30th November 2012 // No Comments

‘Re-launch Week Tutorial No. 5′ : How to make a polar bear cupcake!

In today’s tutorial we show you how to decorate a cupcake to create an lovely polar bear perfect for the holiday season! This tutorial is fun for adults and kids to both make and gobble up! You can also easily adapt the steps in this tutorial to make other adorable animals; such as making triangular ears, larger eyes and adding whiskers to whip up a little cat.

What you need…

A cupcake smoothed with buttercream
White modelling paste
Black modelling paste (or white paste hand coloured with black colouring)
Edible glue
Paintbrush
Fondant rolling pin
Circle pastry cutter set by Tala
PME ball tool
PME scallop and comb tool

Step one: Roll out some white sugarpaste and cut out a circle with your 68mm cutter.

Step two: Take your cupcake smothered with buttercream and smooth your sugarpaste circle atop. Press lightly at the edges until the icing meets the edge. Dust with lustre dust if you would like some festive sparkle.

Step three: Cut out a small circle of sugarpaste using a small circle cutter. Using your edible glue attach this just low to the centre of your cupcake. Dust with lustre dust if you wish.

Step four: Cut out two circles from your rolled out white sugarpaste and indent them with your ball tool to make your bear’s ears. Dust with lustre dust.

Step five: To affix the ears dab some edible glue atop your cupcake on either side then lightly press the ears on top.

Step six: To make your polar bear smile use the scallop tool to indent both sides of the mouth into the muzzle.

Step seven: Create a tiny nose from some black sugarpaste and glue this above the mouth.

Step eight: Finally to make the eyes make two small black balls and lightly flatten. Glue these above the polar bear’s muzzle. Then create two tiny white balls, indent the blacks with the end of your paintbrush and glue the tiny white balls in.

Hurrah! You now have a lovely little polar bear cupcake to enjoy in the holiday season. Merry Christmas and happy baking from Juniper Cakery!

29th November 2012 // 1 Comment

‘Re-launch Week Tutorial No. 4′ : How to create a sugarpaste robin!

Today’s tutorial shows you how to make your own adorable little sugarpaste robin who can sit perfectly atop your festive cakes and cupcakes! You can also follow this tutorial at other times of the year, but use different colours, to create other types of birds appropriate to the season.

What you need:

PME Blade tool
PME Ball tool
Fondant rolling pin
Renshaw Modelling Paste (coloured by hand in Wilton Paste colours white, black, golden yellow, brown and red)
Paintbrush
Edible glue
Toothpicks
Scalloped pastry/cookie cutters

Step one: Take your brown modelling sugarpaste and mould into ‘comma-like’ shape. The base should extend out into your robin’s tail feathers. The top of the ‘comma’ shape should be bulbous as this will be your little robin’s head.

Step two: To make your robin’s red breast roll out your red modelling paste and cut out a rounded rectangular shape as in the above picture.

Step three: Take some edible glue and paste the robin’s breast to the front.

Step four: Now to make your little robin’s feet! Take two small balls of the golden yellow paste, roll flat into small oval shapes and use the scalloped edge of your Tala cutter to make the toes. Now indent the ends that will tuck under the robin so they will fit underneath. Use some edible glue to stick the feet to your robin.

Step five: For the beak make a small angular cone of golden yellow colour modelling paste. Use the blade tool to indent the bird’s ‘mouth’ into the beak.

Step six: Now take a toothpick and one third of it. Use this piece to attach the beak. To do this simply press into the robin’s head, paint edible glue to the revealed end and carefully affix the beak.

(We place our little robin on a lovely scalloped sugarpaste ‘doily’. To do this roll our some spare modelling paste and cut out with your Tala cutter.)

Step Seven : To make your robin’s wings simply roll out two medium ovals of brown modelling paste and cut the ends with your scalloped Tala pastry cutter.

Step eight: Affix the wings to the sides of your robin with a little bit of edible glue.

Step seven: Finally, for the eyes shape and roll out two small white circles and two smaller black circles. Glue the black circles atop the larger white ones and then using super tiny pieces of white modelling paste attach these to the black circles (make sure these tiny white pieces point in the same direction).

Voila! Now you have a very sweet sugarpaste robin to nestle atop your beautiful winter-y cakes and cupcakes!

Merry Christmas from Juniper Cakery!

28th November 2012 // No Comments

‘Re-launch Week Tutorial No. 3′: How make a decorated Christmas tree growing in a frosty wood

What you will need:

A cupcake
808 tip by Ateco
Buttercream (mixed with your prefered flavour)
Disposable bags by Ateco
Brown colouring by Wilton
Green fondant icing
Candy cane sprinkles by Wilton
Snowflake sprinkles by PME
Blade tool by PME
Non-stick fondant rolling pin
Jumbo star Sprinkles by Wilton
White sugar pearls by Twinkle Baker Decor
White fully edible glitter by Twinkle Baker Decor
Edible glue by Squires Kitchen
Paintbrush
A Cadbury’s Flake

Step one: Using your pre-filled disposable piping bag by Ateco pipe a swirl atop of your cupcake.

Step two: Begin decorating the swirl by placing sugar peals by Twinkle Baker Decor and snowflakes by PME around your cupcake. This will create your ‘winter woodland floor’. Avoid the centre as that is where you will need to push the ‘tree trunk’ in.

