Perfect for a 4th of July get together, this cupcake tower is sure to WOW any crowd.
You will need:
1 large styrofoam cone (at a local craft store) and around 24 3-6″ wooden dowels, plus several toothpicks for the fruit.
5 cups fresh fruit (red strawberries, raspberries and blueberries preferred)
Cupcakes can be baked and frosted as usual, however a more dense cupcake batter will work better for attaching to the tower. Try using a pound cake, chocolate cake or carrot cake for best results. Lightly frost with buttercream or cream cheese frosting using a star tip. The heavier the frosting, the more likely it will not stay connected to the tower as it will be side heavy.
Affix cupcakes to tower by first sticking the wooden dowels firmly into the styrofoam tower. Place them evenly apart, making sure to be able to affix fruit in between each cupcake. Attach cupcakes to wooden dowels by pushing cupcake onto dowel (you may need to cut a small hole in the bottom of the cupcake wrapper (or don’t use any wrappers to avoid this step).
Now poke each strawberry, blueberry or other piece of fruit with a toothpick and push toothpick into styrofoam, in between each cupcake. You can make fruit kabobs as well and place a few pieces of fruit onto each toothpick. Make sure to completely fill up styrofoam tower so there is no syrofoam showing. Add sprigs of fresh mint to complete the look.
Filed under: Inspiration, cookies | Tags: baby, cookie, heart, royal icing, sugar cookie, texture, whimsy cake
Try a new decorating technique with these cool cookie texturizing kits. Each kit comes with one cookie cutter and assorted texturizing mats. Fun, detailed designs leave either an impression or an embossed look – depending on which side of the mat you decide to use. They are very simple to use; just cut out your sugar cookies as usual and then before you bake, press the mat onto the top of each cookie to get the desired design. Bake and cool as usual. You can decorate with or without royal icing and either use colorful food pens (like we did above) or luster dust to create a shimmery effect. Or try decorating each flat cookie with buttercream frosting, wait until it starts to set and then press the mat into the buttercream to leave an impression in the frosting. A fun and easy way to achieve fabulous looking cookies. The kids will enjoy using the mats too!
Kits are available in Whimsy Topsy Turvey Cake (perfect for birthdays), Heart, Wedding Cake or Baby Onesie designs at fancyflours.com.
Happy baking!
Filed under: Just Plain Cool, cookies | Tags: ballerina, dragee, fancy flours, hammer song, kangaroo, lion & lamb, luster dust, tin cookie cutters
Fancy Flours = Fancy Cookie Cutters! We are proud to offer some of the finest hand-crafted cookie cutters by Hammer Song. These unique and whimsical cookie cutters have old-world charm and are a collectors’ favorite. The edges of these cookie cutters have exquisite detail and are made to cut precisely through your cookie dough. All of the Hammer Song cookie cutters are made in the tradition of 18th and 19th century tinsmiths. Because of their rich detailing these cutters can be used as decorations as well as cookie cutters. Hang them on your tree, mantle or simply display them with the rest of your collection. Shown are the Snow Queen Ballerina, Lion and Lamb and Roo & Baby Roo cutters are decorated with varying shades of royal icing. Dragees, edible glitter and sugar eyes make these cookies come to life! Add other detailing with quins, luster dust or sparkling sugar for an extra whimsical touch.
Filed under: cupcake | Tags: barley candy, patriotic cupcake, sparkler, USA Cupcake, USA Flag
Perfectly USA barley candy shapes make these cupcakes stand out in the crowd. Wrapped in red, white and blue star cupcake wrappers, they are dressed up for the upcoming 4th of July celebration. Vintage Sparkler picks, flag picks and red, white and blue sprinkles can be added for a cupcake display that is fit for celebrating our country’s birthday! Bake up a batch of cupcakes for a July 4th BBQ, or sell them at a bake sale or parade. A great decorating project for kids too!
View Fancy Flours entire USA baking & decorating collection by clicking HERE.
Filed under: Birthday, Just Plain Cool, cupcake | Tags: astrid, Birthday, bright colored frosting, candle, cupcake, fancy flours
Cupcakes never looked as good as they do in this NEW colorful Astrid cupcake liner pattern, available at fancyflours.com.
Perfect for birthdays and summer celebrations! Match a couple of the fun colors in the cupcake liner, with your icing colors to get a coordinated look that will have your birthday boy or girl giddy with excitement! We used simple colored candles, but fun shaped or number candles are a unique twist. See some of the candle varieties we carry at fancyflours.com. For a 3D border, try using a standard shell or star tip and carefully frost your way around the top of each cupcake in a contrasting color from the base layer.
