Pretty Pink Cupcakes

My daughter and I made cupcakes together. I have been seeing all sorts of fun ideas that I wanted to try - so we managed to experiment with all of them in this one batch.

They are baked in the Wilton King Size Cupcake pan. One cake mix makes only 6 King Size cupcakes...so these puppies are big (3-4 times the size of a regular cupcake).

The decorations are a combination of fondant and frosting. I love the idea of having a collection of individual different cupcakes tied together by a color story. We used leftover (pink and white) fondant from Little K's birthday cake, along with whatever sprinkles and jimmies we had in the pantry (mostly Valentine, so some of the pinks are a little dark.

This was my daughters favorite one - can you tell how big it is?

We also experimented with fillings for the cupcakes. I mixed up some sour cream, sugar and raspberry jam and dropped a tablespoon into the top of the batter before baking. It sunk the the middle of the cupcake while baking (or the batter rose around it - not sure which). Turned out pretty good, I think I would have preferred a bit stronger of a berry taste (maybe more berries next time).

This one is piped frosting with an embossed fondant cut out heart embellished with a fondant flower. I didn't have any fondant embossing sheets, so I just used one of my rubber stamp background images (impeccably cleaned, of course).

This is a fondant base covered with piped lines. The flower is fondant. The little rounds where the piping criss crosses are from a Valentine sprinkle mix, as is the dark pink heart. You can't see it in the picture, but the flower is brushed with Lustre Dust so it sparkles (left over from another Birthday Cake).

This is plain frosting applied like normal, and the edges are rolled in pink jimmies.

Fondant embossed with the rubber stamp again. Fondant Butterfly (also embossed) with sprinkles and a heart.

This one is my favorite. Strips of fondant cut and woven into a basket weave. I used a biscuit cutter to cut all the fondant tops the exact size of the cupcake top.

There is no close up picture of the one with 3 little roses - it got eaten before I got out the camera. I tried to do the rolled rose technique, but it was a little difficult since my fondant was old, it was a little dry and cracked. Maybe it is a good thing I wasn't able to take a close up. I think I prefer the rose by petal technique better.