Its been a busy season for babies... I've made test batches of cupcakes (and decorating them) prior to the actual baby showers, to the tummy happiness of my friends and neighbours. So, here's how I made some Winnie the Pooh (and Piglet too) fondant cupcake toppers, as well as a super easy way to decorate cupcakes to look like owls.
For the owl themed baby shower, as I was already making an owl themed fondant-ed cake (see here for how to fondant a cake and make fondant ribbons, bows and owls post), I wanted super simple but cute owl cupcakes as I wouldn't' have a lot of time to put them together.
As the cupcakes were the Remedy Cafe Chai Latte cupcakes with chai latte buttercream recipe I trialled out the week before, I baked a fresh batch and I rough iced the cupcakes for a mussy feathery look (and in the interest of time). Then, I simply used gingerbread oeros (luckily in grocery stores around Christmas time so I was able to buy them), opened them up and used smarties for the eyes and beak. Since I was already using my extra large cake holder that can hold 24 upcakes, I used two Wilton cupcake carriers that fit a dozen each instead.
Easy Peasy. And super adorable!
Now, for detailed fondant cake toppers for another baby shower... normally I hand sculpt or cut and layer fondant colors and shapes to get to the fondant decoration I need... when I was assigned Winnie the Pooh themed cupcakes... about 2 dozen... and I remembered thinking I'll go absolutely bonkers if I tried to hand make 2 dozen super detailed fondant toppers completely by hand... or the not so verbose version in my head at considerable volume... "Wha... ARRRGHHHHHHHH?!" So, I went online to see what others have done... and noticed there were some really nice looking decorated cookies.. where they looked almost too nice and too uniform... after a bit more searching, and paying a lot of express shipping (whee for living in Canada - not thier fault, if you're not in a rush, there is free shipping if you buy a certain minimum), I got my hands on a Winnie the Pooh and Piglet cookie cutter and stamp set from cheapcookiecutters.com.
I figured if it can be used on cookie dough, it probably could be used on fondant. I bought Japanese made ones (yellow) vs more flimsy made in China ones (usually pink and dirt cheap online), but you can get the better quality Japanese ones in Winnie the Pooh and Tigger on Amazon as well. I figured Tigger would be harder to color, and I like Piglet better!! :D
I figured if it can be used on cookie dough, it probably could be used on fondant. I bought Japanese made ones (yellow) vs more flimsy made in China ones (usually pink and dirt cheap online), but you can get the better quality Japanese ones in Winnie the Pooh and Tigger on Amazon as well. I figured Tigger would be harder to color, and I like Piglet better!! :D
After coloring the fondant to the right shade of Winne the Pooh yellow (and Piglet pink) with Wilton fondant gel coloring, I rolled out the fondant with a large fondant roller (next time I'm buying a small Wilton 9 inch fondant roller as the super big one I have on hand was a bit of a pain to use on smaller projects) onto a Wilton fondant mat lightly dusted with a bit of powdered sugar a bit of dusting super lightly with powdered sugar - the rolled out fondant "dough" was ready to be cut and stamped with the cookie cutters and stamps. The cookie stamps I lightly dusted in powdered sugar (too much and the cartoon characters look like they're using cocaine lol!), then using the cookie cutter to form the cut out (and leaving cookie cutter in place so you don't smush the stamp too much into the table), and the cookie stamp worked like a charm. After gently peeling off the finished cupcake topper, I laid them out on plastic wrap dusted very lightly with powdered sugar. And I made LOTS of extras...because I used food safe pens after to add in a spot of color and flesh out details... which didn't always work... sometimes the characters would end up with blown pupils, creepy smiles etc.. and so it was a great idea to make many many extra to doodle on to get nice looking ones... was totally worth a few extra minutes cutting and stamping them out.
You can drop the completed fondant cupcake toppers right on top of the cupcake, or if you want a more finished look, you can cut out circles of fondant (as a colored backdrop) to place on the cupcakes first, then top with detailed cupcake toppers. I was running low on time, so I plunked them directly onto the cupcakes (double chocolate zuchinni with raspberry butter cream, tinted pastel blue with Wilton's fondant/icing colors) which I plunked on my extra large cake/cupcake holder and as it holds it up in 2 layers, I put Pooh bear on one and Piglet on another... and made for a space saving display once I got to the baby shower :)
and both babyshowers were a huge success (and tonnes of food)!
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