How to Make Piano Cupcake Toppers

Remember the cupcakes I did for my friend Lyra's recital?  I wanted make another "music" inspired cupcake. Want to see how a Piano Cupcake Topper is made? 

What we need:
Fondant (black and white)
Knife
Fondant rolling pin
Cornstarch

Here's how:
1. Roll out black fondant using rolling pin, about 1-2mm. Use cornstarch whenever needed to prevent fondant to the surface or the cutters.

2. Do the same for the white fondant.

3. Cut out a rectangle from the white fondant.

4. With the back of a knife, press vertical lines on the fondant. Make sure they are evenly spaced.

5. Cut out a black rectangular strip and using water as glue, attach it to the top of the white fondant.

6. Cut out five smaller rectangular strips from the black fondant.

7. Arrange the small rectangular strips similar to black piano keys.

Celebrate Bake Happy-ness!

Aikko

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How to Make Cute as a Button Cupcake Toppers

Looking for cupcake designs or ideas for a christening or for a birthday? Here's a tutorial for a cute as a button cupcake topper. Super easy and super quick :)

What we need:
Fondant (any color)
Ball tool
Two round fondant cutters (one slightly smaller than the other)
Fondant rolling pin
Cornstarch

Here's how:
1. Roll out fondant using rolling pin, about 3-4mm. Use cornstarch whenever needed to prevent fondant to the surface or the cutters.

2. Using the larger round cutter, cut out the buttons. Remove excess fondant.

3. Position smaller round fondant cutter to the center of the button and press halfway.

4. Using the ball tool, press four holes in the center of the button. 

5. Brush off any excess cornstarch from the topper.

You can either top just one on a nicely frosted cupcake or add three buttons in a cupcake like the top photo.

Celebrate Bake Happy-ness!

Aikko

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Saffron Pistachio Cookies

I've been doing lots and lots of cakes recently so I decided to make cookies today instead. A couple of weeks ago I made some chunky chocolate chip cookies - a regular recipe but I doubled the amount of chocolate chunks which resulted to cookie nirvana. I still can taste it in my mind. That good. But today, I wanted to make something different. 

Wanna see? Here it is! Saffron Pistachio Cookies.

I got it from Chef Elizabeth Falkner's book, Demolition Desserts. I love her book, when I get to go to San Francisco, I definitely will eat at Citizen Cake. She must have loved Orson Welles' Citizen Kane so much she named her restaurant after it. 

Anyway, as I was browsing the book, a dessert named Rosebud caught my attention. Just to note, "Rosebud" is the dying words of Charles Forster Kane, the protagonist from Citizen Kane. Back to "Rosebud" the dessert, it basically consists of rose custard, caramel crisps, and saffron pistachio cookies. I am definitely interested in the cookies. After all, saffron is something you rarely use to make cookies, right? 

Saffron Pistachio Cookies

from Elizabeth Falkner's, Demolition Desserts

350F

1/2 cup butter

1/4 teaspoon saffron threads

1 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 large egg

3/4 cup shelled pistachio nuts

2 tablespoon refined sugar

(1) Melt 1/4 cup butter, add saffron threads. Stir once or twice. Remove from heat and let it cool.

(2) In a bowl, dry whisk flour and salt. In another bowl, cream together remaining 1/4 cup butter and powdered sugar until smooth. Add egg until well combined. 

(3) In a food processor, grind pistachios and refined sugar until fine. Add the pistachio mixture to the butter mixture until just combined.

(4) Add flour in two batches. Divide dough into 2 and roll into log, roll in plastic and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. 

(5) Cut dough into 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick slices. 

(6) Arrange slices in cookie sheets.

(7) Bake for 12 minutes. 

These cookies are best enjoyed while still warm. I love that they are savory, chunky and nutty. Not sweet at all. A welcome break from all the sweet goodies I have been making the past weeks :)

Celebrate Bake Happy-ness!

Aikko

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How to Make a Trident Cupcake Topper

I know it's kind of early, The Son of Neptune won't be out till October but I just have to post this. To say that I love Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series is an understatement. I read and re-read and re-read the whole series over and over again. I wish it could go on forever, but sadly the fifth and last book was already released. Good news is, Rick started a new series (The Heroes of Olympus) with new characters and here's the best part -  the old ones are still there! Seems like I'm not the only one who can't.

Anyway, here's a cupcake topper tutorial I made inspired by the first Percy Jackson book - trident topped cupcakes. That's one of the best parts of the book, Poseidon finally claiming Percy as his own. Anyway, enough ramblings - here it goes.

Basically, we'd need piping gel, some straws, royal icing, star tip, blue and teal color gel, brush and luster dust.

Here's how it's done. 

Using royal icing in a piping bag with a star tip, pipe a trident in one end of the straw. Let it try overnight.

Paint the trident with teal gel color. Let it dry for at least four hours.

Dust the trident with gold luster dust.

And your done! 

Now for the cupcakes, using a spatula, top the cupcakes with some blue frosting. Color the piping gel blue and add it on top of the cupcake.

Using the other end of the straw, combing the frosting with the gel.

Place trident on top each cupcakes.

Wanna see how well read my Lightning Thief copy is?

Happy cupcaking, 

Aikko

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