Cake Decorating

It's my brother's 30th birthday today (Happy Birthday!) and we celebrated on Saturday with lots of beer and cake (of course). I had said that I'd make him some cakes as a present and set to work thinking what to do for decoration.

Chris is a metal head. He has been for as long as I remember. I figured I needed to include this somewhere in the cake designs. I had a bit of a search on the internet for images and I went to my local cake decorating warehouse to see what I could find.

I used black muffin cases which I actually really liked. They don't get greasy like the paper ones can and they held their shape really well. I bought some ready made black sugarpaste bats as a something simple to add to 12 of the cupcakes and they turned out great.

I then decided that I'd use lettering on 12 of the cupcakes and rolled out some red fondant icing and cut the letters out using cutters. I did this a couple of days before baking the cakes so that they'd have time to dry out a bit before I put them on the cakes.

Finally I decided to make little fondant hands for decoration on the final 12 cakes. I found a hand template online and resized it before printing. I coloured some white fondant with some pink and yellow colouring to get the skin tone I wanted and then rolled it between two sheets of parchment paper. I lay the paper hand template down and pressed it into the fondant to make sure it stayed put. I followed the outline with a sharp knife and then bent the fingers down to make the right shape. I also tried to add a little detail with a cocktail stick and it kind of worked. I had also thought of adding some black nail varnish with a food marker but, having tried it on a spare hand, I didn't think it looked great. I left the hands plain and let them dry over night.

I transported the cupcakes 160 miles on public transport. I would never have been able to do that until I bought a Cupcake Courier. It holds 36 cupcakes or muffins in a strong and sturdy plastic casing. There is limited movement and enough height allowance for icing and decorations. I'm actually really pleased with how well the cakes held up and very pleased with my purchase. My model also has flat inserts so that you can carry other treats like brownies and bars in it too.