Tag Archives: fondant

I’m MARRIED!!! (plus a great recipe for fondant…)

Posted on August 6, 2019 by Ruthanne

Reception29e

My last post here was two years ago yesterday. I was beginning to feel like creating content for this site was work instead of joy, and a hobby should always bring joy! I’ve just started to feel like I miss creating and sharing recipes though, so I am back, checking in with you all, and hoping to share new things here again- maybe a little less frequently than my usual one time per week though!

So… a lot has happened in these two years! Just after I posted my last recipe here, I began walking every morning with a friend I’d known for about 8 years named Nick. We walked all that fall, winter and spring and became really close friends. Last summer he asked if I’d be interested in dating (which I was!), in December he proposed, and we were married 5 months ago! It is such a wonderful thing to have someone to walk life with. He is an incredible man, and I’m so thankful that God brought us together!

Plus he loves desserts as much (maybe more!) than I do!

58578414_10155950238392513_5197066502976569344_n

So obviously our wedding cake was a really important element of our wedding! My dear friends Megan and Wendy Davis from Happily Ever After Cakes did our cake and it was incredible on several levels.

First: They live almost 10 hours away. They made the cakes, drove them cross-country and assembled them here.

Second: Our wedding theme was confetti, and they matched our colors perfectly in fondant.

Third: It was a 5 layer cake- and each layer was a different flavor with a different filling. And all of the flavors were epic. I tried them all (of course!)

Reception28.2e

Wendy and Megan make delicious cake (top secret recipe) and amazing fillings, but what puts their cakes over the top is their made-from-scratch fondant. I usually want to peel fondant off to get rid of it- but not this. It’s soft, and sweet, and absolutely delicious.

Megan shared their recipe with me on a visit several years ago, and I posted about it here. I thought it was worth a second share though- just in case you missed it the 1st time, so here you go: (printer-friendly recipe)

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups mini marshmallows (half of a 16 oz. bag)
4 cups powdered sugar- plus a little for dusting.
2 tsp water
1/2 teaspoon of clear vanilla
gel colors to color fondant as desired

DIRECTIONS:

Place your mini marshmallows and water into a large mixing bowl and microwave on high for about one minute- until they are puffy and melted.
Stir them together with a rubber spatula until they are completely smooth (if not melted completely, put them back in the microwave on high for 5-10 seconds).
Add clear vanilla and mix well.
Add about 1/4 of the powdered sugar, stir until smooth, add another 1/4 and stir. It will become difficult to stir and very sticky.
Pour the rest of the powdered sugar onto a clean counter or cutting board.
Scrape the sticky fondant mixture out of the bowl and onto the powdered sugar and begin to knead it together with clean (powder sugar coated!) hands. It will gradually become like a smooth clay consistency. Use a metal scraper to keep it from sticking to the counter/ board.
This can now be colored with gel, rolled out and cut, or stored (tightly wrapped) in the fridge for about one week.
Have your cupcakes or cake all made and cooled.
Make enough fondant to cover your item(s). Here is a great chart by Wilton to help you determine how much you’ll need for various projects.
Make up some thick buttercream icing (recipe here) and you are ready to go!

Reception28.1e

My thoughts: YAY! It is fun to be at a place where I can jump back into sharing my ideas here again. I’ve missed you all! Until the next recipe….

Reception27e

Enjoy!

5 Comments

Posted in Cakes, Fondant, frosting, Wedding and tagged colorful cake, confetti cake, confetti party, confetti wedding cake, fondant, fondant confetti, fondant on wedding cake, fondant recipe, fun wedding cake, tiered wedding cake, Wedding, wedding cake, wedding ideas. Bookmark the permalink.

Winter Garden Cupcakes

Posted on January 7, 2017 by Ruthanne

Winter Garden Cupcakes

Blue velvet cupcakes topped with icy white buttercream and pastel shimmery flowers. Who says you can’t have a little summer in the middle of January?

It was my birthday last week, and I treated myself to the COOLEST kitchen gadget ever- or so I thought. Have you seen the piping tips for frosting that make whole flowers? I saw this video and I was in AWE of these! I’ve never taken cake decorating classes, or ever really attempted frosting flowers, so these little tips seemed perfect for me! I got a set of 12 on Amazon and I couldn’t wait to try them! My goal? A variety of white buttercream flowers dusted in edible pastel powders- like ice-covered flowers- on each cupcake.

The tips didn’t work. I tried a variety of frosting types and consistencies. I tried using the pastry bags included, I tried using a zip-top bag. Argh! Failure!

