Project

Glittered Cupcake Ornaments

This idea comes from our Digital Editor Alexandra Churchill. Glass baubles in a champagne color are given a sweet treatment: swirled in spackle "frosting," then decorated with microbead "sprinkles" and a pearl bead "cherry" on top.

Photography: Peter Ardito

Source: Martha Stewart

Introduction

These were used to decorate our Nutcracker-inspired "Land of Sweets" Christmas tree.

Editor's Note:

To pipe "frosting" onto cupcake ornaments, we used an open star tip, which is ideal for producing a lightly grooved design. To decorate them, we used a mix of microbeads in pastel colors and metallic hues (to complement our tree's candy-colored palette). Yours are up to you: Decorate your own ornaments in any color or style you like.

materials

Champagne or gold matte ball ornaments

Cupcake liners

Spackle (Pictured: DryDex 16 oz. Dry Time Indicator Spackling Paste, $6.30 for 16 oz., homedepot.com)

Decorating tip (Pictured: Open Star Tip No. 826 By Ateco, $1.59, nycake.com)

Piping bag

Hot glue gun

White glitter

Spoon

Magenta pearl beads (Pictured: Resin Pearl in No. 661, $4 per strand, tohoshoji-ny.com)

Assorted microbeads (Pictured: Czech Glass Bugle Beads in Topaz, $3.99, tohoshoji-ny.com. Toho 11/0 Japanese Glass Seed Beads in Pink and Light Blue, $2.99, tohoshoji-ny.com.)

steps

Snip off the end of the pastry bag and slide tip into the opening. Fill bag with spackle.
Spackle the top of the ball ornament, just as you would frost a real cupcake: Hold the decorating bag at a 45° angle, with tip lightly touching the surface of the ornament and the serrated side of the tip up. Squeeze, allowing spackle to attach to surface, then continue squeezing out a vertical strip of spackle around the metal cap. Stop squeezing; pull tip away. (Tip: Do not over-spackle — it will spread as it dries. We recommend piping 1 to 1.5 tablespoons of spackle per ornament.)
While still drying, coat spackled top with spoonfuls of glitter. Gently shake off any excess.
Decorate ornament with beads as desired. Let dry completely (3 hours up to overnight).
Secure ball ornament to a cupcake liner using hot glue. Let dry completely before hanging.