Wordless Wednesday: August 18, 2010

Happy Hanukkah

How: Hedgehog Cupcake Set

How to make our little Hedgehog Cupcake Set!

1. Bake 9 cupcakes of your choice. You can do 12 or any number, but we think that the square-shaped setup is cute.
2. Gather some tools. Here, in the photo below we have: some brown jimmies/sprinkles, a stitching tool, a circle shape cutter, a veining tool, a tiny heart cutter, and leaf cutter. Not pictured, but will be needed are: rolled fondant, a roller, gel paste, toothpicks, a utility knife, a tiny circle cutter, and a practice mat.
   
   
3. Let your cupcakes cool. Make some buttercream or frosting of your choice. Dab a good amount onto your cupcake.
   
   
4. Using a metal spatula, smooth out the buttercream into a flat or dome shape. It doesn't have to be perfect, since it will be covered and smoothed again with fondant.
   
   This will do!
   
   
   
5. Next, using your gel paste, dye a small ball of fondant green, a large ball of fondant sky blue, another small piece of fondant red, a medium sized piece brown, and a tiny piece dark brown.
   Note: To dye fondant, you simply use a clean toothpick, dab it in the gel and then poke it into the fondant. Never double dip your toothpick into the gel. Always use a clean one. Next, you knead the fondant until the colour is consistent throughout. If you happen to have pre-coloured fondant, that is even easier and this part is basically done for you!
   
6. Roll the green fondant onto your practice board (or workspace). Cut out 7 little leaves. Imprint a simple line through the leaf with the veining tool.
   
   
7. Roll the red fondant and cut out 2 tiny hearts and 2 tiny circles. Use the veining tool to create a dimple at the top and bottom of the circles so that they resemble apples. Then, I pushed a brown sprinkle into the fondant to create the apple stem.
   
   
8. Roll out the brown fondant and using your utility knife, cut out 2 hedgehogs. I know this part is the trickiest part because it is hard to freehand shapes. Especially on soft fondant. I find that it becomes easier to work with if you let the fondant harden for a tiny bit, but not too hard that it crumbles! Don't forget to add the tiny fondant legs! I took tiny pieces of fondant and rolled them into small cylinder shapes.
   
9. Find a small brown sprinkle and use that for the hedgehog's eye. I simply push it in, embedding the sprinkle into the fondant.
   
   
10. Using the thinner side of the veining tool, softly press little dashes onto the hedgehog's body. This will create the spines. Let all the decorations sit on icing sugar to dry.
    
11. Next, roll the blue fondant and cut out 9 circles.
    
12. Using the stitching tool, carefully create a "path" on the fondant. Watch your turns! Try to plan out your path so that they connect when placed in a set.
    
    
13. Finally, attach all the leaves, apples, hearts, and hedgehogs onto the 9 blue circles. The last step is to place the decorated fondant pieces on top of your delicious cupcake!
    

Step back, and enjoy your handiwork!

Sleepover Birthday Cupcakes

A very cool mom asked us to make cupcakes for her son's sleepover party to celebrate his belated birthday. So, we made chocolate cupcakes with two-toned blue vanilla buttercream. As for the decorations? A few of his favourite things! As always, become a fan on our facebook page and see our flickr account for more photos! Our previous cupcake projects can be found on the right side-bar, archived monthly (or scroll down to go to the next page).

We tried a two-toned blue for the frosting since Alex loves colours.

(By the way, this photo was featured on foodgawker!)

He enjoys skiing.

He likes cats.

They have an orange cat!

He loves peace signs.

He likes watermelons!

He likes reading Alex Rider books.

He also enjoys the Chet Gecko series of books.

He likes his Playstation.

He loves Guitar Hero too!

Alex likes basketball.

Alex is 12 years old!

These are a few of his favourite things!

Construction Birthday Cupcakes

Someone is having a birthday and he works in construction! So, for the birthday party, we were asked to make red velvet cupcakes with a construction theme! We hope you enjoyed the fondant toppers - we like to make everything edible! As always, there are more photos posted on our facebook page and flickr account!

1. Blue vanilla buttercream frosting on red velvet cupcake.

2. From head to toe: hard hat and steel toe boot for construction!

3. Need to have the blueprints for instructions.

4. Set up the construction zone with signs and pylons!

5. Have to have the wrench, screwdriver, hammer, saw, and drill handy!

6. Oh no! Spilled paint!

7. All set for delivery. Have a happy birthday Rowan!

Scorpio Birthday Cupcakes

Keeping with this month's Scorpio horoscopes, we created the Scorpio symbol, among stars on royal blue frosting. We hope there are many good things in store for you!

1. Blue Scorpio symbols and yellow stars made from fondant - drying on icing sugar.

2. Blue birthday message plaques made from gum paste.

3. Fresh Devil's Food cupcakes from the oven.

4. Royal blue vanilla buttercream frosting with yellow fondant stars. I even have a matching glass cup!

5. Fondant Scorpio symbols on the cupcakes.

6. A dozen Scorpio birthday cupcakes ready to go! We hope you have a great birthday!