If the frosting was whipped (my typical buttercream- light and fluffy) it did not keep it’s shape when piped. If the frosting was a nice firm buttercream it simply didn’t pipe out of the tip at all- and squeezing harder either forced a hole in the bag or forced the tip and connecter to separate from the bag.

So, I had the cupcakes and decided to just go with what I had. Topped these with my very favorite buttercream and used a little fondant for the flowers 🙂 I think they are perfect!

Here’s how we made them (printable recipe here):

INGREDIENTS: (makes 24 cupcakes)

One blue velvet boxed cake mix- plus water, oil and eggs to make according to package. I used Duncan Hines to get this fun wintery blue color- and it was delicious!!!
2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter (softened)
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter (softened)
3 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons clear vanilla
A little white food coloring (if desired) to whiten the frosting even further
White fondant- I used a bit of Wilton’s boxed fondant, but you can make a little too- recipe here.

DIRECTIONS:

Make cake mix according to box and bake in 24 cupcake liners. Cool.
Place butters, powdered sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and beat on high until light and whipped (this takes 3-5 minutes, and it will whiten up considerably as you beat it. If you want it whiter, add a bit of white food coloring.
Place into a large zip-top bag fitted with a piping tip and pipe swirls on top of each cooled cupcake.
To make flower decorations, roll fondant out and cut into leaf and flower shapes using small cookie cutters or fondant cutters.
Dust leaves with edible green dust and flowers with edible pastel dust. I use a brand called “Sterling Pearl” and it comes in a wide range of colors, and is available on Amazon or many cake supply stores.

Place decorations on cupcakes and ENJOY!!

My thoughts: I think that when your “dream” idea dies, that there isn’t really any second option that can replace it. That said- I got SO many compliments on these cupcakes. Everyone loved them. The blue velvet cake mix is really great- if you haven’t tried this one yet, it really is worth it- really great flavor! Anyone want a set of 12 piping tips? 🙂 I hope you enjoy these wintery treats! ~r

We have loads of unique cupcakes here on Easybaked- like these! (click on a photo to see the recipe)

7 Comments

Posted in Cupcakes and tagged blue velvet, blue velvet cupcakes, cupcake, cupcakes, edible dusting powder, flower piping tips, fondant, fondant flowers, icy cupcakes, January cupcakes, January desserts, Russian piping tips, sparkling cupcakes, winter cupcakes, winter dessert, winter flowers. Bookmark the permalink.

Emoji Oreo Pops!

Posted on September 17, 2016 by Ruthanne

Surprise everyone with these adorable Emoji Oreo Pops! They look difficult- but I found some cookie cutters that make fast work of these cute little faces!

I’m not sure when the Emoji craze hit, but all of a sudden, these cute little social media expressions are EVERYWHERE! Pillows, T-shirts, masks, cards, balloons… People are even throwing Emoji parties (which actually sounds really fun…!)

In any case, when I decided to re-create these little guys I was unaware of how popular they are! I always google my ideas to see if I’m original or re-creating something, and there were a few Emoji Oreos and cookies out there- but they were mostly hand-drawn faces, and let’s face it: I am NO artist! I wondered if there were cookie cutters in the shapes of the faces- so I could use fondant. Most of the cutters were for full-sized cookies, not Oreos. But then I found these from JB Cookie Cutters. They are available in a 2 inch size which was perfect!

Look at all the faces you can make with this set of cookie cutters! Very, very fun!!!! 🙂

Let me show you how we put these little cookies together (printable recipe here)

INGREDIENTS: (makes about 25 cookies)

One box of Double Stuff Oreos
One and a half bags of Wilton’s Candy Melts in yellow
One box of Wilton’s white fondant or make your own- recipe here
A little powdered sugar to roll the fondant out with
Gel food coloring in black, red and blue
You’ll also need some lollipop sticks, (and a set of tweezers, some toothpicks and a small paintbrush are helpful!)

DIRECTIONS: (if you have never made Oreo Pops before, click here for tips!)

Make all the components for your Emoji faces first! They will be ready to place on the melted candy when the time comes!
If you have never worked with fondant before, you might find our tutorial here helpful.
Pull a small ball of fondant off the block of Wilton’s white fondant and roll it into a ball.
Using a small rolling pin and a little powdered sugar, roll the fondant out like cookie dough and cut all the white pieces of the faces you want to make. The big eyes and teeth are easy- but the little teeth need a toothpick’s help to poke them out of the cutter when it picks them up off the table. You will also want to “paint” the black lines on the big teeth with black gel food coloring. You can use a toothpick or a small brush to do this.

