Cupcake towers have become so popular these days. I know first hand that clients are now turning to cupcake towers to serve as a fun dessert alternative at their special event. Here are some reasons why:

1. Cupcake towers provide guests with options of flavors; clients can opt to have two or three different flavors of cupcakes on their towers and allow guests to “pick and choose” their favorite flavor.
2. Cupcake towers offer a more affordable dessert alternative than many stacked cakes/grandiose cakes and some start as little as $2.50 each.
3. Cupcake towers act as the “centerpiece” for dessert tables and offer an overall design impact as guests walk around the table picking out their sweet treat. They can also be decorated to reflect the theme of the party or customized for the guest of honor with an initial or age.
4. Cupcakes and cupcake towers are just plain FUN and bring out the kid in all of us!!

Here are a few of the latest cupcake towers (including the fun baseball themed tower above) that I’ve been working on lately. You will notice many different occasions represented here including birthdays, weddings, baby showers and more. If you are interested in Kati’s Kupcakes cupcake towers for your next event, please call us to set up a phone consult and we would be happy to help you!! Kati’s Kupcakes 609-332-2172   Voted best cupcakes of South Jersey!

Have you been wondering how bakers and cake decorators cover their cupcakes in fondant? It’s quite simple really. You need a few basic tools and your imagination and you’ll be on your way. For this tutorial, you will need the following items:

• Pre-baked cupcakes
• Pre-made frosting
• Pre-made fondant flowers or decorations
• fondant
• rolling pin
• Ex-acto Knife (for trimming edges if needed)
• water and paintbrush (for adding decorations to fondant covered cupcake)
• a large circle cutter for cutting out the fondant circles to cover the cupcakes with

Step 1

Have your cupcakes premade and ready to cover with your favorite buttercream frosting.

Step 2

Cover your cupcakes with a large domed scoop of buttercream frosting. I prefer to use vanilla buttercream since it is white and it will not show through if I happen to be using white fondant. I make the buttercream in the dome shape to get a nice, rounded and full fondant style on my covered cupcakes.

Step 3

Gather your chunk of fondant and rolling pin. Roll out to thin consistency, not too thin though or the fondant will tear or the icing will mush through. Not too thick or your guests will have a tough time enjoying their cupcakes and wishing they would get to the buttercream layer already!!!

Step 4

Take your circle cutter and cut out circles to go on your buttercream covered cupcakes. Remove the excess fondant and re-roll to make more circles if desired. As far as the size of the circle cutter, I have played around with different size cutters depending on the cupcakes I am baking. You will have to do some experimenting with them as well. You can try Wilton’s largest circle cutter but I have found it to be too small. I invested in a larger cutter which you can find at specialty food stores such as Williams and Sonoma, Kitchen Kapers or online specialty shops. If the circle of fondant is too large, I use my Ex-acto knife to trim it around the perimeter of the cupcake to get a perfect fit. You want the fondant to come just to the seam of the cupcake liner.

Step 5

Place your fondant circle on your buttercream covered cupcake. Smooth out the cupcake with your palm or your fondant smoothing tool. Carefully smooth the fondant down around the icing and bring to the edges of the cupcake. Do not push too hard or the icing will squeeze out and stain your fondant. Take your time to go around the cupcake and bring the edges of the circle to the seam of the cupcake liner. If the fondant is hanging down and too big–trim away at the fondant around the perimeter of the cupcake until you have a perfect fit.

Step 6

Now for the fun part!! Here is where you can add fondant or gumpaste flowers, textures, greetings, letters, shapes, patterns, designs and anything your little heart desires. The great thing about adding designs to your fondant covered cupcake is that you can hide any “imperfections” you may have come across during the process. Did you knick or damage one side? Did one side end up too short or just doesn’t look right? Well, add a flower or some other decoration and hide it–no one will know! Here’s some of my Valentines Day Cupcakes. I added lots of pre-made fondant flowers,  cut-outs and greetings. Can you see my mistakes? Hope not!

Step 7

Now you can take a second fondant color and repeat the whole process if you’d like. For my first color, I chose pale pink, now I’m using white. Be careful with the white–it picks up everything!

Step 8

Package your beautiful cupcakes up. Put them in an airtight container. Place a beautiful tulle ribbon on them and give them to the recipient who will absolutely adore them! Your work is done!!!

