Seasonal and Holiday Cupcakes
Are you looking for ideas to decorate beautiful holiday cupcakes to celebrate a seasonal event?
Sometimes it can be hard to find cupcake ideas to cover some of the other special occasions in the year like Valentines Day, St. Patrick's Day, Mother's or Father's Day, Graduation Day and even Fourth of July. Below you'll find just the right holiday cupcake decorations for those special times.
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Holiday Cupcakes
Difficulty Level: Experienced
Bakery/Cake Goods Needed:
- Your favorite batch of vanilla cupcakes
- Your favorite butter cream frosting recipe
New Year’s Clock and other Decorative Items:
- Premade batch of fondant
(we used Wilton’s Ready-To-Use Rolled Fondant in white)
- Premade batch of black tinted fondant (we used Duff Goldman’s Buttercream Fondant in Black)
- Food coloring in the following colors:
Black, Red, Blue, Pink, Orange, Light Green, Green and Yellow
(we used Wilton’s paste food colors)
- Rolling pin
- Small sharp knife
- Drinking straw
- Food safe paint brush
- Wax paper
- Tooth picks
- Vanilla extract
- Small bottle-shaped chocolates
Cupcake Icing Tools:
- Ateco #804 Round Tip
- Icing Bag
Finishing Touches:
- White or black cupcake liner or plain black cupcake wrapper
Making the Clock Face:
Step 1: With the rolling pin, roll out the white fondant on a flat surface to about 1/4” thick. Using the largest side of the Ateco #804 tip, cut out round circles. Place on wax paper and set aside.
Step 2: Roll the black fondant into a long thin tube about 1/8” thick. Using a food safe paint brush, wet the edges of the white circles. Wrap around the outside the white circles. These will form your clock faces.
Step 3: After the clock faces have dried, mix a little black food color paste with a little vanilla extract. Using the tip of a toothpick, paint on the numbers 12, 3, 6 and 9 on the appropriate places on the clock. Paint hash marks to note the other numbers on the clock.
Step 4: Roll more black fondant into a thinner tube. Cut into 1/2- 1/4" pieces. These are your hour and minute hands.
Step 5: Wet the surface of the clock where you want to place the hour and minute hands and place those fondant pieces carefully on the clock face. Set aside the assembled clock face to dry completely.
Making other Decorative Items:
Step 1: Break off six small pieces of white fondant. Tint each piece one of the following colors: red, blue, pink, orange, green and yellow.
Step 2: Roll each section of colored fondant out on a flat surface. With a sharp knife, cut the red, blue, pink and yellow fondant into thin strips and wrap them around tooth picks. With the drinking straw, punch out three circles from the orange, green, yellow and red fondant. Set the fondant pieces aside on wax paper to dry.
Step 3: Unwrap the bottle chocolate. Roll out the light green fondant and wrap or encase the chocolate in fondant. Roll out a small amount of white fondant and cut into a small square. Attach to the front of the fondant covered bottle.
Icing the Holiday Cupcake:
Step 1: Fill the icing bag with butter cream and fit the opening with a Ateco #804 Round metal tip.
Step 2: Starting from the outside edge of the cupcake, use a circular motion and squeeze the icing out to cover the cupcake.
Decorating the Holiday Cupcake:
Step 1: Place the clock in the center of the cupcake and set the fondant covered bottle chocolate at an angle to the side.
Step 2: Randomly place the curly streamers and fondant confetti around the sides.
Shamrock Cupcakes
Difficulty Level: Easy
Celebrate green with these simple St. Patrick's Day Holiday Cupcakes!
Bakery/Cake Goods Needed:
- Your favorite batch of vanilla cupcakes
- Your favorite butter cream frosting recipe
Clover Cupcake Decorating Supplies:
- 1 small batch of premade fondant (purchased or homemade)
- Metal heart shaped cutter (we used the 1/2” heart cutter from Wilton’s Heart Fondant Cut-outs)
- Green Food coloring (we used Wilton’s paste food color in Leaf Green)
- Small rolling pin
- Wax Paper
- Food-safe paint brush
Cupcake Icing Tools:
- Wilton 1M Star Tip
- Icing Bag
Finishing Touches:
- Green or white cupcake liners OR Green Cupcake Wrappers
Making the Clovers:
Step 1: Tint the fondant green. With the small rolling pin, roll fondant out on out on a flat surface.
Step 2: Cut out three heart shapes with the metal cutters.
Step 3: Assemble the three hearts in the shape of a clover. At the place where the fondant over laps, brush on a little water with the food safe paint brush to ensure pieces attach.
Step 4: Roll out another very small piece of fondant into the thickness of a toothpick. Place this in the center of your clover. Set aside on wax paper to harden and dry.
Icing and Decorating the Holiday Cupcakes:
Step 1: Fill the icing bag with butter cream and fit the opening with the Wilton 1M Star metal tip.
Step 2: Starting from the outside edge of the cupcake, use a circular motion and squeeze the icing out to cover the cupcake.
Step 3: Place a clover at the center of each cupcake.
Father's Day Shirt and Tie Cupcake
Difficulty Level: Experienced
Bakery/Cake Goods Needed:
- Your favorite batch of vanilla cupcakes
- Your favorite butter cream frosting recipe
Fondant Shirt Decorating Supplies:
- 1 small batch of pre-made fondant (you can use store bought or homemade)
- Tie template*
(you can make your own or use our template)
- Blue and Yellow Food Coloring (we used Wilton’s paste food coloring in Golden Yellow and Royal Blue)
- Small rolling pin
- Wax Paper
- Food-safe paint brush
- Butter knife
Cupcake Icing Tools:
- Wilton 1M Star Tip
- Icing Bag
Finishing Touches:
- Light Blue or Yellow Cupcake Liners
Making the Tie:
Step 1: Roll out a small amount of white fondant into a rectangular shape about 2" x 3."
Step 2: Break off two small pieces of fondant. Tint one piece yellow and the other blue.
Step 3: Roll out the yellow and blue fondant. With a sharp knife cut both colors into strips around 1/4" wide.
Step 4: Dampen the surface of the white rectangle and lay the colored fondant strips over the top alternating the blue and yellow.
Step 5: Cut out small tie shape from the striped fondant. (You can also download our template). Let tie dry and harden for a few hours.
Making the Shirt:
Step 1: Using the small rolling pin, roll white fondant out on flat surface. With the butter knife, cut out a rectangle about 2-1/2” x 2” in size (or use our template).
Step 2: About 1/2" down on either side of the fondant, cut slits into the fondant about 3/4" on either side.
Step 3: Dampen the back of the "tie" and place it in the center of the fondant rectangle. Make sure top of the tie is even with the slits you cut at the top of the fondant.
Step 4: Fold the flaps formed by the slits you cut in the white fondant over the top of the tie. Let harden overnight.
Icing and Decorating Cupcakes:
Step 1: Tint the butter cream light blue using a small amount of blue food coloring. Fill the icing bag with light blue butter cream and fit the opening with the Wilton 1M Star metal tip.
Step 2: Starting from the outside edge of the cupcake, use a circular motion and squeeze the icing out to cover the cupcake.
Step 3: Place a fondant shirt on each cupcake.
Related Cupcake Ideas:
Holiday Cupcake Wrappers
Looking for ideas on great cupcake wrappers for your seasonal holiday cupcakes? Not sure what to use or the type of design that would work best? Take a look here!
>>See Holiday Cupcake Wrapper Ideas
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