Takes the Cake: How Erin made charming holiday cupcakes with sparkling stars and candy canes

My baking friend and coworker Erin Lippitz recently sent me a photo and instructions for how she made gorgeous holiday cupcakes. As usual, she made it sound incredibly easy, and started with her standard white cake recipe [3], and topped it off with Buffy Vance's buttercream frosting [4] recipe.

[5]Here's how she decorated them, in her words:

I used white vanilla fondant and a small snowflake cookie cutter to make the decorations for the white cupcakes. I brushed a silver shimmer dust over the cutouts before they completely dried and I sprinkled edible sparkly flakes on the frosting before putting the snowflakes on. (Editor's note: Erin bought both the shimmers and the sparkles and Michaels.)

I used red fondant and white vanilla fondant and twisted them together to make the candy canes then bent them at the top and let them dry. I put red and white frosting side by side in a piping bag to try to mimic the candy cane design. It looks more pink than red, but a really red frosting is so hard to make! I used a no taste red food coloring but if you use too much I still think you can taste it.

That's it. They were really easy.