cupcake flowers

Cupcakes are really flexible and you don’t need a special occasion to make them. Recently, I’ve been more inspired than usual so I decided to try quite a few decorated cupcake ideas. I must say, they turned out pretty great! They’re perfect for mums who want to surprise her kids with extra-specials treats in an ordinary day. You can make the cupcakes themselves in advance and the decorations can be put in place a couple of hours before you serve them.

Here are few decorated cupcake ideas you may want to try for yourself:

Fruit – Fresh fruit have been used to decorate cakes before, but you can also do the same to cupcakes. Pick your child’s favorite fruit. Berries and even mangoes are a great choice, but whatever’s in season will also work. To balance the taste, prepare your buttercream icing with cream cheese; smooth out a thick dollop with a spatula on top of the cupcake. Simply position your fruit choices on top of the icing so that it won’t fall off.

Gummy Drops – You don’t have to make everything from scratch when you are decorating your cupcakes. If you don’t want to use too much icing but would still like to make it pop, you can use gummy drops instead. There’s an assortment of designs and flavors to choose from. Don’t forget to put a thin layer of buttercream icing at the bottom to hold them in place.

Glamorous Stars – Little girls need to feel like stars sometimes, and a star-designed personal cupcake may just do the job. Bake her favorite flavor using a foil liner. With a 1M decorating bag tip, pipe an icing swirl on top using buttercream icing in her favorite color. Sprinkle it with dark silver stars and 2mm cachous.

Cookie Flowers – Flowers are very basic among decorated cupcake ideas, but you may not want to use sugar flowers. Women and girls alike would enjoy a flower made from cookies. Just roll out a premade cookie dough and cut flower petals using a flower-shaped cookie cutter. After you’ve baked it well, outline and fill the top of the cookies using a thinned color flow icing. This would take hours to dry so you should make this a day in advance. Brush the surface with some pearl dust to make it shine.

Fairy Cakes – One of the things every mum should know is how to make fairy cupcakes for her girls. When making your cupcake base, be sure to fill only half of your baking mold with the batter. After it has thoroughly cooled off, ice the top with a fondant-style glaze. Before it could dry, put a small icing crown at the center. You can also put miniature edible flowers if you want.

By Michelle Bloom

graduation cupcake

Cupcakes can be a great gift or addition to the table at a themed party or special occasion. They are simple to make and can be created for any theme or purpose by simply adapting cupcake recipes.

Cupcake recipes for the birth of a new baby are very simple and effective. You can change the color of the frosting to depending on the sex of the baby. Add a small amount of red food colouring to the frosting if the baby is a girl. Make sure you only add a small amount to the frosting to ensure that the mixture goes pink rather than red. Add blue food coloring for a baby boy. You can also add additional decoration to the cake using an ingredient such as marzipan. Simply use the marzipan to make the shape of a baby or a toy rattle, etc. Stick the marzipan to the frosting to make a perfect themed cake for a new birth.

Cupcake recipes can be found online or in cookery books. Check your local supermarket or bookstore for the best books. To find recipes online, carry out a simple search using your search engine.

Cakes for the spring can be decorated with flowers very simply. You could choose to make different colored flowers using marzipan to stick to your cake. You can also purchase cake decorations of flowers to stick onto your frosting, providing a simple decoration. Edible cake decorations are available and made from sugar paper.

Confetti or edible glitter can be added to the frosting of cupcakes to improve the visual element of cupcakes and impress your friends. These cakes are perfect for a children’s party or princess party and will really add a touch of magic to the food table.

Graduation cakes are also very popular. You can again use marzipan to sculpt a graduation cap or similar item to stick on the top of your cake. These items can also be purchased. You may prefer to write a message on the graduation cupcake, such as congratulations. Frosting decoration pens can be bought with a thin nozzle, making them perfect for writing messages. The frosting pens are edible too.

By Jane J Cooper

fishing wedding cake

It seems so much of a wedding is about the bride, but what would a wedding be without a groom? A nice way to demonstrate your love and devotion for your new husband is to have a cake topper that is themed with his favorite hobby. Fishing, perhaps?