You want to work with fondant starting with the lightest colors 1st and ending with the darkest, so next up is blue tears- then red tongues and hearts- and finally all the black pieces.
To color fondant, add gel to the center of the ball and knead it with your hands. You will get colored hands (unless you wear gloves).
Once you are finished with a color, you can keep it soft by protecting it from air (under a small dish or glass).
One note: When you get to the black pieces, the little eyebrows are SO tiny that I skipped cutting them out and just used a toothpick to draw them on the faces at the end (I can draw eyebrows…) 🙂
To stick two pieces together (like pupils on the eyes, and tongues on the mouths), brush a little water on the back of the piece you want to “glue on” and place it where you want it.
Once your pieces are finished, just let them sit and harden up a bit while you make your Oreo Pops!

See the powdered sugar on the black pieces? Use a little paintbrush to brush that off once your Oreo pops are completed.
Twist apart all of your Oreos.
Melt your yellow candy melts in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between, until melted and smooth.
Dip the end of a lollipop stick into the melts, spread a little on the top of the white filling of the Oreo and then press the stick into the white filling.
Place the top of the Oreo back on so that the stick is in the middle with the filling.
Do this for all the Oreos, and set them on a large plate or cookie sheet to FREEZE for about 10 minutes.
Hold a chilled pop by the stick, and spoon yellow candy melts over the top, bottom and sides of the Oreo.
Tap stick against the side of the bowl to get extra melts off, and gently pull the bottom of the Oreo along the edge of the bowl, scraping off excess melts.
Set Oreo on parchment paper to harden- but before it hardens, place your fondant face on top. I used my fingers, but tweezers and a toothpick would be helpful in placing and positioning each piece. I honestly felt like I was playing the game “Operation”. You need steady hands!
Allow Oreo to harden up.
Brush away extra powdered sugar from face, and paint on some eyebrows for the faces that require some 🙂
Let these sit for a couple hours to fully harden (you can chill to speed this up) and then serve! I placed them in individual cello bags and tied them with ribbons to make giving them away easy!
Enjoy!

My thoughts: These are probably the most fun dessert I’ve ever given away. These were a HUGE hit with everyone and resulted in lots of Emoji selfies 🙂 Here’s a little glimpse of the fun:

Of course, these are time consuming. Even with the added help of the little cookie cutters, they take time. If your time is limited, I recommend you make the fondant faces and then assemble the pops later. The good thing about these is that they keep for several weeks when they are tied up in those cello bags- so you can do them WAY ahead of an event! I hope you are brave enough to tackle these- and that my other posts on Oreo Pops and the use of fondant are helpful! Enjoy! ~r

Other Oreo Pop ideas: (click on a photo to see the recipe)

3 Comments

Posted in Candy, Cookies and tagged candy, candy melts, cookie cutters, cookies, Emoji Cookies, Emoji dessert, Emoji Oreo Pops, Emoji Oreos, Emoji party, Emoticon cookies, Emoticon Oreos, fondant, kids dessert, Oreo pop, oreo pops, Oreos, party idea, smily face cookies, smily face Oreos. Bookmark the permalink.

Watermelon Cupcakes

Posted on May 22, 2015 by Ruthanne

What could be a better picnic treat than these sweet watermelon cupcakes~ covered in “ants” and filled with chocolate chip seeds???

These are so fun to make- and watching people’s surprise at that filling is fun too! My favorite comment? “Oh my, this tastes like WATERMELON!” Um…yes. It does. *smile*

This recipe uses a cake pop maker. I hesitantly purchased one a few years back to make a polka dot cake, and I thought I’d end up selling it on a garage sale after that one use. NOT SO!!! I love it! So many possibilities! I just made fun little pancake balls the other day for breakfast- not to mention all the yummy recipes we have done here with it! Get a cake pop maker!! (or, if you must, make your pink centers in mini muffin tins. Just know that you are missing out on some serious fun!)

I also used fondant on the top of these cupcakes. I know that for many of you, this step is a tedious one and I say frost these cupcakes however you like! Green frosting, pink frosting with sprinkles of mini chips….whatever! Just don’t miss out on that fun center!

