Have you seen these beautiful cupcake liners by Vestli House?

I love their unique and elegant patterns:

I bought quite a few liners – some to make my own cupcakes with, and some to give away to you!

Vestli House Cupcake Liners GIVEAWAY!

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THREE lucky winners will receive 4 packs of 25 cupcake liners pictured here.

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How do you enter?

It’s easy.   Just visit  the Vestli House site, come back to Sweetopia and leave your answer to the following question in the comment section below, before 7pm EST on Monday, August 2nd, 2010:

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Which Vestli House baking cups do you like best?

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Other ways to enter the draw:

Retweet this post on twitter.  Tweets will be added to the draw!

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If you haven’t already, click the ‘like’ button on my facebook page here.  It doesn’t get much easier to enter! 

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The contest is international and the winners will be chosen randomly at www.random.org.

Good luck with the giveaway!

xo,

Marian

{Thanks to Rowell Photography for taking these crisp pics!}

If you’re interested in tips on the decorating process itself, I’ve got an in-depth tutorial here and my top 10 decorating tips here.

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Practical Ideas for Decorating Cookies – Top 10 Easy Tips

1. *Cloth – Keep a damp cloth nearby to wipe royal icing off your piping tip.  The key for me is to use a microfibre or lint-free cloth, otherwise little teensy fibres from other types of cloth get into the icing or onto my decorated cookie.

I found these at the dollar store!

2. **Clear beading containers – I use these storage stacking containers to store my piping tips.  Originally used for beads, they’re great for all sorts of small objects.  The only drawback is that they can sometimes be finicky to close.

You can find them online or at any craft store (usually in the beading aisle).

3. **Piping tips and couplers – Having lots of piping tips and couplers available makes the decorating experience much easier because you can prepare many bags of icing at once and change tips easily without having to stop and wash them.

I keep my couplers in a box also found at the dollar store.

4. **Elastic bands – Have them handy to tie off the ends of your piping bags so that icing doesn’t escape when you aren’t paying attention!

5. **Clear disposable piping/pastry bags (See a few pics above) – Although they might not be as strong as polyeurthane piping bags, disposable ones are my favorite.  They’re clear so you can easily pick out the color you need and they’re washable and re-usable.  If you’re wondering about using parchment triangles; some people do swear by them, I however, am useless at shaping them and feel dread whenever we have to use them in a cake class. 

The squeeze bottles are another option, especially great for kids.  I find piping bags easier to fill so use those instead.

6. 88Toothpicks or pins – Always keep a toothpick or pin nearby; they’re great for popping air bubbles in piped icing, unclogging tips and marbling your icing.  (If you’re not sure what marbling is there’s a definition in this glossary).

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7. **Glass of water – Keep a glass of water near your sink so that you can drop piping tips in there to soak a bit until you’re ready to clean them.

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8. **Place for piping bags – Arrange as many glasses as you have piping bags with a damp paper towel or cloth at the bottom of each.  Rest your piping bags in them between uses.  Wilton has a special stand for this purpose but I still prefer using the glasses.

9. **Spatulas only for royal icing -  Grease (fat), from buttercream for example, can affect the texture of royal icing, so the spatulas I use with it are designated only for royal icing.  I also keep piping tips used for buttercream separate as well.  No worries if you can’t do this (I’m playing it extra safe); just wash utensils well with vinegar and then soap and water.

10. **Tip cleaning brush – The purchase of this tiny brush, specifically designed to clean out your tips, is one you won’t regret.  Cleaning tips kind of drives me crazy for some reason, and this little brush makes the job so much easier!

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Hopefully these tips help you.  I’d love to hear more ideas!  If you’d like to share, you’re welcome to leave a comment below.

xo,

Marian

I’ve been asked quite often about how to make these gum paste daisies.  People seem to think that they’d be challenging, but the things is, they’re ridiculously easy to make.  I wish I could say I had amazing talent and that I hand-crafted each and every petal, but the truth is, it doesn’t take much to whip up some cupcakes and a few of these flowers.

Once you know a few handy tips and have the right equipment, you can easily make these whimsical edible decorations, and with the same tools the experienced cake decorator can create other variations.  (I’ll mention some options later).

