Cute Fondant Cupcake Ideas

When it comes to the latest dessert trends, gone are the days of boring, plainly iced cupcakes. Thanks to the popularity of televised cooking shows and competitions, more decorative cupcakes are becoming increasingly popular. At-home cooks are also realizing that these small, sweet treats are fun to decorate and don't take as much time to adorn as cakes. By combining fondant and icing to decorate your cupcakes, you have a wide array of decorative options. Add this to my Recipe Box.

Handmade Decorations

Whether you choose to make your own fondant or purchase the ready-to-use kind, you can impress your guests with adorable handmade fondant decorations. Working with fondant is very similar to working with clay. According to EasyCupcakes.com, mixing fondant evenly with gum paste will enable you to make sturdier decorations. You can use your hands and some tools to roll, smooth, cut and shape fondant into endless possibilities. Some ideas include making beautiful flowers, precious animals, lush leaves or other greenery and cute insects, such as ladybugs and butterflies. You can also use fondant to make caricatures of a person for their birthday or any other occasion.

Tie-Dyed Poured Fondant

Many cupcakes use a perfectly smooth fondant base to serve as the foundation for a decorative theme---this is poured fondant. For this idea, you will need to make (or purchase) white fondant in addition to several other colors. To get started, heat the white fondant in a medium-sized bowl until it is liquid but not boiling. Do the same with the other colors, except place these in individual plastic bottles with narrow dispenser tips. To create the tie-dyed effect, squirt small dots of color in the hot white fondant. Starting on one side of the bowl, use a knife to drag through the color until you reach the other side of the bowl. Repeat as necessary, careful not to over-stir the colors. Lastly, hold your cupcakes upside down and dip them into the hot fondant. If you like, you can give them a second coat once the first is dry.

Animation-Inspired Cupcakes

Look to video game or cartoon characters, such as Super Mario, for inspiration when decorating cupcakes, according to WomansDay.com. You can use poured fondant to make your base and then rolled fondant that you cut into shapes to make characters and other animation-inspired aspects of the cakes. This is a way to incorporate a themed birthday party into the delicious treats you serve your guests.