Here’s how we made them: (printable recipe)

INGREDIENTS:

One boxed white cake mix (with water, oil and eggs to make according to box)
One small packet of watermelon Kool-Aid drink mix
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1 stick of salted butter
1 stick of unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar
2 teaspoons of clear vanilla
Green, Pink, and Black Food Color Gels
One box of Wilton fondant in white (or make your own, using my recipe)

DIRECTIONS:

Make cake mix according to package
Remove one cup of batter and place in a separate bowl.
Add 1/2 a packet of Watermelon Kool-Aid powder (use more or less to taste)
Add pink color gel to intensify the color to desired shade
Mix in mini chocolate chips.
Bake in cakepop maker (or use a small mini-muffin tin), making 24 cake pops (or mini-muffins)

Add green color gel to remaining batter, mixing well.
Spoon a little green batter into a cupcake liner, placed in a cupcake tin.
Place pink cake pop on top.
Spoon green batter over the top, covering the cake pop. Use less, rather than more batter here- if you use too much it will bake over the edges.
Bake at 350F degrees for 15-18 minutes.
Cool completely.
Make frosting by placing butters, powdered sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and beating on high for 3-4 minutes until very light and fluffy.
Color frosting green, if desired, and set aside.
IF you use fondant, color a batch with green color gel (leave out a little bit to make ants if desired), cut into circles that fit the top of your cupcakes using a round cookie cutter. Keep circles covered to prevent drying.
Working one cupcake at a time, spread frosting and then gently lay fondant on top of frosting and press edges down inside of cupcake liner.
Use dark green color gel with a little water (think watercolor paints) to paint on watermelon stripes.
Color remaining fondant black and roll into 3 small balls to stick together as an ant on each cupcake. use a toothpick or small brush to paint little ant legs under each ant.

***If you have used fondant before, this should all be easy, but if this is your 1st time and you are wondering what I mean by things like “color fondant”, see my tutorial on making and using fondant here. You’ll make your ants like the caterpillars shown in the tutorial.***

My thoughts… These are really fun little cupcakes. I’m not a huge fan of watermelon flavor, but only the center is flavored and for me it was the perfect little surprise “pop” of flavor. You could certainly add Kool-Aid to your frosting too- it will just end up being a little pink, rather than green.

Nothing says SUMMER like watermelon~ enjoy these little cupcakes at YOUR next summer celebration!! ~r

Other ways to use that cake pop machine you just got 😉 (click on a photo to see the recipe)

2 Comments

Posted in Cupcakes and tagged best, cake pop machine, cake pops, chocolate chips, cupcakes, filled cupcakes, fondant, fun, Kool-Aid dessert, Kool-Aid recipe, picnic treats, recipe, Summer recipe, watermelon, watermelon cupcakes, Watermelon Kool-Aid. Bookmark the permalink.

Fall Apple Cupcakes

Posted on October 3, 2014 by Ruthanne

Celebrate fall with these cute little apple cupcakes! Filled with a chocolate chip “seed” core, these are sure to make everyone smile!

Well. Fall is here. I just began to notice the changing leaves this week, and of course every morning it’s a little bit darker on my drive to work.

Every fall, our family makes a special trip to a local orchard to sample apples, doughnuts and cider. As the temperatures drop I find myself looking forward to pumpkins and rustling leaves and all the fun flavors that come with this new season! These little cupcakes don’t taste like apples, but they sure do look like them! I even added a fun seeded core to these, using my trusty cake pop maker.

How fun is that? Surprise chocolate chips are always a plus in my book! You can skip the “core” if you want- just make solid-colored cupcakes instead of using my added steps in the recipe. Either way, these are a lot of fun and easy to make!

Here’s the recipe: (printable recipe)

INGREDIENTS:

1 boxed white cake mix (plus oil, water and eggs to make according to package)
Food coloring gels in desired colors.
1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips (if making core)
2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter, softened
2 sticks (1 cups) unsalted butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons of vanilla
Colored sugar sprinkles (in desired colors)
Fondant for stems and leaves (or use pretzel sticks for the stems and spearmint gummy leaves instead!)

DIRECTIONS:

Make cake mix according to package
Remove one cup of batter and place in a separate bowl.
Mix in mini chocolate chips.
Bake in cakepop maker (or use a small mini-muffin tin), making 24 cake pops (or mini-muffins)
Divide remaining batter into separate bowls and color using color gels. I did green, red and yellow apples, but you can do just one of those colors if you want.
Place cupcake liners into tins and spoon just a small amount of batter into each liner.
Use a cake pop to spread batter evenly into bottom of liner and then leave the cake pop in the center.
Spoon remaining batter evenly over the cake pops, covering each pop completely.

