Let’s be honest: Is there anything tastier than a cupcake?
Anything cuter? Anything better? I don’t
think so! We’re saluting our favorite bite-sized treats with some adorable
decorating ideas sure to wow guests or, you know, impress the socks off Y-O-U.
Hey there, fancy pants!
Bust out of the grocery store blahs for your next soiree and
hit up a local arts-‘n’-crafts store (we like JoAnn’s) or a cooking store (like
Williams-Sonoma) for some oh-so-elegant edible decorations. You can find tiny
faux pearls and silver beads plus metallic sprinkles and piles of patterned
cupcake wrappers. Perfect!
Guess who
Test your creativity with cupcake caricatures. Grab gel
icing for detail work and whip up (or buy) a few different colors of
buttercream frosting. For bonus points, snag some itty bitty candies to use for
details like eyes and noses. If you’re throwing a “guess who” party, decorate a
cupcake for each of your guests’ aliases. If you’re hosting a Twilight movie
madness party, decorate cupcakes with the faces of characters. You get the
idea!
Menagerie munchies
Set our a variety of snacks and bite-sized treats, then have
a blast with your babes combining the goodies into your favorite creatures. A
dog could have a gumdrop snout, M&M eyes and jelly bean ears, while a
chirpy bird could have a candy corn beak and piped icing feathers.
Flower power
Miniature cupcakes look sweet as can be when you pipe on
some colorful buttercream frosting flowers. Pick up a rose petal decorating tip
(it should look like a sort of slanted tear drop) and attach it to a pastry
bag or plastic bag with a small hole cut in the tip. Experiment until you get the
flower shape down, then decorate with sprinkles and candies.
Mini monsters
Instead of pouring your batter into muffin wrappers, try
greasing up the pan with butter or a nonstick baking spray and baking your
cupcakes au naturel. When they’re completely cool
and ready for decorating, be ready with a pile of supplies—dried fruit slices
or nonpareils for feet, licorice for antenna, mini M&Ms for eyes. Pipe on
bright-colored frosting to give your monsters' fur, then munch away!
On display
If you’re playin’ the hostess with the mostest, try using a
flat piece of cardboard or poster board as a display for all of your cupcakes.
Use markers to create a Scrabble board for your bookworm bestie’s birthday
party, then write out a cute message using your mini cakes. You can arrange
them into a shape—hearts, horses or Harry Potter—or have them spell out good
wishes.
BY BRITTANY TAYLOR ON 8/16/2011 11:53:00 AM
POSTED IN sweet treats, cupcake, cake, easy party food