Hope you enjoyed learning how to cover cupcakes in fondant!

Kati's Kupcakes Assorted Cupcake Towers

Well, cupcake towers have pretty much completely taken over my life! It seems at least once a week, sometimes up to three or four times a week, I am making a cupcake tower for a client. To me, the tower becomes part of the design of the piece and creates an overall presentation for my clients to display at their events so their guests can marvel at them and enjoy them. It’s not just about the cupcakes for me, it’s about the overall package–the cupcakes coupled with the cupcake tower. In my opinion, the two go hand in hand!  I like to scope out my local craft stores, vintage stores, grocery stores, you name it, and look for items to put on my towers to make them unique, artsy and fun. My cupcake towers have become so popular, that I’ve even started selling them in my Etsy shop and I’ve been shipping them (as well as my fondant toppers) all over the country! You can visit my Etsy shop here to place your order. In the meantime, here are a few of the towers that I’ve been creating lately. Each one is personalized for the particular client/event and I put a lot of thought and passion into making them very custom and unique. I love making these cupcake towers– picking out the papers, ribbons, fabric,accessories, etc. Take a look below-and don’t forget to visit my Etsy shop to order your today! PS-Make sure you peek at my photo gallery to see the finished cupcake tower complete with their specialty gourmet Kati’s Kupcakes on them!

Here are a few made for future princesses, divas and shabby chic enthusiasts:

Pink Shabby Chic Tower

Princess Cupcake Tower

Diva Zebra Print Cupcake Tower

Princess Diva Tower

Princess Tower

Black/Silver Princess Cupcake Tower

And here are a few of your favorite kids television characters:

Buzz Lightyear Cupcake Tower

Dora Cupcake Tower

Minnie Mouse Cupcake Tower

Yo Gabba Cupcake Tower

Sponge Bob Cupcake Tower

Here’s some fun ones for little boys and BIG boys too:

Fireman Cupcake Tower

And here’s a few more with personalized initials and birthday/generic towers!

Polka Dot Birthday Tower

Blue Polka Dot Birthday Tower

Black and White PolkaDot Tower

And here are some perfect for babies (Baby Showers and Christenings):

Christening Cupcake Tower

Baby Shower Elephant Tower

Baby Shower Ducky Tower

Baby's First Birthday Music Tower

]]> http://www.katiskupcakes.com/2011/02/cupcake-towers-2/feed/ 0 http://www.katiskupcakes.com/2011/02/phillies-bar-mitzvah-cupcake-tower/ http://www.katiskupcakes.com/2011/02/phillies-bar-mitzvah-cupcake-tower/#comments Wed, 09 Feb 2011 02:05:34 +0000 admin http://www.katiskupcakes.com/?p=1237

Have you seen my Phillies cupcake tower yet? I created it for a young Phillies fan who was celebrating a very special event-his Bar Mitzvah ceremony! The party was being held at Citizen’s Bank Arena where the Phillies host their home games–how cool is that–to have your Phillies themed Bar Mitzvah party at the actual Phillies stadium–very cool! The young man and his parents asked me to create some of the cupcakes with my specialty toppers. The toppers were going to be baseballs (of course!) and jersey’s of some of the guest of honor’s favorite players. After careful thought, I decided to go with the Phillies throwback retro colors. Burgandy, light sky blue and white were the colors used in the icing and on the toppers–I think it all came together quite well. The feedback was wonderful from the family also-I was told the kids loved the cupcakes so much they even brought them into the photobooth taking pictures with them–now that’s what I call a “sweet success!” Here’s some photos…….

Did you notice the retro Phillies color palette–sure to be a home run at your next Phillies party! Give em a try-I’d love to see your pix of what you create!

Valentine Ladybug aka "Lovebugs"

Okay, so Valentines Day is just around the corner! I wanted to make something adorable and unique to put on my Valentines Day cupcakes this year. I have done the hearts, x’s and o’s, and the typical traditional Valentine toppers-this time I wanted something different. Here’s a little tutorial I put together for you, my dear readers, so that you too could make these cute little Valentines lovebugs on your cupcakes too! Aren’t they just darling? I have a soft spot for all things miniature and who can resist a cute heart shaped mouth?