Bake at 350F degrees for 15-18 minutes.
Cool completely.
Make frosting by placing butters, powdered sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl and beating on high for 3-4 minutes until very light and fluffy.
Use a medium cookie scoop to scoop frosting on each cupcake, and then turn cupcake upside down into a bowl of decorating sugar, pressing until all of frosting is covered in sugar.
Decorate with fondant leaves and stems, or use pretzels and spearmint leaves.
To use fondant, you can buy it already made in white and color it with gel in green and brown, or you can make it from scratch and color it the same way.
Use a leaf fondant cutter to make leaves and just roll and cut the stems.
If you are new to fondant, we did a tutorial on it here. It is MUCH easier than it seems like it would be, and you can make such cute decorations with it!

My thoughts: These are such a happy fall treat! You can go all- out and make little chocolate chip cores, or just make plain cupcakes in various colors. Either way, they are a yummy, easy, fall treat that look beautiful on a fall-themed table. Hope you get a chance to try these! Enjoy!! ~Ruthanne

Other fun fall recipes here on easybaked:

14 Comments

Posted in Cupcakes and tagged apples, best, buttercream frosting, cupcakes, fall, filled cupcakes, fondant, fun, Halloween, leaves, October, party, recipe, school, teachers, unique, vanilla. Bookmark the permalink.

K-cup Cupcakes

Posted on July 19, 2013 by Ruthanne

These mini vanilla cupcakes are topped with the yummiest fondant and decorated like Keurig K-cups! So fun!!!

My friend and coworker Mary just got a new job. When I was thinking about her going-away party I just kept wondering how I could make a dessert that looked like a K-cup coffee pod. Mary is known in our lab as the K-cup supplier. Anyone who finds themselves without a coffee pod can find one in Mary’s supply…she literally orders by the case online and at any given time she has maybe 10 different flavors. Now that she’s gone we really miss her (and her coffee!)
This is less of a recipe and more of an “idea” post. It was a good chance for me to practice with the fondant recipe my friend Megan gave me a couple of months ago and a fun little art project to challenge my (terrible!) painting skills!

(It was also really a fun project to take pictures of!!!)
Want to know how to do this crazy edible art project?
Here it is:

Make thick buttercream icing and fondant first. It’s easiest if I just send you to my original fondant recipe for the tutorial and directions. Just click here to open that page.
For the cupcakes just use your favorite cupcake recipe (which for me was a white cake mix!)
I used little cocktail nut cups as my cupcake liners, because they look like the sides of the K-cup pods, but you could certainly use mini white cupcake liners.
Place the liners in mini muffin tins and fill about halfway up with cake batter (under-fill them a little, so that the tops bake relatively flat and not mounded up like a typical cupcake)
Bake according to your recipe. My mini cupcakes baked for 12 minutes at 350F degrees.
Color fondant as desired and roll it flat. Cut it into circles that are the size of the cupcake tops. I used a small round cookie cutter.
Use thick buttercream to frost a smooth layer on the top of a cooled cupcake and then immediately press a fondant circle on top of the buttercream.
Cut colored fondant into any shapes you might need on top and use a small amount of water to attach these shapes to the top of the fondant circle.

Once those extra pieces are attached, use a small brush to wipe away excess powdered sugar and then use gel food coloring and a fine tipped brush to paint on the fondant. I used an actual pod as a model to paint from.

(note: you might need to add a little white food coloring to the dark colors to make them show up- otherwise your dark blues and greens will look like black when used as paint.)

Be creative and use your imagination! I just pulled all of my pod flavors out and tried to pick ones that were fun – but also ones I thought I could handle copying! I wanted to do a Starbucks pod- but that logo…! Yikes. No way I could paint anything that looked like that!!

My thoughts: These aren’t what I would qualify as easy, but they are really a fun afternoon project. Very relaxing. I’m POSITIVE you all can paint better than I, and if you like to just create and paint and color you will love this project! Take your time and enjoy the process. (and don’t actually try to brew one- lol! I had someone ask me about that and I had to explain that the above picture is simply a creative presentation of a cupcake!!)

I’m dedicating this post to you Mary!! I miss working with you and I hope your new coworkers realize how lucky they are to have you!!!

