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.