CraftShare Week 5: Tasty Treats Cutie Cupcakes

Last week we focused on fun cake decorating and this week we're going to keep with our dessert theme and cover Tasty Treats.  And what's the most basic tasty treat? Cupcakes!!  Since I started fooling around with modeling chocolate, I've been trying it out on cupcakes and I've got to say it's a lot of fun.  Like these sunny flower ones for starters.

What You'll Need:

- Silicone cupcake pots (made by Mary Engelbreit, found at Michael's)
- Devil's food cake mix
- Batch of modeling chocolate (recipe & my instructions are here)
- Royal icing
- Paper lollipop sticks
- Rolling pin
- Fondant or cookie cutters in flowery shapes & circles and/or knife and small glass
- Food coloring gel
- Cornstarch (to keep the modeling chocolate from sticking)

How To Make Them:


Make your batter according to the directions & then bake according to the silicone mold directions.  Separate your modeling chocolate into smaller batches and color them with your food coloring gel by kneading a few drops in.  Sprinkle a little cornstarch on your smooth work surface and get ready to roll out your chocolate.

To make the stems, measure the length of your lollipop stick and roll out your green so that you have it at least that long and cut a big rectangle.  Cut rectangle into 1.5 inch strips and carefully roll each strip around your stick, pressing it at the seam and ends to hold it closed.

To make your flowers, use a small glass like a cutter to make the outer circles.  Use your knife to cut in to separate into petals (like I did on the yellow ones).  Use your flower shapes cutters to make the middle layer and a small circle cutter for the centers.

Now using a small amount of royal icing stick all the layers of the flowers together and let the icing harden.  Once hard, add icing to the end of one stem, about 1 inch long and then center each flower stack on each stem and allow to harden (give a couple of hours or even overnight for best results).  Then carefully stick each flower stem into the center of the cupcake pot and press down several inches to steady it.  Presto - You have a tasty garden of flowers!

For even less work, try cupcakes like these, which I made for my lil' sister's birthday:

Using a glass the same size as the top of the cupcakes, make chocolate "covers" and attach them using a thin layer of buttercream frosting.  Use your little cutters & some decorative candies to make pretty flowers:

Or maybe some delicate butterflies:

The possibilities are endless and all are guaranteed to be tasty!  Have you made some cute cupcakes?  Share your pics in the CraftShare Flickr pool or tell me about your techniques in the comments.

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