Wednesday 12 November 2014

Leftover Royal Icing Part 2

So, let's get on with part 2 of what to do with leftover royal icing. If you missed part 1, you can find it here.
Today, we're going to make home made sprinkles in whatever colour you want. This is excellent for when you can't find the colour you need in stores. It's also a cheaper option to store bought sprinkles & personally I think it tastes better too.
After colouring the leftover royal icing & placing it in ziplock bags, snip off the tip of the bag & pipe thin lines on a sheet of parchment paper. Again, if you want to be more accurate you could use a piping nozzle.


Leave this to dry for a few hours or overnight. When it's properly dried, it should just slide off the parchment if you hold up the edges of the paper along the length of the lines of icing. See how it collects together?


Lift the opposite side of the paper & those lines will slide off too, collecting in the center.


Once you have it in a 'bundle', get a sharp, straight edged knife & cut into sprinkle sized lengths - or whatever length you require.


If you're really obsessive, you might want to leave out the blobs at the ends but don't throw them away. I'll show you what to do with them in the last segment of this series.


So there, you have it, easy, homemade sprinkles! Leave each colour seperate or mix them up if that's what you prefer.



Now, after I had already chopped up the white, I had an idea to make metallic sprinkles. So the way I did this was a bit messy - but it still worked! I simply painted the sprinkles with a gold luster dust & alcohol mix, but I think a better option would have been to paint them before cutting. 




Well, that's it for now. I hope you found it helpful. As usual I would love to hear your feedback. Enjoy!
Until next time,
Jessica ❤️❤️

Wednesday 5 November 2014

Easy Tiara Toppers

Okay, so I know I said I'd continue with the leftover royal icing series but this weekend I made these tiara cupcake toppers & I had to share with you, just how easy they are to make. So, I promise, just one more detour before I get back on track.
The first thing you'll need is a star cutter with 6 points. The size depends on how big you want the tiara to be. I've included a ruler in this picture to give you an idea of the size I used.


Roll a thin piece of fondant & cut out a star. Cut the star symmetrically & you now have the basic skeletons of 2 tiaras.


I used small plunger cutters to decorate these but you could use any micro cutter or even the front end of piping nozzles to cut out a design.



Now wrap the tiara around a cylindrical object to shape it. The size of this will depend on the size of star cutter you use. I've used a kiddies rolling pin, which was the perfect size for the size of cutter I used. Let them dry for a few hours or overnight.


Once they're firm & holding their shape, pour some edible glitter onto some parchment paper. Lightly paint the tiara with either water or gum glue & thoroughly cover with glitter.


Carefully shake off excess & leave aside to dry.


You'll notice that even though I used purple glitter, the tiara looks pink. This is because I used white fondant. If I had used pink or purple fondant, it would have resulted in a purple tiara. I recommend using odd pieces of fondant to test before you get started. You don't have to make a complete tiara, just dust different coloured pieces fondant with different coloured glitters until you find a combination you're happy with.


Once the glitter is dry the tiaras are ready for the cupcakes. Enjoy!


Until next time,
Jessica ❤️

Tuesday 28 October 2014

Cute Vampire

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Before I continue with the leftover royal icing series, I thought I'd do a short tutorial to give you an idea on how to use the eyes I made in the previous blog. Remember these?


I thought a cute, kid friendly vampire would be great. So let's get started! 
You'll need a circle & a heart cutter that are almost the same size, & a small star cutter.


Cut 2 circles, 1 in a pale flesh tone & 1 in black.


Place the heart cutter about one third of the way down the black circle & cut.


This piece will become his hair with widows peak. 
Attach the hair to the face.


Using a circle cutter, gently press to make a smiley mouth shaped indent.


Now cut a small white star & cut off 2 tips. These will be his fangs. So, colour the tips of the fangs using red food colour or an edible marker.


Attach to the mouth.


Now attach a set of royal icing eyes & he's all done!

Have a spooky Halloween everyone.
Until next time,
Jessica ❤️

Tuesday 21 October 2014

Leftover Royal Icing Part 1

Although I mostly work with fondant, royal icing & I are good friends. It is the super glue or cement of cake artists everywhere but inevitably there always seems to be some leftover. I love anything that does double duty so instead of throwing it away I use it in a few creative ways that actually saves me time with later projects.


This first idea is perfect for Halloween which is just around the corner. 
Today we're going to be making eyes. Since royal icing decorations can last for months if stored in airtight containers & away from light, to prevent fading, these can be made months in advance. 
Keep some of the icing white & colour the rest in colours of your choice, remembering to also colour some black to do the pupils.



If you want to be really precise you could use a piping bag & nozzle but I'm just using ziplock bags so that I can seal each colour individually until I'm ready to use it. 


Lay out a piece of parchment paper to pipe on. It might help to sketch a few varieties of eyes that you want to pipe. Then slide that underneath your parchment paper. Tape down both pieces of paper to prevent it from moving as you pipe. 


Snip a tiny corner off the ziplock bag & start piping the white. Next pipe the iris in your colour of choice. 



Use the black to pipe the pupils. You could also add eyelashes 
& eyebrows if you want. Then with the white, add highlights. 


Use your imagination to create a variety of eyes in several different sizes. Leave them to dry thoroughly before carefully peeling them off the parchment paper. Then store them as I described above & the next time you're making face toppers, you'll have a selection of eyes to choose from. 


Pretty easy right? And it doesn't have to be just eyes. You could pipe bows, hearts, stars or flowers. Anything really, that you think you may use in later projects. 
I hope you enjoyed this & I'd love to hear your feedback. Join me next time for part 2 on how to use up leftover royal icing. 

Until next time,
Jessica ❤️

Monday 22 September 2014

Tiny rose tutorial

I'm often asked how I make some of the really tiny details on my toppers so I put together this short tutorial to show you how I make these minute, dainty roses. I used a No.2 nozzle here & just attached everything with a small dab of water. Just remember that the fondant must be rolled really thin. 


This would be perfect for a boutonniere or you could make a row of them to use as a headband on your fondant figures. Play around with different sized nozzles for a variety of roses & then put them together for a fondant bride's bouquet. There are just so many options!
Have fun with these & feel free to share pictures, to my Facebook page, of how you've use them.

Until next time,
Jessica ❤️


Monday 10 February 2014

Cute toppers made with cutout hearts


Oh wow! I'm really not good at blogging regularly. I was supposed to put up a new blog around Father's Day! I think it's safe to say I fall in the category of 'sporadic blogger'. 

I'm one of those moms who does a craft with my kids for just about every special day & the kids are still young enough to not think it's 'lame', so I'm enjoying it while it lasts :-D
Today's tutorial was actually a paper craft we did when my kids were younger & it works perfectly as a fondant cupcake topper or you could use bigger cutters & use it as a cake topper. Since Valentine's Day is just around the corner, this puppy & fish are ideal because they're made out of hearts.



Super easy & super cute! Here's the YouTube link if you prefer a video.

http://youtu.be/os94tpkX2xQ

Enjoy & be sure to post your pics on my Facebook page if you try it out.

http://www.facebook.com/EzTopperz 

Until next time,
Jessica ❤