This is also a shout out to Keurig and the genius of those delicious little coffee pods– you make every morning so much happier for me!!! Lots of love from Easybaked to all of you! ~r

Other mini desserts you might enjoy:

9 Comments

Posted in Cupcakes and tagged baking, coffee pod, cookie cutter, creative recipe ideas, cupcakes, dessert, fondant, fondant recipe, food, food coloring gels, fun cupcakes, Keurig cupcakes, Keurig K-cups, muffin tins, powdered sugar, vanilla, white cake mix. Bookmark the permalink.

Mocha Cupcakes (in edible coffee cups!)

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Ruthanne

Rich chocolate cupcakes and mocha buttercream nestled in an edible marshmallow mug…how much fun is that??

The past two posts have been full of my adventures with my friend Megan from Happily Ever After Cakes. We made chocolate cut-out cookie pops decorated with royal icing and fondant-covered cupcakes decorated with fun ladybugs and caterpillars. This is the third and final project from that weekend and I just love how it turned out!

This project starts with easy mini mocha cupcakes with mocha buttercream frosting. You can stop there and they are just wonderfully yummy –even without the mug!

The mug uses my new-found love of marshmallow fondant to add a little “wow” factor to the cupcakes.

Let’s start with the cupcakes: (printer friendly recipe)

INGREDIENTS: (makes and frosts 48 mini cupcakes)

One box of chocolate cake mix (plus eggs, oil and water to make according to box)
3 Tablespoons of instant coffee granules (divided)
2 sticks (1 cup) of salted butter- softened to room temperature
2 sticks (1 cup) of unsalted butter- softened to room temperature
3 cups of powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons of vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350F degrees
Make cake according to box, but add 2 Tablespoons of coffee granules to the water required by cake mix first.
Allow granules to dissolve and then add to cake mix with eggs and oil according to box.
Place mini cupcake liners into mini cupcake pan and spoon batter into liners.
Bake for about 12 minutes until centers are firm.
Cool completely
Make buttercream by placing vanilla and remaining 1 Tablespoon of instant coffee into a small bowl to dissolve.
Add butters and powdered sugar to a large bowl and beat on high until light and fluffy.
Remove a small bit of this vanilla-free icing to garnish the tops of cupcakes and set aside.
Add vanilla/coffee mixture and beat again until well- combined.
To make plain cupcakes, just pipe coffee frosting on top of cooled mini cupcakes and then pipe a tiny bit of the white frosting at the tip of the cupcake.
Sprinkle with cocoa powder if desired.

Yum.

To make the cupcakes into little edible mugs, you will need to make fondant and a thick buttercream ahead of time. My previous post goes into great detail on making fondant and buttercream icing. Click here to see the entire process.

If you’d like to print the recipes for these two things:

Printer friendly recipe for thick buttercream icing

Printer friendly recipe for marshmallow fondant

Once you’ve made both of these items, assembling the little mugs is fairly easy:

Unwrap the mini cupcakes you wish to use in mugs.
Spread thick buttercream icing around the sides of each cupcake.
Roll fondant out fairly thick and trim into rectangles that wrap around mini cupcake and touch without overlapping. (You’ll need to grab a cupcake and experiment until you know how long and high to make these)
Also cut small strips of fondant to use as mug handles.
Wrap sides of mug around the frosted edge of each mini cupcake and seal the edges by brushing with a bit of water and holding together.
Attach the handle over the sealed edge with a bit of water.

Set mugs on a plate or dish with a lipped edge to hold the handle in place until it sets.
Once handle is dried in place, pipe mocha frosting on top of cupcake to fill mug in.
Spread frosting flat and pipe a tiny bit of the white frosting on top.
Sprinkle with cocoa powder if desired.

Megan (more artistic than I!) decorated some mugs to personalize them for us. She used decorating brushes with gel food coloring to paint the cups….aren’t they cute????

My thoughts: These are really yummy cupcakes- even without the mugs. The mugs are a little time consuming, but if you want something REALLY unique and fun they are both! The marshmallow fondant got rave reviews from our friends– they loved it and ate the entire mug with the cupcake.

When you bite in, it is quite the surprise….so fun!!!! Enjoy!!!

You might also enjoy:

43 Comments

Posted in Cupcakes, Fondant and tagged baking, chocolate, coffee, cupcake in a cup, cupcake in a mug, cupcakes, dessert, dessert photo, edible coffee cups, edible mugs, fondant, fun cupcakes, marshmallow fondant, mocha, mocha buttercream, mocha cupcake, unique cupcakes, unique dessert. Bookmark the permalink.

Fondant…how to make it, use it and eat it!

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Ruthanne

Homemade fondant that is easy AND tasty? Here you go!!!

