Spaghetti and Meatball Cupcakes

My mother gave me a copy of Hello Cupcakes a few years ago.  In the past, I have attempted green aliens and penguins.  They're fun, but you have to have lots of patience to decorate cupcakes for over an hour.  Especially when you end up eating them anyway.  

These spaghetti cupcakes also come from Hello Cupcakes, but they are one of the easier decorations the authors share.  Even though they are less elaborate than a polar bear or shark, I think they are still very cute.  

To decorate these cupcakes, I used Ferrero Rocher chocolates, strawberry preserves, and icing, which clearly was not homemade.  Of course, I also had some naked chocolate cupcakes.

I spread a thin layer of icing on top because I didn't want the chocolate cupcake to show through the spaghetti.  I used a ziplock bag for my pipping bag.  I just snipped of a little corner piece after filling the bag with icing.  

I mostly pipped the spaghetti icing around the edges of the cupcakes because I wanted to create wells for the sauce.

I spooned the strawberry preserves into the center of the cupcakes.  The strawberry preserves had little pieces of strawberries.  Jam would have a smoother consistency.

I then put the chocolate candies on top of the strawberry preserves.  

It looks like the chocolate candy is going to roll off the front  cupcake on the right.  Decorating these cupcakes was fun and not so complicated that it was stressful.