To begin, I usually create mine with gum paste rather than fondant for two reasons; they hold their shape better, and the detail is highlighted.  That being said, since gum paste is more expensive than fondant, another option is to use half of each as a mixture.  It is an excellent cost saving technique if you’re making a large amount of these daisies.

1. shortening
2. decorating gloves
3. gum paste
4. cornstarch
5. small rolling pin
6. daisy center mould
7. palette knife
8. Americolor soft gel paste
9. daisy plunger cutter
10. edible glue (tylose powder & water – tutorial found here)
11. small fine paintbrush
12. flower formers (examples below)

Flower Formers:

1. Modeling Forms
2. Egg cartons
3. Wilton flower formers

You can use any type of former to dry your daisies in.  I prefer Wilton’s shape for this particular flower.  A painter’s palette also works, as well as other inexpensive options such as egg cartons, egg create foam, aluminum foil and manicotti noodle trays.

Coloring the gum paste:

Massage a small amount of food gel coloring into your gum paste at a time.   It’s easier to add coloring bit by bit, rather than trying to correct or lighten the color by adding more paste.  I wear decorator gloves with a bit of shortening on them so that my hands stay color-free, and the gum doesn’t stick to them.

Colors in gum paste tend to fade, especially blues, purples, blacks – deep colors essentially.  It’s best to tint your paste and let it sit for 24 hours, so that you can see if you’re happy with how the color turns out.

How to make daisy petals:

Dust your work surface with cornstarch.   It does look a bit strange; but I like to fill a clean, new nylon stocking with cornstarch until it is about tennis-ball size, tie the end into a knot, and store it in a plastic container.   It’s easy to use just the right amount of cornstarch by lightly dabbing the nylon onto the work surface.

Roll the gum paste out to about 3mm or 1/8 of an inch thick, using your small rolling pin.

Press your daisy cutter into the gum paste,  just as you would a cookie cutter into cookie dough.   Before you lift the cutter away, press the plunger a few times to create the petal embossing.  Making sure you have enough cornstarch under the gum paste, move the daisy cutter in a circular motion on your work surface to help create a cleaner cut.  Lift the daisy cutter from the surface.

You will notice that the edges of some petals need to be smoothed.  Gently press each petal deeper into the daisy cutter and run your palette knife or fingers along each edge to wipe away the excess gum paste.  Turn the daisy cutter over, hovering over the flower former, press the plunger and your gum paste daisy should release and fall onto the former.  If it needs a bit of coaxing, gently pry the petals away from the cutter with your palette knife.

For a different look, you could layer more than one daisy on top of each other and depending on what type of center you make, this cutter can be used as gerbera flowers or sunflowers as well.  You can also obtain a finer finish by using a ball tool to soften the edge of the petals.

How to make daisy centers:

Besides the JEM daisy center I used here, the same centers can be found in silicon form.  They are easier to remove from the mould because they’re bendable, but the JEM version is simple too!  (I used the JEM version today as it’s easier to see in pics).  If you’re looking for a homemade version, form the paste into a button shape and texture using a piece of tulle or net.

The first step is to dust your center mould with a light coating of cornstarch.

Roll a small amount of gum paste into a ball; enough to approximately fill the daisy center.  Press the gum paste into the mould.  Turn your mould over and press it into a cornstarch dusted work surface while moving in a circular motion.  The excess gum paste will squeeze out the sides and sever from the edges.

It’s now ready to be removed.

If the gum paste doesn’t fall out of the mould immediately after turning it over, you may need to gently insert your palette knife and pull.  You can also use other sharp, small objects such as a pin or toothpick.

Another tip that works is to lightly dampen your finger with water and press it onto the unmoving paste.  The gum paste will stick to your finger and slide right out of the mould.

Fasten the daisy center to your dry petals using edible glue.    A tutorial for how to make your own glue can be found here.

That’s it!  Easy gum paste flowers to dress up your cake, cupcakes or other confections.

Some other examples of these daisies I’ve made in older posts are here and here.  As you’ll see, I tend to like making white petals and colored centers!

