Disney's website,
FamilyFun.com, suggests making
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer cupcakes using a round, red
lollipop with the stem trimmed down to form the famous reindeer's shiny nose.
M&M's can be used to make Rudolph's eyes, and
pretzel pieces could be used to form Rudolph's antlers.
[FamilyFun.com: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Cupcake]
Martha Stewart suggests making snowman cupcakes using large marshmallows. Once you've frosted your cupcakes, squish two marshmallows on top, smoothing icing in-between to hold them together. Stewart recommends using chocolate sprinkles to make the snowman's eyes, and making his nose from the end of a gummy fish.[Martha Stewart: Snowman Cupcakes]
Other ideas include decorating cupcakes with icing, sprinkles and other items to make them look like Christmas ornaments or piping the icing into a cone shape over the cupcakes, then dusting them with candy pieces, sprinkles or colored sugar to give the appearance of a Christmas tree.
In addition to decorating the individual cupcakes, the entire batch of cupcakes can be arranged together to form shapes like snowmen, Christmas trees, reindeer or ornaments. This idea is popular when preparing Christmas cupcakes for a large amount of people to make a visually appealing presentation.
For a quick option, use colored frosting and simply sprinkle the cupcakes with colored sugar to create basic Christmas cupcakes. Additionally, pre-made candy decorations can be purchased in the baking aisle of most grocery stores, then placed on frosted cupcakes for a quick and decorative treat.