STEP 1: Gather your supplies. You will need a small portion of red, black and white fondant for this project as well as a rolling pin. You will also need a small bowl of water, a paintbrush, piping tips with small round opening for the ladybug’s dots and eyes, an edible black marker for the mouth, and a couple heart shaped cookie cutters of different sizes (optional). You may also need a palette knife for lifting your creations. Let’s get started!

STEP 2: Roll out a small ball of red fondant for the ladybug’s body.

STEP 3: Roll out a second ball of red fondant slightly smaller if you are making more than one ladybug. I called my creations Valentine “lovebugs” so I needed multiple ladybugs.

STEP 4: Roll out a black fondant ball to serve as the ladybug’s head. Make each ball slightly smaller than the red fondant bodies you have created so that the head is in proportion to the body.

STEP 5: Attach the ladybug heads you’ve made to the ladybug bodies with a small dab of water and your paintbrush.

STEP 6: Poke small holes in the top of the ladybug heads with a toothpick so that you can insert your ladybug antenna’s in the heads later.

STEP 7: Roll out a small portion of black fondant. Use a #5 piping tip to cut tiny circles out to act as spots on the ladybug’s body.

STEP 8: Use a small dab of water and place the ladybug’s spots on the ladybug’s body. **Repeat steps for smaller ladybug using a smaller piping tip to make the ladybug spots (such as a piping tip with a number 3 opening)

STEP 9: Roll out a long thin tube of black fondant and curve into the shape of the antenna you would like for your ladybug. Make two antenna’s per ladybug. Let dry slightly on a non-stick mat. Later, once almost dry, you will place them in the holes created earlier on the ladybugs head.

STEP 10: Roll out a tiny bit of white fondant in the palm of your hand to form the eyes. Make them into tiny balls and attach them to the ladybug’s face with a dab of water on your paintbrush. Do this for both ladybugs and make them slightly smaller for your smaller ladybug to keep in proportion with the smaller size.

STEP 11: Place a small circle of black fondant on top of the eyes or use a black edible marker to draw circles in the white part of the ladybug’s eyes–this will make your ladybug’s eyes pop and give them dimension.

STEP 12: Place the antenna’s on the ladybug heads using a small dab of water to allow them to stick. If they are a little fussy (as with mine) and don’t want to stick-use a small dab of clear piping gel to act as “glue.”

***NOTE–YOU CAN STOP HERE OR CONTINUE ON TO CREATE A MORE ELABORATE VALENTINE “LOVEBUG” LADYBUG!

STEP 13: Roll out a small amount of white fondant. Use two sizes of heart shaped cookie cutters to cut out some heart shapes for your fondant lovebugs to sit on. Attach the lovebug to the hearts with a dab of water.

STEP 14: Using a small flower cutter of your choice (I love this  plunger cutter), cut out some tiny pink or red flowers to place on your hearts and to accompany your little Valentine lovebugs! Place a tiny edible pearl in the center of your flower and attach with a small dab of water. Scatter the flowers on heart base.

STEP 15: Get ready to place these adorable little Valentine lovebugs on your pre-made cupcakes and watch the recipient swoon over their cuteness!! Do you have a special Valentine in mind? I know I do! My anniversary is Valentine’s Day-so hubby will be getting the royal treatment from me! Either way–aren’t these little ladybugs adorable and so fun and easy to make? Stay tuned for photos of my official completed Valentine’s Lovebug Cupcakes–check back on February 15th to see how cute they turned out! PS-I think I’ll make my delectable red velvet cupcakes for these lil’ lovebugs to embellish–perfect combination!

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY TO MY DEAR READERS!!!

Carly and Alexis (my daughter)

So what do you do when your best friend requests one of your specialty cupcake towers for her daughter’s once-in-a-lifetime Bat Mitzvah party (where you will also be a guest)? You make sure you have an amazing concept in mind, blow everyone’s mind with it’s awesomeness and make it the best damn cupcake tower you’ve ever made!!!!  This particular tower was also going to be for my daughter’s best friend!! The two girls have been friends since they were little and in ballet school (age 3) together!  (See photo above) (For an updated photo of the girls today–ages 12 and 13, scroll all the way down.)

