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The Easy Way to Decorate Beautiful Cupcakes! There's a video tutorial, too!
You're going to love this tutorial: The Easy Way to Decorate Beautiful Cupcakes. It's such a fun technique that produces gorgeous cupcakes with no decorating know how!
If you did a Google search for cafe sucre farine cupcakes and checked out the results, you might surmise that I enjoy making cupcakes. And if you scroll down the long list, you might be convinced that I just hang out all day making cupcakes - and that decorating them is one of my strong suits.
The first presumption is true, the second, not so much. I do enjoy making (and eating) cupcakes, but decorating can be a struggle for me. There's often weeks or months in between when I make cupcakes and I always feel a bit rusty when it comes to decorating. I have to practice, practice, practice to get it right and, when I'm finished, sometimes only two or three out of a dozen come out looking pretty.
I guess that's why I was so thrilled to discover this fun marshmallow flower technique for turning out gorgeous cupcakes. I'd seen examples on Pinterest awhile back, but didn't have the opportunity to try it till now.
When my friend Rachel from KitchenAid emailed to see if I'd like to participate in their 10,000 Cupcakes, One Great Cause campaign, I was thrilled. I wanted to come up with something fun and unique - but also something that would be easy and wouldn't require any special skills. I remembered the marshmallow flower technique and could hardly wait to give it a try.
Wow! Was I surprised at how quickly my first attempt came together. I couldn't believe how beautiful the results were! I used my Easiest, Best Ever Chocolate Cupcake recipe for the base and frosted them with my Best Ever Vanilla Buttercream. But instead of telling you all about the simple technique, Scott and I put together a short little video to show you. After all, seeing is believing, right? And I'm certain you'll be a believer after you watch!
See what I mean? So simple with such pretty results! Check the recipe below for some tips and tricks.
- cupcakes
- colored sugar s
- buttercream icing
- marshmallows about 16-18 for each cupcake
- scissors
- cooking spray or oil
- sprinkles non pareils,
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Frost 1 cupcake at a time with a fairly thick layer of buttercream icing. It doesn't have to be fancy but try to keep a nice shape and cover to the edges with the icing.
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Place colored sugar in a medium size shallow bowl.
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Place a small amount of sprinkles in a small bowl.
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Spray the blades of a clean scissors with cooking spray or wipe lightly with a paper towel that's been dipped in oil. Wipe off any excess oil. (If blades of the scissors begin to get sticky at any point, just wash the scissors with hot water, dry well and repeat oil.
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Cut about 16-18 marshmallows in half, diagonally and add them to bowl with sugar. Stir to coat sticky, cut side of marshmallow halves with colored sugar.
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Cut 1 marshmallow in half crosswise and place sticky side down into sprinkles (or non pareils). Push down on marshmallow half to enlarge it to a circular "button". Remove from sprinkle bowl and set aside. Repeat with other half.
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Beginning at the outer edge of the frosted cupcake, place marshmallows all the way around the cupcake. When the outer circle is complete, move in and do the same thing again. The last circle of petals should be right around the "button". (I use 14-16 "petals" around the outer edges. 10-12 around the middle circle and 6-7 around that surrounds "the button.)
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With your hands slightly cupped, gently shape the flower so that it's circular and some outer petals aren't sticking out.
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Repeat procedure for remaining cupcakes.
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The video in the post above demonstrates all these steps.
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Enjoy!
Use a good, tasty cupcake recipe and a delicious buttercream icing. Not everyone is crazy about marshmallows but they can pull the petals off and have a wonderful cupcake underneath!
Use any colored sugar you like or multiple sugars. It would be pretty to do the petals in different shades of the same hue for an ombre effect.
You can color your own sugar! Just fill a small jar about half full with regular granulate sugar. Add a drop of food coloring at a time and shake, shake, shake! Add more food color to achieve a darker color, drop by drop. If you used gel food color, stir the mixture with a spoon instead of shaking. Keep pushing the sugar against the walls of the glass jar as you stir, till all the gel food color has been distributed.
It's fine to make all the marshmallow "petals" before you get started with the decorating but frost each cupcake as you go. If the icing hardens with will be more difficult for the marshmallow "petals" to adhere.
If you pinch the outer tips of "the petals" as you're placing them on the cupcake you'll get a different looking flower than if you keep them rounded.
This would be a really fun project to do with kids!
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