Lisa Frank Cupcake Ideas

Lisa Frank's colorful designs are the perfect inspiration for cupcakes -- or even an entire rainbow-themed birthday party -- that little girls would love. Fans have been collecting Lisa Frank's pastel and technicolor merchandise since the 1980s, which includes a huge assortment of puffy stickers, stationary, school supplies and craft kits. Everything is adorned with smiling dolphins, cuddly pandas, dancing bunnies in rainbow tutus, butterflies, hearts, stars or unicorns with long rainbow-striped manes. There are so many different ways to give cupcakes the "Lisa Frank" treatment. Add this to my Recipe Box.

Over the Rainbow

Make the entire cupcake a part of your design by baking rainbow batter. Disney FamilyFun magazine suggests dividing prepared white cake mix batter evenly among six bowls. Add a few drops of food coloring to each bowl to create purple, blue, green. yellow, orange and red batter. Layer the different color batters in a muffin pan, and bake.

When the cupcakes are cool, top each with a whipped cream "cloud." Top each cloud with a few heart-shaped confetti candy, which are available in perfect "Lisa Frank" hues -- vibrant pastels.

Fondant Fun

Create different elements of the Lisa Frank world with fondant. Fondant is sold in different colors, or make your own. Dye it with gel food coloring, rather than liquid, for more vibrant colors. Instead of traditional frosting, apply a thin, flat layer of rolled fondant to the top of each cupcake.

Roll out more fondant and use small cookie cutters or a butter knife to make stars, hearts, peace signs, musical notes and flowers. Trace the shape of some Lisa Frank items to make small dolphins and puppies. Make a rainbow with several different colored fondant strips, which will stick together with a few drops of water. Make two puffy clouds with several mini-marshmallows, for under each side of the rainbow.

Moisten the back of the shapes with a little water, then place them on top of each fondant-iced cupcake. Use different colors of edible luster dust to paint the fondant shapes, and they'll be the perfect vibrant "Lisa Frank" hues. Luster dust is available in party supply stores or online.

Pretty Unicorns

Another way to decorate cupcakes "Lisa Frank" style is with pastel-colored butter cream frosting. Dye it pink, baby blue and lavender with food coloring. Use a pastry bag to apply, so it looks extra-fluffy. Check out Fine Cooking or Good Housekeeping magazines for a recipe, as well as tips on coloring and applying butter cream.

After frosting, top each cupcake with a sparkly, white chocolate unicorn, adorned with a rainbow mane. Use a chocolate candy mold to make unicorns by melting chocolate in a double boiler, and then chilling the mold in the freezer for several minutes -- just until the chocolate hardens. Carefully pop the unicorns out of the mold, and decorate each with sparkle and pearl dusting powders. These are available in many colors at candy supply stores and will look vibrant on chocolate.

3D Butterflies

There's a Lisa Frank rainbow butterfly eraser that could be your inspiration for butterfly cupcakes. Cut off the top, rounded part of baked cupcakes, which will be your butterflies.

Spread colored frosting on the top of the cut cupcakes. Make the cut tops into wing shapes by cutting two upside down V-shape wedges, on opposite ends. Put the cupcake tops back on, and frost the top and sides with a flat layer of whiite frosting. A piece of red licorice down the center of the butterfly could become its body, while two smaller pieces will resemble antennae.

Decorate the butterflies' wings using a tube of cake writing gel to make a few thick wavy stripes. Fill in each stripe with a different color of edible glitter, which you can find in party supply stores, or online.