Her mom, (my best friend) approached me about the Bat Mitvah cupcake tower and told me that the theme of the party was going to be “Candy” and it should incorporate all things, bright, colorful and fun!! We brainstormed a little together and came up with the concept. Giant, colorful frosting swirls, juicy edible candy toppers and of course, an eye catching/show stopper of a tower complete with a mini gumball machine and multi-colored striped ribbons. The pressure was ON and I had to get it right! Everything had to be perfect for my best friend’s daughter’s special day. Not only for MY best friend, but for my daughter’s best friend as well. Hope you enjoy the photos of my experience!

First, I wanted the frosting to match the the color palette of the invite–so I tinted my buttercream bright green, blue, purple and magenta.

Next, I started to frost all of the cupcakes. I kept them very neat and organized them by color so that I could get a clear picture of how they would look when put together on the tower.

Now I could start to add the edible candy on top. We went with bright and bold gummy butterflies. They were fun and delicious and unlike fondant toppers, we wouldn’t run the risk of some kids not liking the unique taste—all kids love candy!! (or at least MOST!!) Here’s a look at the colorful, giant butterflies…

The final phase was to put all of these amazingly bright, bold and beautiful cupcakes on the cupcake tower I created and to sit back and marvel at it—well, that and deliver it to the venue, photograph it and (no pressure) hope that my best friend and my daughter’s best friend were happy with the results! Not to mention that I would be a guest at the event and see if people were eating the cupcakes, be subject to comments about the tower, etc etc etc. Let me end the suspense now–THEY LOVED IT!!! Everyone was thrilled, we got wonderful feedback from the crowd and my best friend and the special guest of honor couldn’t have been happier with the cupcakes–now that’s what I call a sweet happy ending!!! Here’s some photos of the tower just before heading over to the venue and a few at the event location.

Here are some photos from the venue……

Here’s me putting the last finishing touches on the design…..After that, it was finally time to take off my apron, make sure my hands weren’t purple or green and get on my little black dress–it was time to celebrate.

And lastly, a few photos of our girls! If you want to see a few photos of them THESE days, scroll down–my how fast they’ve grow in 8 years–they’re no longer our little ballerinas!! These best friends are all grown up!

There have been three times recently that I’ve been asked to make fondant rubber ducky cupcake toppers for various baby showers. The rubber ducky theme is very popular and, since yellow is  a neutral color, it works for both boys and girls who are getting ready to make their special entrance into this world!

I wanted to share my rubber ducky fondant topper process with you, so I put together this cute little tutorial and hope you will find it easy and inspirational for your next baby shower order. Let me know what you think-I’d love to see your little duckies too! Now—on to the tutorial!

Step 1

Tint your fondant yellow (I used Wilton’s Golden Yellow to ensure a “rubber ducky” color was achieved).

Step 2

Measure out 1 oz of tinted fondant for each rubber ducky body you will need to create. Mold the fondant into a elongated oval and pinch the back end up to represent the ducky’s tail.

Step 3

Next, shape small fondant circles (about 1/4 ounce per head) to form the rubber ducky heads. Use a small dab of water and attach to the rubber ducky bodies.

Step 4

Take a small piece of orange tinted fondant and form into a beak (1/4 inch semi-circle that is thicker in the middle and thinner at the sides–see below). Use a small dab of water to attach the beak to the middle of the rubber ducky head.

Step 5

Use a small tear-dropped shaped cutter to create the ducky wings. Pinch them slightly upward to exaggerate the “wing shape”.  Again, use a paintbrush moistened with a dab of water to attach the wings to the body.

Step 6

Roll out some tiny white circles to form the ducky eyes. Roll a small bit of fondant between your fingers and form into a teeny round circle—use a dab of water to attach the eyes to the ducky head (just above the beak). Using your Americolor Gourmet Black Writer (edible marker), place a tiny dot in the center of the white fondant eyeballs. Add a small dab of orange tint to the duck’s cheeks and wings to create a little bit of depth and make them pop (To do this–water down some orange icing color and dab it on your paintbrush, then apply a small amount of the “orange wash” to the ducky cheeks and wings). You can also add some luster dust or sparkly glitter to your duck’s cute little cheeks.  I like to add little flowers to my ducks also. You will see that below. You can stop the tutorial here or continue on to add the flowers to your ducks.

Step 7

Roll out a small portion of tinted fondant (I used green to keep the color palette gender neutral). Use a small flower plunger cutter and cut out the flowers that will be added to the duckies. Use the bottom end of a small, thin paintbrush to indent the flower center.