Every time I see cute cupcakes or cakes decorated in fondant I love them…and then I dismiss the possibility of making them for two reasons:

1. Fondant is really hard to make and use.

2. Fondant tastes bad and everyone just peels it off to get to the real frosting and cake underneath.

My good friend Megan from Happily Ever After Cakes set out to prove me wrong on both counts….and she did!

If you follow the comings and goings of easybaked, you know that I recently had a visit from my dear friend Megan for a weekend long baking extravaganza. This is project #2 from that weekend.

Before Megan came, I knew we would be tackling fondant cupcakes and we both went on an internet hunt for fun and easy ideas to try. We saw these cute garden themed cupcakes on a Flickr site called Hello Naomi and decided to try them out!

The cupcakes are just plain white cupcakes (use your favorite flavor/recipe!) What’s amazing is, of course, what’s on top. There are two recipes involved~ a thick buttercream that acts like a glue on the top of each cupcake and the actual fondant recipe.

Let’s start with those two recipes and then I can tell you how we pulled it all together.

Thick Buttercream Frosting: (makes about 4 cups of frosting)

(printer-friendly recipe)

INGREDIENTS:

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter (softened)
1/2 cup Crisco
1 tsp clear vanilla (or any flavoring you might want!)
4 c. powdered sugar
1 Tablespoon of half-and half cream.

DIRECTIONS:

Beat together butter, Crisco and vanilla with a mixer until smooth.
Add powdered sugar gradually and mix until combined and a little crumbly.
Add half and half cream and mix on low. You might need to add a little more until frosting is a thick but smooth consistency.
Don’t beat frosting on high speed or for too long to prevent air bubbles that will keep it from spreading smoothly.
This frosting can be used to frost cupcakes or cakes that will have fondant laid over the top. It has a sticky consistency that acts as a glue to attach the fondant. It can be kept in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator for about a week.

Marshmallow Fondant (recipe from about.com site)- they have a great video tutorial too!! (makes about 1 1/2 lbs of fondant.)

(printer-friendly recipe)

INGREDIENTS:

4 cups mini marshmallows (half of a 16 oz. bag)
4 cups powdered sugar- plus a little for dusting.
2 tsp water
1/2 teaspoon of clear vanilla
gel colors to color fondant as desired

DIRECTIONS:

Place your mini marshmallows and water into a large mixing bowl and microwave on high for about one minute- until they are puffy and melted.
Stir them together with a rubber spatula until they are completely smooth (if not melted completely, put them back in the microwave on high for 5-10 seconds).
Add clear vanilla and mix well.
Add about 1/4 of the powdered sugar, stir until smooth, add another 1/4 and stir. It will become difficult to stir and very sticky.
Pour the rest of the powdered sugar onto a clean counter or cutting board.
Scrape the sticky fondant mixture out of the bowl and onto the powdered sugar and begin to knead it together with clean (powder sugar coated!) hands. It will gradually become like a smooth clay consistency. Use a metal scraper to keep it from sticking to the counter/ board.
This can now be colored with gel, rolled out and cut, or stored (tightly wrapped) in the fridge for about one week. Megan recommended refrigerating it overnight before use, so we did.

Now comes the fun part….

Have your cupcakes or cake or cookies all made and cooled.
Make enough fondant to cover your item(s). Here is a great chart by Wilton to help you determine how much you’ll need for various projects.
Make up some of that thick buttercream icing and you are ready to go!

We needed to cut circles to cover each cupcake and we used a circle cutter set, which was nice because we could choose the perfect size to cover our cupcake tops. We simply powdered a cutting board and rolled out the fondant using a fondant rolling pin. We cut out the cupcake tops in white (we saved the red tops for later when we colored fondant).

Roll fondant out into a fairly thin layer and cut round pieces out to fit the tops of your cupcakes.

To place the fondant circles on top of the cupcakes just spread some of that sticky buttercream icing on top of a cupcake, smooth it as much as you can and place fondant circle on top.
Gently press the edges down to touch the top of the cupcake liner and smooth it with your fingers.
We made daisies to go on top of the caterpillar cupcakes, so we cut out the white flowers before we colored anything. Megan got me two cute daisy fondant cutters and they were SO fun to use!
Roll your fondant out, cut out daisies and lie them on a powdered sugared curved edge to harden a bit. I used a plate with a lip on it.

Time to color a little fondant for those yellow centers:

To color just add a little gel color to the center of a bit of fondant and mix it with your hands.
Use a little powdered sugar to prevent the fondant from sticking to your hands.