By the way, these are straightforward vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream.  I used my go-to recipes from Peggy Porschen’s book Pretty Party Cakes, and matched the pink Americolor soft gel paste with these pink polka dot cupcake liners.

The buttercream was piped with a large star tip.

Thanks for stopping by;  If you have any questions, comments or if I can be of any further assistance please don’t hesitate to email me or drop me a line below!

Have fun creating!!

Marian

I would love to share how to make simple gum paste leaves.  They’re really so easy to make once you know a few handy tips and have the right equipment.

I usually create mine with gum paste rather than fondant for two reasons; they hold their shape better, and the detail is highlighted.  That being said, since gum paste is more expensive than fondant, another option is to use half of each as a mixture.  It is an excellent cost saving technique if you’re making a large amount of these leaves.

To make gum paste leaves, you will need:

1. shortening
2. decorating gloves
3. cornstarch
4. lustre spray (optional)
5. gum paste
6. rolling pin
7. pin
8. leaf plunger cutter
9. food gel coloring
10. CelFormers

Coloring the gum paste:

Massage a small amount of food gel coloring into your gum paste at a time.   It’s easier to add coloring bit by bit, rather than try and correct or lighten the color by adding more paste.  I wear decorator gloves with a bit of shortening on them so that my hands stay color-free, and the gum doesn’t stick to them.

Instructions:

Dust your work surface with cornstarch.   It does look a bit strange; but I like to fill a clean, new nylon stocking with cornstarch until it is about tennis-ball size, tie the end into a knot, and store it in a plastic container.   It’s easy to use just the right amount of cornstarch by lightly dabbing the nylon onto the work surface.

Roll the gum paste out to about 3mm or 1/8 of an inch thick, using your small rolling pin.  How thick or thin you’d like your leaves is really a matter of preference though.

Press your leaf cutter into the gum paste, just as you would a cookie cutter into cookie dough.   Before you lift the cutter away, press the plunger a few times to create the petal embossing.  Making sure you have enough cornstarch under the gum paste, move the cutter in a circular motion on your work surface to help create a cleaner cut.  Lift the cutter from the surface.

You will notice that the edges of the leaf need to be smoothed.  Gently press into the leaf cutter and run your fingers along the edges to wipe away the excess gum paste.  Turn the cutter over, hovering over the flower former, press the plunger and your gum paste leaf should release and fall onto the former.  If it needs a bit of coaxing, gently pry the leaf away from the cutter with your pin.

Bend the leaves into your desired shape and let them dry on the flower formers for at least an hour.  If there is any excess cornstarch, gently wipe off with a pastry brush.

At this point you can put petal dust on to give the leaves a bit more color, shimmer and to highlight the veining.  Another option for shimmer is to spray on lustre spray.   I’ve put a very light coating on mine.

Voila!  Easy gum paste leaves to dress up your flower confections.

Incidentally, these are lemon cupcakes with vanilla buttercream icing, topped with gum paste roses and of course, gum paste leaves!  I follow Peggy Porschen’s instructions on how to make the roses by hand.

A few more gum paste leaf pics can be found on older posts here, and here.

A big thanks and credit are due to Kylie Lambert of Le Cupcake for the ‘rose cupcake in a teacup’ inspiration.  Her creations are beautiful works of sugar art!

Thank you to my friend Rebecca for lending me her beautiful tea cups!!

I would also like to thank-you very much for all of your attention!  If I can be of any further assistance please don’t hesitate to email me.

Have fun creating!!

Marian

These are the cupcakes I made for my friend Shannon’s baby shower.

They’re easy peasy to make.  I used the chocolate cake and lemon vanilla recipe from Planet Cake and the buttercream recipe from Peggy Porschen’s book, Pretty Party Cakes.   Since I’m not a coffee drinker, I think I’ll eliminate the coffee grounds in the chocolate cupcake recipe next time though.  Have to say; even just thinking about them makes my mouth water again… they were so moist and delish!

I made two simple toppers… pastel-colored bows and smiley, happy flowers.