Step 8

Roll out a small portion of a different coordinating color of fondant to form the tiny flower centers. Roll them into tiny balls and then use your paintbrush to attach the balls to the indented middle of the flowers.

Step 9

Attach the little flowers to the rubber duckies. I like to put some of them on the duck’s head to represent little girls hair bows and then I put some on the front of the other ducks like bow-ties to represent little boys. You should create extra flowers and put one coordinating flower next to each ducky. After I’ve iced my cupcakes–putting on the extra little flower just gives the cupcakes a supercute WOW factor. Here’s some photos of my finished duckies. I sent these toppers to Delaware for a client who was hosting a baby shower yesterday. I sell my toppers exclusively at my Etsy shop-so not matter where you live in the United States-you too can have Kati’s Kupcakes adorable fondant toppers.  Be sure to visit my shop for more details! In the meantime, feast your eyes on my little friends–Quack Quack!

WOW– Have I got a great recipe for you! I’m adding a new frosting selection to my menu this week. I received a request for a custom order from a special client all the way in Coronado, California (yes, that’s 3000 miles away from me!). The client’s childhood best friend was celebrating 40 years of wedded bliss and she wanted to do something special, unique and fun to mark the occasion for her dear friend. My client had a few requests–one being that the icing needed to be peanut butter and the other being that we should incorporate chocolate into the cake. Well, I think I’m in love–I found an amazing flavor combination that I can only liken to a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup(cake)!! Here you have Kati’s Kupcakes classic chocolate cupcake with a brand new peanut butter frosting!! This new cupcake will make it’s debut next week on our menu and I’ve already received rave reviews from the client’s best friend–she truly loved them. My kids all couldn’t get over how amazing the frosting smelled and now they claim this will be the cupcake they choose for their next birthday!  Well, I’m so excited about this flavor discovery that I’m sharing my EASY peanut butter frosting recipe with you all—are you ready for a crowd pleasing , winning recipe? Scroll down to see the photos of my cupcakes–I added Hershey’s chocolate shavings and a square of Hershey’s chocolate to each cupcake to “up the flavor ante”. I also like to add a pretty tulle bow and a cute cupcake notecard so the recipient of the cupcakes feels extra special on their important day!! Are you ready to try this frosting out on your chocolate cupcakes? I promise you, this flavor combination is “cupcake brilliance”. I am confident you will find this coveted recipe to be a keeper!! Not only for the taste but also for the limited number of ingredients and the ease of putting it all together! Click HERE to try it!

Did you ever have a request for a cupcake with the Apple computer logo on it? As unusual as it may sound, I did! If you think about it, Macintosh and Apple are such common household names that it really isn’t that absurd-in fact most kids these days own at least one Apple product and statistics showed that this past Christmas most households had at least one Apple device under their tree (admittedly our household had two!! We bought our two young son’s an i-pod touch and they are addicted to the games and hours of endless fun it provides–perfect for long car rides or when you just need the kids to zone out a little too!) Apple is continually coming up with new and innovative products with staggering sales results so I have a good feeling this may not be the last time I’ll be making fondant Apple computer logos. If you are ever in the same situation–feel free to use this little tutorial to create your toppers.

Step 1

Find a high quality image of the Apple logo and trace it onto parchment paper. *Being a Mac fanatic myself, I simply traced the logo right off the top of my own personal MacBook! After you trace the image, place it over your pre-tinted grey fondant. Next, take an X-acto knife with a fresh blade (best for precise cutting) and start to carve out the image of the Apple.

Step 2

Once you have cut out the Apple logo, transfer it to a clear non-stick mat to dry and continue with the next one. If you were careful and precise with the X-acto knife, you should have an exact replica of the logo–see photo below…

Here is an even bigger  break-down of the process.

After tracing the logo, you will be left with a cut-out of the Apple image.

Take your knife and make cut lines from the logo out to the ends of the fondant. In doing that, you can easily remove chunks of the fondant while keeping the logo in perfect form. Since this design is very recognizable, you want to be sure it is perfect. This “carving away process” helps.

Lift away the pieces of the fondant gently, one at a time, taking care to keep the logo intact.

When you are done, you will have lots of little gray, highly recognizable, fondant Apple logos on your hands, but be careful–you may just get inspired to take a trip to your local Apple store after all this Macintosh Madness!!

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