4x4 inches) and fill in the gaps between the cupcakes (you want to hide the half dome and separate the cupcakes).
12. Finally, wrap the basket and tie the top with ribbon.

The cupcake bouquet is the sweetest present to give on Christmas and make a great center piece for any occasion. Hopefully, you will find this Instructable useful when thinking of ideas to decorate your cupcakes.

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