Hoot Hoot!!
How cute are these adorable owl cupcake toppers?
I whipped these up last week for a special surprise birthday delivery for my niece.
I've been making cupcakes for Hannah's birthdays for the last three years. Its always interesting to look back at photos of earlier decorating efforts - I've come a long way. Last year was sort of the pièce de résistance - the famed Golden Snitch cupcakes for her Harry Potter themed party.
This year we were getting ready for our epic drive to Byron Bay for my sister's wedding, so we didn't make it to Bendigo. So no Di-licious cupcakes for Hannah. At least, that's what she thought!
Last week I arranged to come and stay the night with Olive and I brought along half a dozen cute owl cupcakes - SURPRISE!
We both agree that the embossed ones make the greatest impact but the plain pink ones are cute too. I re-purposed a scrapbooking card embosser to create the embossing effect (cheaper than the cake decorating ones and a greater variety of patterns - and the perfect size for cupcakes toppers!)
The good news is these lil' owls are super simple to make using basic circle cutters that you've probably already got stashed somewhere.
The picture above is fairly self explanatory. Start with a circle of rolled out fondant (around the same size as your cupcake) and then using a smaller round cutter, cut out a 'bite' to create the ears.
Using the wide end of a piping tip, cut out the whites for the eyes.
I pinched a tiny amounts of brown fondant and rolled them into balls for the eyes.
The beaks are hand cut using a scalpel but you could use a sharp knife. I cut a strip of fondant as wide as I wanted the beaks long and then cut out long triangles.
To assemble you can use either water (applied with a thin, small artists brush) or small blobs of royal icing. (The royal icing was most helpful for the embossed owls but water would have worked too.)
For the embossed owls, I rolled out the fondant first and then placed the embosser on top. Using a firm pushing motion, I pushed the rolling pin across the embosser to create even pressure. I then positioned the circle cutter to centre the design and then cut out the body.
I attached the finished toppers to the cupcakes by piping a swirl of royal icing on the underside and pressing onto the cake. You could of course also sit them on top of a buttercream swirl or ganache dipped cupcake.
I hope you enjoy these little toppers as much as I enjoyed making them.
Happy [belated] birthday Hannah! xxx
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Anne xx