Maybe your new husband has a special fly that he likes to use when he fishes that you can have incorporated into your cake topper. Use may use the actually fly, a new one of course, or have a cake decorator make one for you. For a little fun, you can have the bride and groom sitting barefoot on the top of the cake, reels in hand. For a real laugh, you can have either the groom or the bride fishing for the other. You can find all kinds of customized wedding cake toppers online. Give yourself enough time to have it arrive and to make sure that it is what you thought you were getting. Sometimes what you see online and what you get aren’t exactly the same thing.

You could have a crystal or a glass wedding cake topper with two kissing fish in it. Having live fish in a fishbowl on the top of your cake will make quite an impression. If you aren’t sure the real thing is for you, blown sugar could create an edible illusion of a fish bowl and sugar fish could be placed inside.

For a truly unique cake, you can have it designed like an aquarium with each tier a layer of the ocean complete with coral reefs, fish, algae, and a topper of a bride and groom in a fishing boat. Just about every icing is easy to tint. Sea blue fondant would make smooth waters or rich, aqua butter cream could give a little texture to your cake.

By Nicole N

tier birthday cake

Making a birthday cake doesn’t have to be hard. It is great to learn how to bake a cake for family and friends. is so much cheaper than buying a cake at a grocery store, and usually better tasting. I had never baked and decorated a cake before until my daughter’s 1st birthday. After I found out the cost to make a two tier cake, I decided that cake decorating is something I needed to learn. I was quoted over $200 for a cake with more than one layer with buttercream, not even fondant. Some places wouldn’t call me back when they found out I wanted just buttercream. Thanks to my experiences, I taught myself.

I watched tons of YouTube videos and found tutorials online how to do almost every step imaginable. I was totally ignorant to baking and decorating cakes. I think the most valuable thing I learned is how to crumbcoat. My lack of crumbcoating previous homemade cakes explains why my attempt at frosting was less than marvelous. After watching videos and reading tons of articles, I was able to make, bake, and decorate my daughter’s 1st birthday cake.

I encourage you to try and decorate your own cake if you haven’t. If you enjoy baking, I think it is definitely something you could try yourself at home. There is an investment when baking your own cakes. You will have to purchase a ton of supplies. However, after the initial investment, (which still isn’t as much as the 2 tier cake above), you won’t have to buy anymore supplies unless you want different utensils. Basic supplies are pans, a blender, cake bowls, spoons, maybe dowels if you plan to make a tier cake, and a bin to store the cake inside (you don’t want to leave it out uncovered!). Some people do buy cardboard boxes to store a cake or to deliver cakes if you make them professionally.

The other items that cost money are making the cake. I find that powdered/confectioners sugar adds up in cost, so buy that in bulk or somewhere cheap if you plan to make a lot of buttercream. You will probably want to stock up on some Crisco or other shortening brand as well. I have used generic shortening and it works just fine. Icing gel is something else you want to have on hand.

By Crystal Newman

birthday cake for boys

Dough, pastry, and icing are among the most versatile of mediums for an artist. This makes it ideal for an artistic baker to use for his creations. The range of colours, shapes and sizes are limited only by the imagination. This means that when you plan your child’s birthday party you can plan any theme you like that is appropriate, and you may be sure that will be possible to have a beautiful birthday cake made to blend in with it.

You may, of course go about it differently. Perhaps you or your child has seen a cake in a store or on a website that you absolutely fell in love with. Then you plan the birthday party theme around the cake instead.

When you order your cake, do try to choose a baker who uses good quality, healthy ingredients. It may cost you slightly more, but after all, your child’s health is worth more and there will be less chance of having sugar crazed kids running all around your house.

There are hundreds of themes for birthday parties for kids, and if you cannot think one up yourself, here are a few ideas to get your imagination working.

-Probably the most popular type of party for little girls is a princess party. There are all kinds of princesses and fairy princesses. Most of the little girls will want to be princesses, so let them dress up. Just don’t invite little boys – they will probably hate it! The birthday cake would look good in the form of a star or a crown, a butterfly, or a flower, or a combination.

-For little boys it is hard to beat a superhero party. Even if there are a few girls invited, they won’t mind if they can be female superheroes. The cake and the eats would have to have a super hero theme. If it is not too gruesome for you they could even be the enemies of superheroes, for them to eat!

-When it comes to parties with equal numbers of boys and girls present, animals are very popular. These are especially popular for very young children. The children themselves may come in animal costumes, but that is not strictly necessary for success. Your cake needs an animal theme, and most of the snacks can be constructed into the semblance of little animals and also presented on plates and in cups with animal themes.

