An Early Present

I know it's a bit early for Christmas baked goods but I haven't done too much baking these days so I wanted to post something before another week goes by.

Some ladies at our church will be going to a place called Mary's Shelter to do a scrapbooking and baking workshop in early December. We're trying to get to know our community better and Mary's Shelter is one that caught my eye. It's a shelter for teens who are pregnant and/or have children that they can't afford to take care of on their own. The residents' age range from 12-18 years old. The image I get whenever I think of a pregnant teen is Juno..

Anyway, I digress...

Here's one of the cupcakes we will be teaching how to do during the workshop. It's an idea that I got from Martha Stewart's Cupcake book.


When I make cupcakes I usually try to bake it so the dome falls just short of the cupcake liner.
This makes it easier to decorate as opposed to having spillage and it looking a hot mess. When you go to ice the top it's nice and even with just the icing showing.

I used these sour belt candies called Rip Rolls.
You need about 8 inches per cupcake so each of these 40" packets will make about 5 cupcakes.

Cut one piece that's 6".
All you do to make the cute ribbon is fold the belt on top of itself on both ends.
Then use the remaining 2" to wrap the center to finish off the bow.

It's best to make the ribbon first then to place it on top of the iced cupcake. Trying to do it directly on the cupcake makes it sloppy and just plain hard.