Nothing says Halloween quite like the Day of the Dead, so here at Cake Decoration & Sugarcraft magazine, we've got a tantalising tutorial to help you create a series of cakey calaveras to honour the traditional Mexican Día de Muertos celebration.
The really fun part of these cupcakes is that you can really go wild with colour! Halloween fairy cake ideas can often be far too focused on the traditional black and orange colour pallette which is, while timeless, a little uninspiring when it comes to creating fun cupcakes for both kids and adults! This tutorial therefore gives you the chance to make your actual cupcake batter as many rainbow colours as you wish, as well as a variety of fun sugarpaste decorations to adorn them.
Halloween Cupcake Idea:
Day of the Dead
You will need:
Edibles:
6 Cupcakes baked in bright pink, blue, yellow, green, orange & purple cases
650g buttercream
230g Renshaw white modelling and flower paste
100g Renshaw black modelling and flower paste
Edible glue
Trex
Cornflour
Magic Colours Gels: Neon pink, Neon blue, Neon yellow, Neon green, Neon orange, Neon purple
Rainbow Dust double ended edible pens: Black, Gold, Blue, Red, Pink, Green
Equipment:
Cutting mat
Rolling pin
Small paint brush
Flat bladed knife
Piping bags
2D piping tip
Round cutter
Smallest size FMM easiest rose cutter
Foam pad
Ball tool
Small blossom plunger
Extra small blossom plunger
FMM skull and crossbones 2 cutter set
Scalpel
1 Roll out the black paste to about 3mm thick and cut out six circles.
2 Take 50g of the white paste and roll it out thinly on a surface covered with cornflour.
3 Cut out two big skull and crossbones and four small ones, adding more cornfl our to the top of the paste if they get stuck.
4 Then use a scalpel to carefully cut the bones off of each skull and tidy any ragged edges.
5 Use edible glue to stick the skulls to four of the black discs and leave to one side to dry.
6 Divide the other 300g of white paste into six equal parts and colour each one with one of the neon gel colours.
7 Grease your rolling surface with Trex.
8 Roll out the first colour of modelling paste thinly and cut out two shapes using the smallest Easiest Rose Cutter.
9 Place the shapes on a foam pad and thin the edges with a ball tool.
10 Paint a line of edible glue along the length of the shape just under the point where the curves finish.
11 Fold the shape over and carefully stick it down.
12 Paint another line of glue across the shape.
13 Starting at one end, gently start to roll the end of the shape up.
14 Once it’s started, pick it up and continue rolling making sure that each layer is slightly higher than the centre.
15 Push the petals down and out asyou go so you end up with a rose that looks like this.
16 Use a pair of clean kitchen scissors to trim the excess paste from the bottom of the roses and leave to dry.
17 Repeat until you have two small roses of each colour.
18 Then roll out each of the coloured pastes and cut four small blossoms out from each colour.
19 Once you’ve cut them use the end of a paintbrush or ball tool to indent the centre of each one.
20 Roll a tiny sausage of each colour and use a scalpel to cut four equal pieces off and then roll them into tiny balls.
21 Use a tiny amount of edible glue to attach the balls to the centre of the blossoms, pairing contrasting colours.
22 Once the skulls have dried reasonably hard, search for ‘Sugar Skulls’ online to get some designs up as reference.
23 Use edible pens to draw colourful designs on each skull, using the thin end of the black to outline each colour.
24 Use the skull cutters to cut out skull mouths and stick them into the skulls.
25 Then using the thin end of the black edible pen, draw on and outline the teeth on each skull.
26 Use the extra small blossom cutter to make flower eyes for the small skulls. Attach with glue and indent the centres.
27 Then do the same with the small blossom cutter and the large skulls.
28 Add contrasting centres to the flower eyes and then attach the flowers to the small skull toppers with edible glue.
29 Arrange one of each colour rose on top of each of the remaining black circles and attach with edible glue.
30 Divide the buttercream into six bowls and colour each one with a different one of the neon gel colours.
31 Flat ice each cupcake and then pipe a small swirl in the centre of each one in a colour contrasting to the case colour.
32 Carefully place a topper onto each of the cupcakes pressing each one down lightly.
We hope you are satisfactorily spooked by these gorgeous Halloween cupcakes! If you haven't quite had your fill, don't forget to check out our brilliant tutorial to create Quick Christmas Cupcakes this festive season!
Check out our latest issue too for more inspiration across the seasons, with brand new artists, exciting techniques and cake decorating tutorials galore!
