SavvyMom's 2009 Dream Baby Shower Contest

We attempted to make "fake" cupcakes to be displayed at the 2009 BabyTime Show at the International Centre this weekend. SavvyMom contacted us about this great contest they were hosting for new moms. So we needed to show a sample of what the contestants could win. Now, we've never made display cupcakes before, so please learn from our mistake and don't do what we did!

(The Wrong Way to Make) Display Cupcakes
(Makes as many as you need depending on what you buy)

Plaster of Paris (we bought ours from Wal-Mart, although we're sure Canadian Tire, Home Depot, and other renovation shops sell it)
A container to mix
A stirrer
2 cups of cold water
13 cupcake liners/cups

1. Cover your work area. Very important!
2. Have lots of cold water ready.
   
3. Follow the instructions on the box. It is usually 2 part plaster, 1 part water. We found that 2 part cupcake liner and 1 part cupcake liner made enough to fill 1 cupcake liner!
4. Mix the plaster and water until smooth. Work quickly as it begins to set (in 20 minutes!)
5. Poor the mixture into your cupcake liner.
6. Let it sit to dry.
7. Do this as many times as you like. We made 13, since the cupcake stand holds 13 cupcakes.
8. We had made our rubber ducks out of fondant and had them dry for a day.
9. So, we rolled out blue fondant and had them cut in circles to cover the top of the display cupcakes.
10. This is probably where it all went wrong: place the fondant circle on top of the display cupcake. Pat smoothly down. With a tiny dab of water on the bottom of the duck. Place the duck on the fondant circle. Let the finished display cupcake dry. The next day... please find the blue fondant circle melting!

So what did we do wrong? Don't mix plaster of Paris with fondant? Chemical reaction? We're wondering if it is possible that the fondant is absorbing moisture from the plaster? The plaster dried very fast and was so heavy! Perhaps we'll have to try using Styrofoam or Play-Doh next time. We really didn't expect the fondant to disagree with the rock solid plaster. What a shame, I was hoping to give them away as paper-weights after the show! What materials do you use to make display cupcakes?

Don't forget that SavvyMom.ca and Today's Parent have partnered up for this fantastic contest!

The 2009 Dream Baby Shower Contest:
"The Editors at SavvyMom have carefully selected a collection of baby shower gift items that every new mom dreams of for herself and her new baby. Plush, practical and packed with everything you need for feeding, sleeping, bathing and more, it's the ultimate Dream Baby Shower! And you could win it all - over $7000 worth of new baby items - just by entering!"
Click here to enter, view the prizes, and read contest rules.

Quack! Quack!