Making cupcakes with fondant

(aka Toni you can totally do this!!)

Okay, I realized that I posted all about making my fondant cupcakes and never talked about the recipe or how I did it (since I was elbow deep in powdered sugar and food coloring at the time!!)

I broke it down into a couple days which made it a LOT less stressful. And the marshmallow fondant sets up really nice if you let it sit in the fridge over night before using.

I used the recipe here. I was going to just use store bought fondant (there is a GREAT cake supply place in Phoenix, but you can also use Wilton brand) but I am not a fan of the taste and it can be pricey. A friend of mine made a wedding cake a couple weekends before the boy's birthday and recommended this recipe. You can see her in action here and her blog header is the cake she made! She is SUPER talented. Almost TOO talented!

Okay, so here is the way I did it and suggestions if it is your first time using fondant.

1) USE THIS RECIPE!! It is cheap, easy to work with and tastes about 100 times better than regular fondant. It tastes like those orange circus peanut candies.

2) CUPCAKES!! Not a cake for your first time. If you are doing a cake you have to roll out a huge piece of fondant, all one thickness, have a perfectly level cake, AND successfully transport the fondant TO the cake in once piece. Too much stress! Start small!

3) If you are decorating cupcakes with fondant, fill the cupcake with frosting. Most people will admire the fondant and then take it off. Maybe eat a bite or too. So give them some frosting! :D

4) If you have time: Make the fondant one day. Let it sit overnight and then color it the next day. Let it sit again and then decorate the next day. (three small projects instead of one). If I had tried to do it all at once I think I would have gone crazy trying to make the decorations!!

5) Use a LOT of Crisco on your rolling/kneading surface when you are working with the fondant. There is a lot of hand kneading, but it isn't hard. If you have plastic gloves use them. Especially when you are dying the fondant. You have to put the gel food coloring in and kneed for a while until it is evenly distributed. Your hands will be so pretty when you are done if you don't wear some type of glove.

6) Use a round cookie cutter the size of a cupcake top. Roll out the base color (mine was blue) and cut out enough circles for your cupcakes. Frost the top of the cupcakes with a little butter cream frosting (this is your 'glue') and just place each circle on your cupcake.

7) Have fun decorating them!

8) When you figure out how easy it is, don't tell anyone! Let them just be impressed! ;D

If you have any questions feel free to call me or email me. If you don't have my number, email me and I will give it to you. (You should be able to email me through my profile here on blogger).