Modern buche de Noel

I finally finished the stump cake, it baked up pretty nicely. I filled the pan 3/4 full so that it woudn't over flow once the leveners reacted with the heat. After I masked the cake I put it in the fridge for at least 45 minutes so that the frosting would harden. To make wood grains I just lightly scratched the fondant with a paring knife. I also used royal icing as snow on the cake board and sprinkled it with white sugar to make it look sparkly.  The royal icing was also used as glue, for sticking the gum paste figures around the cake.

Lambeth cupcakes

My friend Zurry came by the other day to make cupcakes with me. We only needed to decorate 15 cupcakes and it took us about 5 hours! We made fondant cupcakes and piped with royal icing, Lambeth method style. And along the way I made delicious spicy hot chocolate.

I love gold!

I made red velvet cupcakes because they look the most Christmasy and I baked them in gold foil liners to jazz it up. I wanted to keep the cupcakes looking simple and elegant, that's why I used vanilla frosting with white rock sugar.

Nutcracker cupcakes

 Ahh the good ol' triple bag trick works every time.  I recommend using only one dark color, so there will be less waste and if you need to make more you can because you will have left over vanilla frosting.
Also to make candy cane sprinkles, you can use your regular run of the mill candy canes. Unwrap them and put them into a zip-lock bag, make sure it's sealed well with out any extra air in the bag. Then with a rolling pin just beat the crap of it until you've pulverized it. Not only a fun activity but also very stress relieving. :)