Fondant Covered Cupcakes

A couple of weeks ago I was scraping around looking for inspiration for some baby shower cupcakes. The weather was hot and I knew my usual piped buttercream wasn't going to cut it.

At the same time I was tooling around on the internet looking for decoration ideas, when I came across a blog where a woman was putting fondant onto cupcakes with a thin layer of buttercream underneath. Back in 2009 when I first tried fondanting cupcakes I'd used white chocolate ganache as the under layer. It was really hard to get the ganache to behave well and I spent a lot of time smoothing it to form a neat dome shape. The lighbulb went on for me when I saw the buttercream under layer and I thought I'd give it a go.

In addition, I have a texture mat that I really haven't put to good use in the years since I bought. I thought why not emboss a small amount of fondant on the texture mat and see what happens? It turned out to be a winning combination.

Here are my tips for this cupcake decorating technique:

1. Fill any space left at the top of the cupcake paper with buttercream so that the fondant will rest on the very edge of the paper.

2. Use a round cookie cutter that is about 3mm wider in diameter than the cupcake. You will think the round will be too big, but the height of the domed buttercream will use up the excess.

3. Keep your hands free of any buttercream when handling the fondant. Otherwise it leaves a wet and shiny patch on the fondant.

4. Gently seal the edge of the fondant to the top edge of the cupcake paper.

5. Carefully smooth the fondant onto the buttercream to create a domed top. If you've used a texture mat don't press too hard or you'll lose your pattern.

6. When you've finished leave your cupcakes out to dry overnight if you can. Try not to keep them sealed in boxes as this makes the fondant gor sticky.

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