If you’d like to make the cupcakes and icing you’ll need the following items:

1. chocolate cupcake recipe
2. vanilla cupcake recipe
3. buttercream recipe
4. white food gel coloring (to color the icing)
5. cupcake liners
6. disco dust*** (see p.s. note)
7. large piping bag (preferably 18 inch)
8. large star piping tip #829

To make the bows you’ll need the following:

1. parchment paper
2. spacers for rolling pin (they usually come with the fondant rolling pin)
3. fondant rolling pin
4. fondant & gumpaste – mixed 50/50 ***
5. pin
6. bow cutter
7. disposable food prep. gloves
8. food gel coloring of your choice
9. Ziplock bags
10. cornstarch
11. vegetable shortening
12. tea-towel or non-slip mat

*** I like the texture of the 50/50 fondant and gumpaste.  It tastes better than straight gumpaste, and dries harder than fondant on it’s own.  Straight fondant doesn’t hold it’s shape as well as gumpaste does.

After you’ve colored your 50/50 mix of gumpaste and fondant by massaging small bits of food gel color in, start by rolling out your fondant very thin.  To do this I use a small fondant rolling pin with the thinnest spacers on each end of the rolling pin.  I sometimes roll my fondant between two sheets of parchment paper to prevent sticking, but dusting your surface with a little cornstarch, or a little vegetable shortening also works.   Sliding a small tea-towel or non-stick mat under the parchment prevents it from sliding everywhere.  Remove the tea-towel or mat for one last roll when you’re almost done, so that the underside of the fondant/gumpaste has no indents or marks.   Store any rolled-out fondant/gumpaste which you’re not immediatel using, in a ziplock bag or between plastic wrap etc.

Press the bow cutter into the fondant/gumpaste and shake it gently back and forth to loosen it.   Lift the cutter away.

Use the pin to gently lift out the fondant/gumpaste pieces.

The small pieces above are extra… you don’t need them to make the bow.

Begin the bow construction by laying out this piece above first.  Dab a wee dot of water on either side of the center.  Even though my hands are always washed, I generally wear disposable gloves to keep my fondant/gumpaste clean.

Bring the right edge towards the middle, being careful not to fold it flat… just let a little round loop form.  Do the same for the left.  You can then insert small bits of rolled up kleenex or paper towel to help the loop dry in the proper shape.

Place the middle piece over the center and gently tuck the edges in.  You can either let the hanging-ribbon-pieces dry flat, or rest them on something to give them some shape.  Ta dum!!  Finito!  (Well, you have to wait until they dry for best handling, but that’s it!)

Now for the happy flowers.

I got the inspiration for them from a combination of this crocheted flower and this cheery clip art:

Making them is also very easy.

All you need is:

1. parchment paper
2. small fondant rolling pin
3. spacers for rolling pin (usually come with small fondant rolling pin)
4. fondant & gumpaste – mixed 50/50 ***
5. food gel coloring
6. black edible food markers
7. flower cutter
8. vegetable shortening
9. cornstarch
10. tea-towel or non-slip mat
11. disposable gloves

*** I like the texture of the 50/50 fondant and gumpaste.  It tastes better than straight gumpaste, and dries harder than fondant on it’s own.  Straight fondant doesn’t hold it’s shape as well as gumpaste does.

After you’ve colored your 50/50 mix of gumpaste and fondant by massaging small bits of food gel color in, start by rolling out your fondant very thin.  To do this I use a small fondant rolling pin with the thinnest spacers on each end of the rolling pin.  I sometimes roll my fondant between two sheets of parchment paper to prevent sticking, but dusting your surface with a little cornstarch, or a little vegetable shortening also works.   Sliding a small tea-towel or non-stick mat under the parchment prevents it from sliding everywhere.  Remove the tea-towel or mat for one last roll when you’re almost done, so that the underside of the fondant/gumpaste has no indents or marks.   Store any rolled-out fondant/gumpaste which you’re not immediatel using, in a ziplock bag or between plastic wrap etc.

Press the flower cutter into the fondant/gumpaste and shake it gently back and forth to loosen it.   Lift the cutter away.

To make your flower centers, simply take a small amount of fondant and roll in into a ball between your palms.  For the flower centers I just used straight fondant, as a spehere/ball holds it’s shape easily, and it costs less than gumpaste!