By Jamie M. Turner

pooh birthday cake

Nothing says “children” quite like Winnie the Pooh. This classic series of popular children’s books and films can turn any party into a Tigger-worthy celebration. Make your child’s first birthday a big success by using Winnie the Pooh birthday party supplies.

Tigger may bounce off the walls but you won’t have to if you get Pooh’s Happy Day Deluxe Pack. Filled with themed plates, cups, napkins, cutlery, and a dozen decorating items, you get everything you need in one single package.

For dessert let the Pooh Cake Pan provide you with the ideal platform for your creative frosting design. Draw Pooh in all his glorious colors then top your masterpiece with some Pooh candles and one of the very cool Pooh Cake Toppers.

Pooh and Tigger join together for a celebration on the Pooh’s Happy Day Mylar Balloon. Use some to decorate the party rooms in just the right way. Even Eeyore will smile when he sees some of these.

Add a Pooh Airwalker Balloon to the collection while you’re at it. Pooh floats above the party making sure everyone is having a good time. To complete the decorations, select a few Pooh Party Wall Decorations featuring Pooh, Piglet, and Tigger. Scatter them around the dining room, the game room, or in the den where you plan to serve refreshments.

With the decorations up it’s time to prepare the Winnie the Pooh Pinata! Pooh’s smiling face shows that he’s ready to dispense a ton of goodies. The pull-string kit makes it easy to open without risking any nearby lamps or furniture.

Fill Pooh with Pinata Filler, featuring a variety of tasty candies, including Sweet Tarts, Bubble Gum, Smarties, Tootsies, and more. The package also holds several small toys – whistles, miniature Frisbees, and others. They’ll delight both adults and children.

You’ll want to supply all your guests with party favors, certainly. That’s ultra easy when you select a variety of lovely gifts from the Winnie the Pooh line. Parents and children both enjoy these. Or, buy pre-filled Pooh Favor Boxes that hold a Pooh bounce ball, blowout, sticker sheet, an assorted-color clay and cookie cutter.

By Patti L.

cupcake favor

Cupcakes are adored by every kid. Their colorful frosting, sprinkles, tantalizing flavors make everyone’s mouth to water. Why not celebrate your little kid’s birthday with a cupcake party favors theme and let everyone become creative chefs? Cupcake themed parties are fun to plan and you can even involve your kids to lend you a helping hand.

Since the theme of the party is cupcakes, you need to purchase invitations based on the cupcake theme. You might come across many online websites that offer readymade invitations, along with kids birthday party favors at affordable prices. If you want the invitations to be special, you can even go in for designing such invitations with the help of colorful papers, confetti, glitter pens and accessories.

Once the invitations are sent out to the guests, you need to think about the decorations. The cake table can be decorated with brown fabrics or tablecloth. To give it a cupcake type of a look, you can place a small pink tablecloth and sprinkle some confetti on top of it. In addition to this you can even add some bright and colorful lights at the entrance of the party hall along with some balloons and streamers.

Not all the guests will arrive on time. Kids cannot remain peaceful for long. They need to vent out their energy in some way. In order to avoid them from doing any mischief you can hand out some crayons and a coloring page of a cupcake and ask them to color them. This will keep them occupied till the rest of the guests arrive.

Now a cupcake birthday party favors theme is not complete without a food menu. There are a lot of items that can be included in the food list ranging from sandwiches, pizzas, baby vegetables, nuggets, fruit salads and of course the cupcakes. The birthday cake can either be purchased or baked in the shape of a giant cupcake and you can even decorate the cake with colorful icing and frosting. Children can even decorate several cupcakes and take them home with them as cupcake party favors.

By Serrana Milligan

fancy cupcake

A cupcake is made more attractive by its designs or toppings. You can design your cupcake with the occasion or affair in mind. The ordinary cupcake has come a long way from being the plain and simple small or “mini” cakes of yesteryear. Modern day cupcakes still follow the basic recipe of butter, sugar, eggs and flour. However, the cupcakes of today come in various designs and toppings. The simple frosting and sprinkles combination has been replaced with cupcakes topped with gumpaste flowers, fruits and nuts and come in a variety of colors and flavors.

If you are hosting or planning for an occasion, it would be easier to design your cupcakes with the event in mind. If it’s for Halloween or Christmas, you can bake your cupcakes and top them with a dark colored frosting and sprinkle with orange and black sprinkles which you can buy at most confectionery store.

