shower of cakes

See those cute bottles and baby suits on top of my baby shower cupcakes? They're made from white chocolate, and I made them myself - easy peasy!



Since I'm a baby shower cupcake machine today, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to share my favourite cupcake decoratey trade secret with you.
This little trick is very handy - you can make any simple motif, and people will be super impressed!
And, even better, you probably have just about everything you need at home already (perhaps with the exception of chocolate - I know it never really lasts long around here!)



The first think to do is find images you want to use. I usually do a google image search. For my baby cakes I searched for baby bottle drawings, then rattles, suits etc. Look for really simple outline kind of pictures. I spend a bit of time clicking around, and copy and paste anything that takes my fancy to a powerpoint slide (I find that's the easiest format for me to manipulate the pictures later)

Once I have a couple of motifs I really like then I copy and paste them all over a slide/page. Do as many as will comfortably fit on a page - the idea here is quantity for quality - the more you make the better they'll get, and the more you'll have to choose from when you're done! =)
Print out your template page and you're ready to go!

Here's my template:



Now, tear off a piece of baking paper and put it over the top.You'll be able to see right through it to trace the shapes as you pipe the chocolate, and once the chocolate sets it will be easy to peel off.

Melt the chocolate, and colour if you need. I use regular food dye from the supermarket. It works fine, but you need to remember to use it carefully since it's water based - and we all know chocolate and water aren't friends - so use as little as possible.

Once the chocolate's ready (let it cool a teeny bit, but not set) it's time to reveal the high-tech piping apparatus.
I spoon the chocolate straight into a plastic sandwich bag (90 cents for about a zillion at the supermarket) and snip off a tiny corner (as small as you can) or stab it with a tooth pick.
Taa-daa!
Instant fancy piping!



Depending on how warm your chocolate is, and how big the hole in your bag, you might need to squeeze a little bit - have a play and see what works for you.
The warmth of your hand should help keep the chocolate melty for a bit, but eventually you'll probably need to reheat the chocolate and start again with a new bag =)

I like to go colour by colour across my template. Places where you just need one colour - like the onsie suits here - by the time you get the next colour out the first will probably be set so you can scoot it over and use the template again.
When the chocolate is set it will slip easily off the paper.
If you're using two or more colours (like these bottles) make sure you have enough overlap between the two to hold the whole thing together:



I added some fancy sprinkles to mine too - hearts, flowers, stars and teddy bears =)
And then they're ready to be popped on top of your favourite cupcake creation!



Like I said, I make lots so that I can pick out the best ones - the ones that don't look as good still taste as nice! ;0)



I used this technique for my Tour de France bike cuppies, snowflakes and for my spring carnival ponies, and I'm sure there'll be many more!

Happy cupcaking!
If you try your hand at some chocolate cuppy art I'd love to see your results!=)