Wet the center of the flower, and gently place the ball of fondant onto it.

Draw the face onto the ball of fondant using an edible ink marker.

And voila!

One important thing I learned with these… Don’t mix disco dust into the fondant… it ends up looking like little flecks of dirt instead of something pretty and sparkly!

Enjoy the cupcakes!

xo,

Marian

p.s.  Thanks Michelle for being in the picture!

p.s.s. ***Added note… I recently found out that disco dust is non-toxic, but not necessarily ‘edible’.   As far as I know it is not FDA approved, but can be used with food as decoration.   I had no idea!  My sincere apologies that I didn’t look into that first before I used it and posted it on my blog!  I thought it was like Goldschlager {vodka with real gold flecks in it}, which is FDA approved.  I will definitely continue to use it because I love it so much for added shimmer, but only for ‘for show’ items.

Many people have asked how I made these (It is tempting to say each petal was hand carved.. hee hee… naw I would never), but really, they’re easy peasy lemon squeezy to make. As long as you have the right tools. In this case I used the sunflower cutter tool to make the petals and a silicone mold to make the center of the flower.

You can use them with fondant, but I prefer making mine with either all gumpaste or, (more pocketbook friendly), half fondant and half gumpaste.   I did add some white gel color, to brighten up the petals a bit; otherwise they looked somewhat cream colored.   The next time I make some I’ll take pictures and post a wee tutorial, but they really are simple to make. You basically roll out your sugarpaste and use the tool like you would a cookie cutter.   Have fun creating!

xo,

Marian

p.s.  In case you’re wondering I used a #829 star pastry tip to pipe the icing.

Made these butterfly cookies for my friend Samantha’s wedding this past fall.   She had incorporated butterflies in her decorating scheme and wanted them to be very brightly colored.  They are gingerbread cookies decorated with the flood royal icing recipe from Peggy Porschen’s book Romantic Cakes, and dusted with non-toxic disco dust. Many people didn’t end up eating them at the wedding, but for those that did, they told me they were the best tasting gingerbread cookies they’d ever had! Not grandma’s secrets this time… Thanks Peggy for sharing your delicious recipe! (I used the one from her book Pretty Party Cakes). 

For a ‘how to’ on making these butterfly cookies click on my cookie decorating tutorial – general tips and butterfly cookies here.

I had some time over the spring break to play around with some cupcake recipes and just couldn’t resist using these colorful cupcake liners from Cupcake Kit: Recipes, Liners, and Decorating Tools for Making the Best Cupcakes! I guess I’m a sucker for packaging as well, because they just looked so pretty in the box they were in. The little cupcake book inside the box has a few great baking tips and includes recipes… Thought I’d try a classic; chocolate cupcake. Although the recipe was tasty and pretty moist, it isn’t my favourite chocolate cupcake recipe out there. I’ll post that one another day! (Unless I find another one even better; I’m always experimenting).

I found that it was hard to see the pattern on the liners once the cupcakes were baked so I doubled them up on the cake stand.

I made gingerbead cookies a few years ago for a masquerade theme party a friend of mine had. 

The cookie is flooded with a cream colour royal icing and coated in disco dust.  You can see a larger version of this photo here.

Thanks to Peggy Porschen and her book, Beautiful Cakes, for the idea!  I adore her work, and out of the many ’sugar art’ decorating books I have, hers is definitely my favourite.  She explains her steps so thoroughly, has great recipes, and her projects are mainly relatively easy to make.

These are gingerbread cookies decorated with flood royal icing.   I used my favourite gingerbread cookie and royal icing recipes from the book, Romantic Cakes by Peggy Porschen.  I may just be one of her biggest fans as she’s made it so easy to make goodies that everyone likes and her examples of cakes, cookies and cupcakes are so pretty and for the most part, relatively easy to make, even for someone new to decorating. (Like I was when I bought her first book, Pretty Party Cakes). For the margarita cookie cutter I used this one, and added a half circle to the rim of the glass before I baked the cookies. It may be hard to see all the cookies in the pic, but I used a cactus, chili pepper, guitar and sombrero.

I made these for a neighbour’s son who was moving to Mexico for a year.