For a fancier design, you can decorate your cupcakes with edible pearls and jewelry, dragée, quins, edible leaves or decoratifs. Fresh flowers can also be used as garnishes or toppings for cupcakes. Fruit is another favorite topping of cupcake aficionados. Strawberries, blueberries, mango and the like can serve as tasty decorations.

Fancy and elegant cupcake and muffin papers can also be bought to complement your cupcake motif or theme. Designs range from the colored variety to the super hero, flowers, sports, valentine or any other theme and occasion.

For a fancier design, you can decorate your cupcakes with edible pearls and jewelry, dragée, quins, edible leaves or decoratifs. Fresh flowers can also be used as garnishes or toppings for cupcakes. Fruit is another favorite topping of cupcake aficionados. Strawberries, blueberries, mango and the like can serve as tasty decorations.

By Brad Younger

wedding cake steps

Making your own wedding cake can be enormously rewarding. As the bride, only you and your spouse-to-be have such a intimate connection to your own nuptials. There is perhaps no better way to express your love and appreciation to your family and guests than to share your wedding cake creation with them at your reception. Here are a few tips to help your creative process go smoother.

Traditionally, within the cake is a framework of wooden dowel rods that support the tiers above them. Start with the largest tier. Attach it to the sturdy base board using glue or glucose (corn syrup). Try to avoid using butter-cream, as it can allow the tiers to shift during transportation. Now, using cardboard the exact size of your next tier, mark the top of the icing with the cardboard.

Insert a 1/4 inch wooden dowel rod into the bottom cake, about 1/2 inch in from the circle indentation, and mark it at the top of the icing. Pull the rod out and cut with pruning shears for a straight, even cut. Using your first rod as a guide, cut five other rods to the exact length of the first. Insert the rods around the circle, about 1/2 inch inside the circle you marked with the cardboard.

Now, position the cardboard you used to mark the circle back on the cake, making sure it’s centered. Add some glue or glucose, then place the next tier onto the cardboard. Add the rest of the tiers the same way – marking with the circle, cutting and inserting rods, and gluing the next tier.

If you’re using a plastic plate between tiers, you still should have dowels in the lower tier and a cardboard circle between the plate and the tier below. Remember, plastic can and does break.

Once the cake is completely stacked, stand back and make sure it’s standing straight. All the edges should be even. If any adjustment is to be made, this is the time.

Decorating the cake is the easiest part of making your wedding cake. First, cover all of the cardboard. Using a thin pipe, a flat line of icing against all the cardboard edges is made. This presents a nice white surface on which to begin the borders.

To look exquisite, wedding cakes need small borders, swags and decorations. Borders that are too large can make the cake appear messy or sloppy. If you have to cover a large area, over-piping two or three borders or swags looks much nicer than one larger clunky border. Never use large tubes to decorate the sides.

By L Hayes

birthday cake hat

The first mistake many bakers make is to overlook where the best ideas come from. If the birthday boy or girl is a child, just spend a few minutes in that child’s company. You will have no doubt what this child’s special interests are!

If the birthday guest of honor is a teen or an adult, you may have to do some investigative work, unless of course this teen or adult is part of your family or a good friend. Not only children love birthday cakes that depict their passions. Just remember if the cake is for an older child or a teen to stay away from childish decorations.

Creating a birthday cake centered on a theme is a pocketbook friendly way to dazzle everyone with a wonderfully imaginative cake.

You probably already have all or most of what you’d want to turn a sheet cake into a fun day at the beach. A little blue food coloring for the icing ocean, some crushed graham crackers mixed with powdered sugar for the beach, and you’re off to a great start!

While you’d want to smooth buttercream on the birthday cake first, the blue frosting can be applied in frothy peaks to form the waves. Then you could use some of your left over white icing to add white caps.

Or if you’d like a glassy smooth ocean, use blue gel. Whether your sea is glassy calm or swept with waves, remember to include a curvy shoreline when you apply the blue gel or icing.

Now for the fun part – it’s time to decorate the scene! Those miniature cocktail umbrellas at the supermarket make perfect beach umbrellas. Pieces of gum or fruit tape can provide the beach towels or blankets underneath them. Plastic figures from a craft store can bring the beach cake to life with people, dolphins, and palm trees.

By Samantha Mitchell