With Hallowe’en just hours away this will sadly be our last Hallowe’en Tutorial Tuesday of the year. Today we’re going to show you how to make a sugarpaste skull and crossbones and also how to achieve a two toned piped buttercream. What makes this a ‘toxic poison’ cupcake apart from the skull and acidic colours are the combination of flavours; a mild chocolate cupcake with a mix of lime and orange buttercream. Delicious, yet taste bud tingling!
To create the sugarpaste skull and crossbones you will need:
A small paintbrush
Step one: Create a small ball from your black sugarpaste.
Step two: Lightly roll out using a fondant rolling pin and pinch the middle section.
Step three: Lightly roll out once more then cut in half.
Step four: Now use your sugarpaste knife tool to cut small lines along the bottom; these will become ‘teeth’.
Step 5: Cut off everyother ‘tooth’ and then use the knife to make slight indentations to create eyesockets and a ‘nose’.
Step 6: For the bones roll out lengthways some black sugar paste. Fold the ends over.
Step 7: Place the ‘bone’ onto the folds to hide the creases.
Step 8: Lightly roll over. You should have a long bone-like piece of sugarpaste.
Step 9: To create a more bone-like shape indent the ends with the rounded side of your modelling knife tool.
Step 10: Now apply a small amount of edible glue to one of your bones and attach your other across!
Step 11: This is optional, but if you’d like to add some extra texture then paint your skull and crossbones with edible glue and dab on some of our fully edible black glitter!
Now to pipe some dramatic two toned buttercream swirls! For this you will need:
A piping bag
A piping tip (We used the Ateco 848… one of our favourites)
Two contrasting coloured buttercreams
Two small spatulas
This is fairly easy, but is usually one of those techniques that can bamboozle a cake decorating novice. You need two small spatulas as these really help to get the buttercream into the bags.
Step 1: Place your tip into the bag and snip the bottom of the piping bag so the tip pokes out.
Step 2: Using one spatula designated to one colour place into the bag on one size. To make this easier roll your piping bag into a large cuff so you are essentially putting the buttercream into the bag close to the tip. Remember to leave one side of the bag buttercream free!
Step 3: Now with the other spatula and other colour place this inside and on the other side of the contrasting buttercream!
Step 4: Shake the buttercream down in the bag to rid yourself of pesky air pockets! Now you’re ready!
Step 5: Test and pipe out some buttercream until both colours come out.
Step 6: Now you can pipe your cupcake and then assemble your skull and cross bones atop your two toned buttercream!
