Nutcrackers Sweet

Nutcrackers Sweet

Makes 3 nutcrackers: 18 cupcakes

These nutcrackers may appear a little daunting, but they are actually simple to make. Instead of looking at the whole, examine each cupcake; none of the individual designs is difficult.

Get everything in place—cupcakes, frosting, candies, cookies—and gather your tools before starting. The French call this mise en place; we call it common sense.

  1. Tint ½ cup of the vanilla frosting pale pink with the red food coloring. Tint ¼ cup of the vanilla frosting yellow with the food coloring and spoon into a ziplock bag. Press out the excess air and seal the bag. Spoon the dark chocolate frosting and ½ cup of the vanilla frosting into separate ziplock bags, press out the excess air, seal, and set aside.
  2. Line a cookie sheet with wax paper. Spoon each color of decorating sugar Into a separate small shallow bowl. Using a serrated knife, cut each Pirouette cookie crosswise Into two 2-inch pieces. Heat the corn syrup In a small bowl in the microwave until boiling, about 5 seconds. Working on 2 cookie pieces at a time, make the arms by brushing the cookies with the warm corn syrup and rolling them in the same color of sugar to cover completely. Snip a ⅛-inch corner from the bag with the vanilla frosting. Pipe a dot of frosting at one end of each arm and attach the white gumballs to make the hands. Place on the cookie sheet and let set for about 30 minutes.
  3. Using a serrated knife and angling it slightly inward toward the bottom, cut inch from opposite sides of 3 of the thin chocolate cookies to make the hats. Cut ½ inch from opposite sides of 2 of the remaining cookies to make the brims. Trim ¼ inch from each end of the brim. Cut the remaining chocolate cookie into 6 pie-shaped pieces to use as support for the hair. Cut the 2 pink candy wafers in half. Trim ⅛ inch from opposite sides of the 3 white candy wafers to make the mouths. Cut the pink gumballs in half for the cheeks.
  4. Spread the tops of 3 of the cupcakes with the pink frosting to make the heads. Insert 1 pink wafer half vertically, rounded edge up, into the center of each cupcake to make the nose. Add 2 halved pink gumballs on either side of the nose for the cheeks. Add 1 white wafer, trimmed edges horizontal, about ¼ inch down from the nose to make the mouth. Insert the pointed end of 2 of the pie-shaped cookie pieces on either side of each cupcake to support the hair.
  5. Spread vanilla frosting on top of 6 of the cupcakes and smooth. Spread the tops of the remaining 9 cupcakes with the vanilla frosting, mounding it slightly (see Techniques). Starting at the edge, roll the tops of the 9 mounded cupcakes In the colored sugars, 3 in each color.
  6. To assemble the nutcrackers, place 2 sugared cupcakes of the same color side by side on a serving platter. Place 1 sugared cupcake of the same color underneath, touching the other two. Place 1 pink-frosted cupcake head above the 2 sugared cupcakes and add 1 vanilla-frosted cupcake above that for the hat. Place 1 vanilla-frosted cupcake below the 2 sugared cupcakes for the feet. Repeat with the other cupcakes to make 3 nutcrackers.
  7. Snip a 1/16-inch corner from the bags with the chocolate and yellow frosting. Pipe a dot of vanilla frosting on either side of the 2 sugared cupcakes that form the chest. Attach the sugared cookie arms, matching the color to the cupcakes, with the gumball ends pointing down.
  8. Pipe dots of vanilla frosting for the eyes and add the blue chocolate candies. Using the chocolate frosting, pipe pupils on the eyes and a line above each eye for the eyelids. Pipe teeth on the white-wafer mouth with the chocolate frosting. Increase the size of the cut corner on the bag with the chocolate frosting to ⅛-inch and pipe eyebrows and a mustache. To make the hair, start at the edge of the cupcake where one of the cookie supports is inserted and pipe lines of vanilla frosting from the cupcake onto the cookie support to cover it completely. Pipe another row just above and slightly overlapping the first, squeezing and pulling the frosting away from the cupcake (see Techniques). Repeat on the other side. To make the beard, start about 1 inch below the mouth, on the sugar-coated chest, and pipe a row of 2 or 3 vertical lines of vanilla frosting. Pipe a second row above and slightly overlapping the first, widening it with an extra line of frosting. The third row is piped from the edge of the cupcake and is slightly wider again, creating a tapered goatee.
  9. Place the trimmed hat cookie on the cupcake above the head, with the tapered end at the bottom. Press the trimmed cookie piece for the brim, cut edge down into the frosting at the top of the head, directly below the hat.
  10. Arrange the chocolate almonds at the lower edge of the bottom cupcake, narrow ends In, for the feet. Trim 2 chocolate-covered cookies to fit vertically, side by side, on the bottom cupcake for the boots. Place a whole chocolate-covered cookie horizontally between the rows of sugared cupcakes for the belt.
  11. Pipe diagonal lines of yellow frosting on the hat and chest. Pipe a yellow fringe around the top of each sugared-cookie arm and add a regular yellow chocolate candy to make epaulets. Pipe 3 dots along either side of the diagonal lines on the chest and attach yellow mini chocolate candies for buttons. Add a yellow mini candy at the top of the hat where the lines of yellow frosting meet. Pipe 2 yellow dots of frosting at the top of the cookie boots and attach yellow mini candies. Pipe a yellow dot of frosting in the center of the belt and attach a regular yellow chocolate candy for the belt buckle.