Christmas Nutcracker cupcakes

It's less than a week till Christmas, but it still feels forever away; probably because it was in the 50s today. But this weekend, I got to do my perennial Christmas tradition: go to the Kansas City Ballet's production of the Nutcracker.

I've been going to this ballet since I was a kid and go every year. I've seen it so many times, when I hear the music, I can see the ballet's choreography in my head. Yup, that many times.

This year was the first time the production was at the new Kauffman Center downtown, and my friends Brianne and Lauren came to town to go to the ballet with me.

So to celebrate this tradition, I made Nutcracker cupcakes! Because honestly, when I saw these wrappers and toppers, who could pass them up? Well, I couldn't. I took these into work for our holiday dessert bar.

By the way, I have the BEST coworkers. My cupcake carrier has been broken for a long time, and my newsroom came together to buy me a new one because I bring them sweets all the time. Yeah, I love my job.

These are chai tea cupcakes with honey cinnamon buttercream. I have to admit, I didn't quite follow the frosting recipe. I made my favorite swiss meringue buttercream recipe and then just put honey and cinnamon in till it tasted good, which ended up being one of my favorite icings ever. And combined with the cupcakes, they really did taste like a chai latte. Definitely recommend them!

(Posting to Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday.)