Going to a Tea Party? If you want to wow everybody with your cake decorating skills, then you need to make these beautiful and delicate Tea Party Cupcake Toppers.
If you read my Lemon Cupcakes with White Chocolate Raspberry Cream Cheese recipe post last week, then you’ll remember I mentioned that my niece was having a Tea Party themed birthday celebration. It was this past Sunday in Florida. While I couldn’t be there for her day, I made and shipped roses, a peony, and cupcake toppers for the occasion.
Shipping was so nerve wrecking! I shipped it with next-day delivery. I think I knew I’d be holding my breath until I knew everything arrived in one piece.
So did it arrive in one piece??? ALMOST! My mom and sister called to tell me that all but one cupcake topper and some of the frills of the peony arrived in perfect condition. The good news was that I had sent two extra cupcake toppers just in case. And the peony had so many ruffles in it, that you really couldn’t tell that little bits had broken off.
QUICK TIP FOR HUMIDITY AND SUGAR
Their bigger issue was the humidity. Everything arrived on Thursday at noon. Florida happened to have their first named tropical storm of the season last weekend. Needless to say, sugar doesn’t do so well in extreme humidity so the gumpaste of all the pieces I sent started to soften. They were afraid the peony, with really thin petals, was going to fall apart.
Luckily, my mother, who has been baking and decorating cakes for decades in the humid Dominican Republic, had a solution. This is a great tip to keep in mind if you encounter very humid weather when decorating a cake. She put the peony under a lamp. Voila, the light heating prevented the gumpaste from melting.
As usual, my mom saved the day!
Needless to say, the birthday party was beautiful! My nieces enjoyed themselves and everybody raved about the party decorations, the cake, and cupcake toppers.
HOW TO MAKE A TEA PARTY CUPCAKE TOPPER WITH BOW
In this post, I’m going to show you how to make the first of the four Tea Party cupcake toppers I made. I’m breaking it down into a series of posts because I want to provide you with detailed instructions on how to make each one. In the end, they’re all easy to make, and they build on each other for the most part. For example, in this post, you’ll learn how to make the doily that serves as a base for all the other toppers.
Now get ready to make the Tea Party Cupcake Topper with Bow.
MATERIALS
The good news is that you don’t need an insane amount of materials to create this cute tea party cupcake topper. If you’re starting out with cake decorating and you wonder what are the best materials to use, check out the 14 Cake Decorating Tools to Design the Cakes You Dream Of post. But for this particular cupcake topper, here are the following materials you will need:
- Small fondant rolling pin
- Gumpaste
- Circle cutters
- Fondant molding tool
- Gumpaste mat
- Powder Pouch (optional, you can find how to make your own here)
- Water and brush (to wet the gumpaste)
CREATING THE TEA PARTY CUPCAKE TOPPER DOILY
- Roll out and flatten fondant to a thin 1/8th of an inch. I roll it out this thick to make the ruffles seem more delicate. It’ll still look good if you roll it slightly thicker than that.
- Use a 2″ circle cutter to cut out a circle. Place the circle on top of the gumpaste mat.
- Using the pointy end, press and turn the fondant tool around the edges of the gumpaste circle until you form ruffles all around.
- Using the 1″ circle cutter, lightly press it down in the center of the now ruffled gumpaste circle. This is to mark the gumpaste without cutting through it, so be gentle.
- Using the 3/4″ circle cutter, place evenly inside the circle you formed and lightly press it down on the gumpaste.
- With the sharp end of the fondant tool, press lightly to create dots around the edge of the outer 1″ circle. Once you go around fully, create an outer circle of dots, using the inner dots as a guide. You can get creative here, but I simply press another dot in between every two inner dots (see below).
CREATING THE TEA PARTY CUPCAKE TOPPER BOW
- Roll out and flatten gumpaste into a long 1/8″ thick.
- Cut gumpaste into a 1/4″ wide x 2″ long strip (you can make it longer and/or wider for a bigger bow).
- Carefully bend the ends of the bow to meet in the center. With a damp brush, wet a thin line in the inner center with water to stick the ends together.
- Once pressed down in the center (make sure there’s space left inside the ends of the bow), use the rounded end of a fondant roller and/or brush to indent the center of the bow.
- Cut out a thin 1/2″ long strip of fondant.
- Wet the strip and place it over the center and around the bow. Press the ends of the strip down on the bottom to ensure the ends are not visible once placed on the doily.
BRINGING IT TOGETHER
Now that the bow has been completed, wet the center of the doily with a damp brush. Make sure that you don’t have excess water on the brush or it will create an ugly watermark on the gumpaste.
Lightly press the finalized bow down on the damp doily.
Voila! You now have a beautiful Tea Party Cupcake Topper for your high tea event.
STAY TUNED
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial as much as I enjoyed making this cupcake topper. As I said earlier, stay tuned for upcoming tea party cupcake tutorials! The next one will be a yellow flower on top of the doily.
Comment below to let me know if you try this topper! And don’t forget to sign up for the Fit and Healthy Conversions Cheat Sheets. There you will find fondant measurements for some of your other cake adventures.
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