Find more fabulous muffin cups, cupcake wrappers and creative cupcake decor at fancyflours.com.
Filed under: Just Plain Cool, cupcake | Tags: beagle, chocolate, dog cupcakes, dog sugars, dogs, grass, high tea, icing, wiener dog
All photos by lonemanphotography.com.
These cupcakes are dog-gone cute-as-can-be!
With a sugar dog decoration and little creative icing work, a whole family of dogs comes to life on what was just ordinary cupcakes! The trick here is getting the dogs bodies, tails and paws just right. Use a large width writing tip to create bodies and legs and a smaller width writing tip for tails and detail work. Create a “grass” effect with the small writing tip too, or try using a large tip especially created for making icing look like grass. This special tip can be found at your local craft store.
Here’s a cute spin…add a little dot of yellow for a tennis ball or any other fun shape for your dogs favorite toy.
Place sugar dogs head on the body you created with icing and voila! Cupcakes that are too cute to eat!
We used Gold and Chocolate High Tea Muffin Cups to complete this look.
Find all the decorative items you need to make fabulous baked treats at: fancyflours.com
Filed under: Birthday, Inspiration | Tags: 15% off, Birthday, birthday cake, sugar cookies, wafer paper
From NOW through FRIDAY, June 6 take 15% off your order at fancyflours.com MUST use coupon GOODIES at checkout at fancyflours.com!
Celebrate birthdays in style with cheerful wafer paper designs perfect for birthdays! Creative “Make Your Own Birthday Picks” are a simple way to jazz up a ordinary batch of cupcakes and you can add on additional details to the picks, like shimmery dragees and edible glitter with a touch of edible clear gel.
A great idea for a fun twist on the regular sugar cookie – bake sugar cookies in the shapes of birthday cakes! Our Three Tiered Cake Cookie Cutter is a the perfect shape for our new Happy Birthday Cake Wafer Paper set; complete with candles and all! Affix wafer paper with edible clear gel, sprinkle a layer of white edible glitter, and package in individual clear bags to give as party favors at a birthday celebration!
Filed under: Just Plain Cool | Tags: big mouth bass, cookie cutter challenge, highlowaha, porcupine
Join the Cookie Cutter Challenge!
Fancy Flours has teamed up with the popular blog Highlowaha to create a monthly Cookie Cutter Challenge! At the beginning of each month a seasonal category is selected by the creative team at Highlowaha. Then blog followers cruise our online collection of over 600 cookie cutters and vote on a cookie cutter they think fits the them and will be challenging for the decorators at Highlowaha. The votes are tallied up and the cookie cutter is chosen – with one lucky winner receiving the selected cookie cutter for their own collection. Highlowaha is then challenged to bake and decorate the cookie to fit within the theme selected.
We just got done with month two of our challenge. May’s theme, National Outdoor Games, had winner cookie cutter: Big Mouth Bass! The cookies (pictured above) turned out fabulous and those clever ladies at Highlowaha came up with a tag line that is perfect! The tags attached to the cookies read: Reel Friends, Real Fun.
April’s cookie challenge was Earth Day! The cookie chosen was the Porcupine. This one seems challenging – but the clever tag line was: What quill you do to help the planet? Festive, cute and completely FUN!
Tune-in to www.highlowaha.com for June’s Cookie Cutter Challenge on June 2 – you may just be the lucky winner of a fabulous and unique cookie cutter!
Happy baking!
Filed under: Inspiration, Summer | Tags: cookies, fish, royal icing, shell, star fish, sugar cookies
Summer is here! Ring in the warm weather with a batch of these adorable sea creature cookies. Our No Fail Sugar Cookie recipe tastes great and holds the shape of your cookie cut-outs, no matter what the thickness. Decorate with simple and tasty royal icing for a cute and clever look. Try our starfish cookie cutter, goldfish cookie cutter, scallop shell cookie cutter, conch shell cookie cutter and more sea life themed cookie cutters for all your summer baking!
Filed under: Just Plain Cool, cupcake | Tags: cupcake wrappers, cupcakes, flag, memorial day treats, sparklers
Cupcake wrappers are “the” stylish, simple and chic way to dress up your cupcakes. We’ve added two new star cupcake wrappers to our line-up. In festive blue and red - just in time for summer! Add patriotic sprinkles, usa flag picks and festive sparkler toppers and you have yourself and a treat that says “USA!”
Celebrate the USA and give thanks on Memorial Day!
Happy Baking!
