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DIY FONDANT FLOWERS & BUTTERFLIES (AKA making sugar paste even sweeter!)

One of the first creative tasks I undertook as part of Project Pinterest, The Blessingway Edition was the making of cupcake decorations from sugar paste in the form of butterflies (my chosen blessingway motif) and flowers. I own the Wilton Ultimate Decorating Set (which I love, by the way), so many of the tools I needed for this project I already had on hand. The rest of my supplies came mostly from Panduro. Below you’ll find a list of things I used to create my cupcake decorations, some pictures and a few simple tips/notes.
fondant_tools

  1. Wilton 9″ rolling-pin
  2. Milla’s sugar paste (absolutely perfect as it came in 3 ready-made shades; 1 pale green, 1 pastel purple and 1 dark purple)
  3. PME daisy plunger cutter set
  4. Mix of corn flour and icing sugar (for use in Wilton dusting pouch)
  5. Wilton rose cutter set 
  6. Panduro butterfly plunger cutter set
  7. Wilton thick foam pad
  8. Wilton plastic ball tool
  9. Milla’s purple confetti sprinkles
  10. Panduro white edible pearls
  11. Squire’s Kitchen edible glue
  12. Clean paint brush (small)
  13. Wilton forming cups
  14. Wilton wave flower formers
  15. Lemon juice
  16. Wilton silver pearl dust

 
SOME NOTES & DIRECTIONS:

  1. I started this project by quickly sketching out some ideas, so that I had a notion of how many butterflies and flowers I’d need altogether and in what sizes/colours.
  2. PrintWhen I was ready to make my decorations, I rolled out fondant  (starting with the pale green coloured one, which was the lightest) using non-stick rolling-pin on my Wilton practice board. I wanted my fondant rather thin so that the elements appeared delicate, but not so thin that they would not hold up well.
  3. I then cut the fondant using both regular cutters and also plunger cutters that left a nice texture/impression on the fondant butterflies. I always made sure to keep my unused fondant covered while working so that it didn’t dry out (it dries out fast!). Plastic wrap or ziplock bags work well for this.
  4. Using a small spatula, I gently lifted each cut out element from the work surface and placed in a forming cup/tray or on a clean plate to dry. Some of the butterflies I placed in the Wilton wave former so that their wings curved upward. The small blossoms and daisies I placed on a foam pad before drying and used a ball tool to press a little indent into the middle (this curves the petals upward and creates a perfect little space in the center of the flower for placing a smaller flower, sprinkles or pearls).
  5. I allowed the cut-outs to dry well overnight.
  6. I brushed silver pearl dust over some of the fondant decorations with a dry paint brush. For others, I mixed a couple of drops of lemon juice with pearl dust before applying so that the glitter had a little more staying power and allowed me to highlight very specific areas of a fondant decoration (eg, tips of petals).
  7. I finished off the flowers by adding pretty centers of pearls or sprinkles (affixed with edible glue) in colours that matched the fondant.
  8.  I used edible glue to stick some elements together (eg, small butterflies and flat blossom “discs”).
  9. I left everything out to dry again overnight before placing carefully in an airtight container lined with baking paper.

 

fondant_butterflies_daisies2fondant_butterflies_daisies3fondant_butterflies_daisies4fondant_butterflies_daisies5fondant_butterflies_daisies
They worked perfectly and looked so pretty on my cupcakes on the day. Effort well worth it! 😀

 

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Comments

  1. Oh wow, you are truly amazing. What beautiful things you create. And i have to always mention that you images are fantastic! You are so talented 🙂 what a gift and thank you for sharing it with us!

    • Thanks so much! Yes the world of cake decorating is an amazing place! I could spend soooo much money in cake deco shops. I was actually relieved that I got my supplies from the local craft store, thereby limiting my choices somewhat… otherwise I might have gone loco 😉 But it was also good to see how many different things I could create with 3 fondant colours and 2 types of sprinkles 🙂

  7. You are truly an amazing & creative decorations cake master!! hahahahahaha! Wonderful! This is not my thing but I learned so much here!

  14. Ahh ok…found the link from your cupcake post! Awesome!
    3 things i’ve learnt from this post:
    1. there’s such a thing as ‘kitchen glue’ :O just so so awesome
    2. you can eat shiny things (edible pearls and silver dusting….how cool is that – you do realise once i get my hands on that dusting everything (yup even lasagne) is going to have silver dusting for some time… imagine that…hmm this salad looks boring…what about silver dusting!)
    3. rolling pins have sizes!! (just when i thought they came in big or small)
    Thanks Miss Marzipan!!

    • Hi! So glad you found the post and that you found it informative! Thanks so much for the feedback 🙂 I sometimes wonder if its worth sharing tutorial style info when I’m a beginner and home cook myself, but I figure it probably makes me a little more sympathetic to the questions/queries/issues that other DIYers have. All the best to you x

    • Do let me know if you try 🙂 I can’t wait to have another day of making flowers and other decorations… that day is a long way off right now, however 😉

  16. Wow, this post is the very first thing I clicked upon seeing you stopped by my blog. Holy moly you’re talented! These are absolutely beautiful. I think we might be a bit late heading to my in-laws since I can tell I’m going to be absorbed in your site this morning. 🙂

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