Cupcake Ideas From "The Aristocats"

"The Aristocats," a 1970 Disney film about cats who inherit their late mistress's fortune and the butler who would try to steal it from them, makes a playful theme for a child's birthday party or for an adult who is young at heart. Keep the scenes, characters and settings from the movie in mind as you decorate cupcakes for your party. Specialty cupcake liners can be purchased at baking and kitchen shops or online. Add this to my Recipe Box.

Paris

Since the Aristocats live in Paris, create cupcakes that reflect the setting of the story. Use cupcake tin liners with a blue paisley, fleur-de-lis or toile print, or create paper cupcake holders in one of these prints to slip around the finished cakes.

Use French buttercream frosting; color half of the frosting French blue and leave the other half white. Load frosting into a pastry bag with a star tip, filling one side of the bag with the blue and one side with the white. Pipe on the frosting to achieve a swirl pattern. Top the cupcakes with silver dragees and mini Eiffel Tower decorations.

Pink Bows

Marie, the feminine kitten in the film, wears a large, floppy pink bow on her head. To create pink bow cupcakes, bake vanilla cupcakes in pink-and-white-striped cupcake liners. Color your frosting a light pink, and pipe or spread the frosting on the cakes. Sprinkle the cakes with white sparkling sugar.

For the bows, knead bright pink color into a ball of fondant about the size of a baseball, if making a dozen cupcakes. Sprinkle your work surface with powdered sugar and roll the fondant to about 1/8 inch thick. Cut ribbons with a pastry wheel. Form two loops with hanging ends from each ribbon. Wrap a small piece of fondant ribbon around the middle of the bow to secure. Place atop the cupcakes.

Piano Cat

One of the most notable scenes in the movie is when Toulouse jumps on the piano with paint on his paws. Create piano cupcakes by frosting baked and cooled cakes with a thin layer of buttercream.

Divide a batch of fondant into thirds. Leave a third white, color one-third black and the last third pink or blue. Roll out the pink or blue fondant on a counter sprinkled with powdered sugar. Cut rounds from the fondant that fit the top of the cupcakes and place on the cakes.

Roll out the white fondant. Cut the fondant into ribbons about 1/4 inch wide. Lay four to six ribbons on the cakes side by side. Cut ribbons, slightly shorter than the white ones, from the black fondant and position between the white pieces. Dip a clean mini paw stamp in gel food coloring and stamp paw prints on the piano keys.

Shaped Cats

Those with practice and skills working with fondant and gum paste may want to shape cat figures or faces to top cupcakes. For faces, frost your cakes with a thin layer of buttercream, then roll, cut and shape flat cat faces on the frosting. Include whiskers, blue eyes and bows on each cat's head.

Cat figurines can sit on top of a cushion of piped frosting. Create Marie, the white kitten, or Toulouse, her adventurous gray brother, using photos from the movie for guidance.