Step three: Sprinkle your fully edible glitter by Twinkle Baker Decor over the decorated ‘woodland floor’ to add a frosty sparkle.

Step four: Place your cupcake aside for the moment and take your flake. Snap or cut the flake down to size ensuring it does not crumble too much. Once it is at the required size push the flake into your cupcake/buttercream; now you have your ‘tree trunk’.

Step five: Set your cupcake aside once again and take your green fondant icing. Tearing enough off to create (roughly) a 6cm cone mould the icing until you have a similar shape to that above. Now you have the basis of your Christmas tree.

Step six: Using your edible glue by Squires Kitchen paint the top of the flake and place the gren cone on top. Once it is secure set it to one side to try a little.

Step seven: As your cone is drying roll out the rest of the green fondant icing. Once rolled out begin to cut strips of ‘zig zags’ using your blade tool by PME; these will create a leaf/pine cone look for your Christmas tree once layered. Begin at the bottom ensuring your strip long enough to wrap around the base of your cone and gradually decrease their size as you work up to the top.

Step eight: Cover your cone in edible glue by Squires Kitchen and begin to layer your Christmas tree ‘Leaves/pines’ until you have covered every bit of the cone.

Step nine: Take the candy cane sprinkles Wilton and the snowflake sprinkles by PME and begin adding your Christmas tree decorations.

Step ten: Once finished take your jumbo star sprinkles by WIlton and select your prefered colour (we chose a traditional gold/yellow star) and place it atop of your Christmas tree.

Now you have your decorated Christmas tree growing in a frosty wood cupcake!

Merry Christmas from Juniper Cakery.

27th November 2012 // 2 Comments

‘Re-launch Week Tutorial No. 2′: How to flat fondant ice a cupcake!

What you will need:

A cupcake
White fondant icing
Green fondant icing
Red fondant icing
Small amount of buttercream
Holly plunger cutter by PME
Edible glue by Squires Kitchen
Paintbrush
White lustre dust by Sugarflair
Round cookie cutter set by Tala (if you do not have one of these an appropriate sized glass/cup would suffice)
Fondant roller
Spatula

Step one: Roll out your white icing on a smooth non-stick (or icing sugar coated surface) until it becomes 1 or 2 mm thick.

Step two: Select the appropriately sized cookie cutter from the Tala set (or a glass/cup from the cupboard). This design will translate well on any cupcake and the size depends on persoanl preference.

Step three: Now you have your icing circle discard the remaining white icing placing your icing circle safely to one side. Take your spatula and spread your buttercream atop of the cupcake making it as smooth as possible. (If your cupcake is flat use the buttercream to create a ‘dome’ shape). You can be as generous as you like when applying the buttercream so long as your icing circle can still reach the sides of the cupcake case.

Step four: Take your icing circle and lay it atop the cupcake to nestle in to the buttercream. Gently spread the icing circle down toward the sides of the cupcake case ensuring it meets; smooth the icing down from the middle until it looks like the above picture.

Step five: Set your iced cupcake aside and roll out the green fondant icing. Once this is 1mm thick use the holly plunger cutter by PME to cut out your decoration.

Step six: Lay the holly aside and take the red fondant icing. Take very small, berry-sized, pieces of the red icing and roll it between your index finger and your thumb. Repeat this three times and you will have your holly berries!

Step seven: With a clean paintbrush smooth the lustre dust by Sugarflair around the whites of your cupcake to give it a frosty shimmer.

Step seven: Using a small amount of edible glue by Squires Kitchen and the paintbrush wet the surfact of your cupcake and place the holly leaves and berries atop.

Now you have your festive fondant/flat iced cupcake! Merry Christmas from Juniper Cakery

26th November 2012 // No Comments

‘Re-launch Week Tutorial No. 1′: How to make an easy Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer cupcake

This is a really quick and easy tutorial to make your cupcakes festive and fun in the winter months! What makes the Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer cupcake even better is that anyone can try it! If you’ve limited cake decorating experience, want quick cupcakes to wow your family and friends with or you need a tasty project to do with the kids in the holiday season then this may be the perfect tutorial for you!

What you will need:

A cupcake
Buttercream (your prefered flavour, we used butterscotch)
Pretzels
M&Ms or Cinnamon Drop sprinkles by Wilton
808 tip by Ateco
White Candy Melts by Wilton
Jet black edible ink pen by Rainbow Dust
Disposable piping bag by Ateco
Fully edible glitter by Twinkle Baker Decor

Step one: Take your filled disposable piping bag by Ateco and pipe a generous swirl atop of your cupcake. Sprinkle with some fully edible glitter to finish!

Step two: Set your cupcake aside and take two white candy melts by Wilton. Using the jet black edible ink pen by Rainbow Dust draw pupils in the centre of the candy melts; now you have your reindeer eyes.

Step three: Now push your reindeer’s eyes into the buttercream at the top and then nestle an M&M below at the centre for Rudolf’s nose.

Step Four: Take your pretzels and push them into the top of the buttercream behind the eyes.

Now you have created your very own Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer cupcake to enjoy during the holidays! Keep checking back to find out how to whip up the other cupcakes below!

Merry Christmas from Juniper Cakery