How do you make the beautiful christmas ornament cupcake balls? They are wonderful!!!
Welcome to CC 
Maybe this will help 
http://www.cakecentral.com/article68-Christmas-Ornament-Cupcakes.html
I'm happy to tell you how I did it, but bear with me because for some things I don't have anything very exact to really tell you--I tend to do lots of trial and error.
I started by baking chocolate "half balls" (using the Wilton mini ball pan) and cupcakes (one dozen) in gold foil papers. One Betty Crocker triple fudge chocolate mix made it exactly. After everything cooled, I cut the crowns off everything so that they were level with the pans. I used peppermint buttercream to stick the half ball to the cupcake and then I crumb coated the half ball, making certain that I went under the overhanging edge of the half ball.
While the cakes were baking, I made the little caps and hanger loops out of gumpaste. I cut a round circle, molded it to the top of flat topped artist brush handle and pinched it with tweezers. I put a hole in the top, rolled a thin piece for the hanger, brushed the hole with water,and inserted the hanger. When the time came, I painted these with gold champagne luster dust/lemon extract mix.
Now, here comes the "in-exact" part. I didn't want to use fondant and trying to hand smooth regular buttercream (and then later paint on it) seemed fruitless, so.....I decided to try to make rolled buttercream. I got the recipe from baking911.com, but I didn't have 2-3 days to let it sit in the fridge I took about 2 cups of my leftover peppermint buttercream, mixed in about 1/3-1/2 cup of light Karo corn syrup, and then added powdered sugar until it looked like pie dough. I rolled it between two sheets of parchment paper about 1/8" thick out and put that in the freezer until it was good and stiff. I took it out and immediately cut out a circle big enough to cover the half ball top, including the under edge that extended beyond the bottom cupcake. I had to use a spatula to get the circle off of the parchment. I draped it over the ball and gently smoothed it onto the half ball. I found that if I rubbed my hands with cornstarch, it worked really well. When I was happy with it, I rubbed my hands with powdered sugar and gave it one last gentle rub. I let them sit for awhile--maybe 30 mins.-- and then I started to paint with luster dust/lemon extract. It went very smoothly--even better than on fondant, I think.
After I got the design started, I found place to put the cap & hanger and attached that with gum glue. I also used that the attach the non pareils and the snowflake quins. After everything dried, I boxed them up.
I think that about covers it. I hope you find it helpful and not confusing. I wish I could be more exact about some of it, but I tend to fly by the seat of my pants when I want to get something done that I don't have directions or photos for.
Rae
You did a spectular job on them BlakeCakes... thank you for sharing how you did them!!
The gold is gold champagne luster dust. The trees are done with gold super pearl luster dust.
Rae
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I'm happy to tell you how I did it, but bear with me because for some things I don't have anything very exact to really tell you--I tend to do lots of trial and error.
I started by baking chocolate "half balls" (using the Wilton mini ball pan) and cupcakes (one dozen) in gold foil papers. One Betty Crocker triple fudge chocolate mix made it exactly. After everything cooled, I cut the crowns off everything so that they were level with the pans. I used peppermint buttercream to stick the half ball to the cupcake and then I crumb coated the half ball, making certain that I went under the overhanging edge of the half ball.
While the cakes were baking, I made the little caps and hanger loops out of gumpaste. I cut a round circle, molded it to the top of flat topped artist brush handle and pinched it with tweezers. I put a hole in the top, rolled a thin piece for the hanger, brushed the hole with water,and inserted the hanger. When the time came, I painted these with gold champagne luster dust/lemon extract mix.
Now, here comes the "in-exact" part. I didn't want to use fondant and trying to hand smooth regular buttercream (and then later paint on it) seemed fruitless, so.....I decided to try to make rolled buttercream. I got the recipe from baking911.com, but I didn't have 2-3 days to let it sit in the fridge I took about 2 cups of my leftover peppermint buttercream, mixed in about 1/3-1/2 cup of light Karo corn syrup, and then added powdered sugar until it looked like pie dough. I rolled it between two sheets of parchment paper about 1/8" thick out and put that in the freezer until it was good and stiff. I took it out and immediately cut out a circle big enough to cover the half ball top, including the under edge that extended beyond the bottom cupcake. I had to use a spatula to get the circle off of the parchment. I draped it over the ball and gently smoothed it onto the half ball. I found that if I rubbed my hands with cornstarch, it worked really well. When I was happy with it, I rubbed my hands with powdered sugar and gave it one last gentle rub. I let them sit for awhile--maybe 30 mins.-- and then I started to paint with luster dust/lemon extract. It went very smoothly--even better than on fondant, I think.
After I got the design started, I found place to put the cap & hanger and attached that with gum glue. I also used that the attach the non pareils and the snowflake quins. After everything dried, I boxed them up.
I think that about covers it. I hope you find it helpful and not confusing. I wish I could be more exact about some of it, but I tend to fly by the seat of my pants when I want to get something done that I don't have directions or photos for.
Rae
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