Making cupcakes look special is fun for everyone; for kids with allergies; it can be a real boost. Often they are excluded from eating wonderful looking, and tasting, food. Making the effort to decorate cupcakes for events like Halloween, Easter and Christmas can result in the allergy kids eating the best looking cakes around. Here’s how I decorated cupcakes for Easter.
There are several steps – first is the buttercream for the grass, then the decorations.
Buttercream
The first step is covering the cupcakes with grass. You need a stiff buttercream frosting as follows:
1/3 cup Sunflower margarine
3 cups and 2 tbsp. sifted icing sugar
2 tsp Koko Coconut milk or other non-dairy milk
1 tsp vanilla
Green food die (paste is best)
Cream the margarine, add the milk, vanilla and icing sugar one cup at a time. Beat until you have a stiff icing then add in the green paste food colouring until you have the colour you want. If you use liquid colouring you may need to add in a couple more tablespoons of icing sugar to soak up the liquid.
Equipment
Piping bag
Grass Nozzle
Ready to Roll Royal Icing – whatever colours you want
Green Edible Glitter
Green Spray on Glitter
Bunny and Butterfly cutters
Rolling Board and Pin
Making the Grass
Fill the piping bag, with a grass nozzle, 2/3rd full with the buttercream; be sure to twist the top of the bag to ensure no buttercream escapes.
Using short bursts of pressure pipe grass onto the top of each cupcake. Don’t worry if the strands aren’t the same length – you’re looking for wild fields rather than tended lawns! I prefer to work in a circular pattern starting at the outside and moving in.
A few short sprays of the glitter and you’ve a shiny lovely lawn to decorate.
Bunnies, Butterflies and Flowers
The bunnies and butterflies are pretty simple. Roll out the royal icing (your choice of colour) to about 3mm thick. It needs to be thick enough that the figures stand up. Cut out the shapes; for the bunnies roll a small amount of white icing into a ball and press on for the tail. For the Butterflies dust with edible glitter. Press into the grass so they are standing up. If you want – sprinkle a bit of glitter on top.
Flowers
Take a pinch of ready to roll royal icing and roll into a ball. Make as many balls as you want petals. I do three or four. Place the balls on a piece of cling film, fold the cling film over top and squash the balls with the tip of your index figure to make the petal shape. Lift off the board (with a knife if need be) and roll the petal inwards and pinch at the bottom.
Now pick up another flattened petal and attach it to the first petal and roll it inwards and pinch it together at the bottom to form the stem. Continue with a many petals as you like. The petals will be ‘standing up’ a bit so gentle push them open. Dust with glitter if you like and push into the grass.
Have fun playing around with different colour combinations and glitter. The spray really does give it a glow which is great.
The trick I find is to just want a flower shape rather than a specific flower – when I get better at this I may try a daffodil or some such!
Arrange your bunnies, flowers and butterflies in whatever combination you want on the cupcakes. You do need to press them into the grass icing firmly. I find it’s more fun to do cupcakes with a variety of themes …some flowers, some with bunnies, some with butterflies.
