This weeks order was an absolute joy! Tiny barn yard animal cupcake toppers and a barn smash cake gave me the creative outlet I’ve been craving for the last few weeks. A friend of mine threw a party today for his son’s first birthday complete with 4 dozen cupcakes topped with handmade pigs, cows, horses and chicks and finished off with a jumbo cupcake decorated like a barn. Look at just how perfect his party turned out:
Here’s how I made the toppers!
Pigs:
I used store bought fondant for these since I wanted a very vibrant color. Homemade marshmallow fondant doesn’t tend to take color as bright and dark as what I wanted for these animals.
I wanted a slightly lighter color of pink so I kneaded the white and pink together until I got the perfect piggy color.
After rolling out the pink fondant, I cut out 12 circles using a round cookie cutter the approximate size of the top of a cupcake.
Next, I used a small star cookie cutter to cut out 5 stars of pink fondant. I then cut the triangle tips off of each star to use as ears for the pigs.
Next, using wide end of a piping tip, I cut out 12 small circles of the original dark colored pink fondant for the snouts of the pigs.
I attached the pieces to the face using what I call Fondant Slip. If you’ve ever worked with pottery or clay before you are probably familiar with slip. Slip is a watered down mixture that is used a glue. To make fondant slip, simply take a ball of fondant a little smaller than the size of a grape and microwave it in a bowl with about 2 tablespoons of water. Once the fondant is completely melted into the water, you have fondant slip!
And lastly, using and food safe marker, I drew on nostrils and two eyes!
Cows:
For the cows faces, I simply rolled out a sheet of white fondant and a sheet of black fondant. Then using a scalloped cookie cutter, I cut out some small black scalloped circles. Next, I placed the black pieces on top of the white and used a small rolling pin to stretch and combine the back into the white to create spots.
Using the same circle cutter that I used for the pigs heads, I cut out 12 cows heads.
Next, using the same piping tip, I cut out 24 circles for ears. Then using my index finger and thumb I pinched together one side of the circle.
Using the same piping tip, I cut out 12 light pink (pig colored) circles for noses. Using fondant slip, I attached the ears and nose to the faces. Lastly, using a cake pop stick, I imprinted two nostrils into the nose and used the food safe marker to draw on a smile and eyes.
Baby Chicks:
Using the same round circle cutter, I cut 24 circles out of yellow fondant. 12 of these circles were the faces, the other 12 I used the scalloped circle cutter to cut pieces of the circles into wings.
After attaching the wings with fondant slip, I drew on a face and feet with food safe markers.
Horses:
The horses were the most difficult for me to figure out how to piece together to look correctly. I started with rolling out a sheet of chocolate fondant and cutting out 12 circles for the top portion of the head.
Next, I created a lighter tan color by kneading some white and chocolate fondant together. I then used a smaller circle cutter to cut 12 noses and used the piping tip to cut 24 ears. I folded the ears the same way I did for the cows by pinching together one end of the circle. Using the star cutter, I cut out some black stars and trimmed the tips off to use as the mane between the ears.
I placed the nose of the horse hanging slightly off of the face to created a longer looking head. After attaching the nose, ears and mane, I used a food safe marker to draw on eyes and a smile. Then used the cake pop stick to press nostrils into the nose.
Once I had all the toppers done, I let them sit over night to slightly harden before applying them to the cupcakes. I am so pleased with how these little guys turned out! Not only were they fun to make, but they are an adorable EDIBLE topper to complete this barn yard themed party.
Jamie's Sweets 