Tips: keep fondant under a glass to keep it moist until you need it. If it gets too dry you can add a little bit of Crisco to soften it up. If it gets too sticky and the powdered sugar isn’t helping, you can use a little cornstarch to dry it up.

Roll a bit of yellow fondant into a small ball, press it flat and brush a tiny bit (just make it damp!) of water on it. Press into center of white daisy—–so cute!

Water acts like glue with fondant…..something to remember as you start to decorate.

Next, we colored some fondant green and rolled out little caterpillar body parts. We let them set awhile and cut leaves out of the green as well– you can use that wonderful circle cutter set to make them– we “glued” them on white cupcake tops using water (just a little!).

The last colors we made were the red and black for the lady bugs and mushroom caps. Both of these dark colors get ALL over your light colors if you aren’t careful about washing your hands– so make them up after you’ve already cut and shaped the lighter colored parts! We just cut circles out for the mushroom caps and shaped ladybugs by hand….

All of the shapes– the bugs and daisies and mushroom spots were “glued” on with a little water and the last step was to paint on little faces and ladybug spots. We dipped right in to our black gel food color to do this– Megan got us a fine-tipped decorating brush that made short work of painting.

Aren’t they fun?

My thoughts: I realize this entire post is a far stretch from the “EASY” in “Easybaked”…but it was honestly not as difficult as I thought it would be. I can see myself making fun embellishments for topping off regular cupcakes in the future now that I know how simple fondant is to make.

The best part? It is honestly SO yummy. The fondant isn’t rubbery or hard- you bite into the cupcake and the fondant is soft and tastes like marshmallow-y frosting. I wasn’t tempted to peel it off at ALL! (promise!) I even enjoyed snacking on the little critters and flowers on top. Yum….!

Other fun and yummy cupcake ideas:

48 Comments

Posted in Cupcakes, Fondant and tagged baking, buttercream frosting, caterpillar cupcakes, cute cupcakes, dessert, fondant, fondant recipe, fondant tutorial, fun cupcakes, kids party ideas, ladybug cupcakes, marshmallow, marshmallow fondant, mushroom cupcakes, vanilla cupcakes. Bookmark the permalink.

Mummy Oreo Pops for Halloween!!

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Ruthanne

These make me smile– aren’t they cute? I saw the idea on a regular cookie at Mel’s Kitchen Cafe (along with a really cute mummy hot dog idea!) and I immediately thought of my Oreo pops recipe from last spring and decided to turn some Oreos into mummies! It was a little time consuming, but not difficult. I think the results were worth the effort! Here’s how we did it:

INGREDIENTS:

1 package of Double Stuff Oreo cookies
2 bags (14oz) Wiltons candy melts in white
About 24 4 inch lollipop sticks
One package of Wilton Candy Eyeballs
One box of Wilton Pure White Rolled Fondant
Little candy bags and ties (if you want to package them up to give away!)

DIRECTIONS:

Carefully twist apart all of the Oreo cookies.
Using one of the pop sticks, make an indentation in the white filling of each cookie.
Melt the Candy Melts in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring until completely melted and smooth.
Dip the end of one stick into the melted white chocolate, drizzle a little in the center of the white cookie filling and then gently press it into the indentation made.
Place the top of the cookie back on and allow white chocolate to harden (5 minutes or so), cementing the cookie back together with a stick inside.

(For a picture tutorial on this click here)

Before dipping the entire cookie, unwrap your fondant, split it in half and immediately place one half in an air-tight zip-top bag (you will only use half of the fondant).
Roll the remaining fondant out with a rolling pin as directed on the box. Using a sharp knife, cut strips (about as wide as an oreo) in the fondant and then cut narrow strips across (see photo)

Now it is time to dip your Oreo pops (you may need to put your candy melts back in the microwave for a few seconds to remelt them)
Holding the stick, lower the entire Oreo into the bowl of melted white chocolate, spooning it over the top and sides to cover it completely.
Allow the excess chocolate to drain off and gently place covered Oreo on a piece of parchment paper to harden.
Immediately place two eyes on the front and gently lay strips of fondant back and forth across the cookie. It took me a little bit to figure out a pattern that looked good and worked– copy mine if you want!!
Allow everything to harden and place in treat bags with ties.

My thoughts: These are a little time-consuming, but if you enjoy the process (I do!) and you have a free afternoon (I did!) these are just really fun to put together. The smiles when people see them make all that work worthwhile! Enjoy! ~r