Sweet tweet! Another garden-y recipe for you today (and another video tutorial). As I mentioned in my last post, I did a bunch of treats for my father-in-law’s wife, Kathy, last weekend in honour of her surprise birthday party. When I was planning what to make, I knew that somewhere, somehow, there had to be a classic and lovely bird-themed confection. (If you knew Kathy, you’d understand.) I opted for these hand-stamped Vanilla Bean White Chocolate Birdie Cupcakes–they’re simple, delightful and unique. Thin, sweet fondant medallions atop fluffy vanilla cupcakes and rich vanilla bean white chocolate frosting (and yes, let’s eat the topper!).
One thing that I love about making these decorations, is that you can create them way in advance, which comes in super handy when you’re making a lot of treats, or if you simply like doing things ahead of time (like me). Once made, if you keep the fondant circles in a nice cool, dry place in a single layer (a pizza box works well), there’s no limit to how in advance you can whip them up. Then, once ready to use them, simply pop them on a frosted cupcake. Voila!
The thing about this hand-stamping technique is that, depending on which stamp and colour you go with, the possibilities are literally endless. You can tailor the theme and create these for pretty much anything or anyone as long as you have some fondant, soft gel paste, a clean (and never used on regular ink) rubber stamp and a small paint brush. A spooky Halloween theme perhaps? A floral wedding theme? A robot party? Anything goes. You might remember my love for using rubber stamps on fondant from these Love Letter & Scripted Heart Cookies, but you’ll notice that rather than painting the stamp, I simply used the imprint for a different effect. So once you have the stamps, you can play, play, play!
Here is the video tutorial for these stamped fondant medallion toppers:
Simple, right? And honestly, once you get your rhythm you’ll find that it’s truly a therapeutic experience. If you have cakelets at home, as I do, I find that it can be a really fun little project to work on together. If you give them their own little ball of fondant, rolling pin and cutter, they’ll be as happy as larks. Or . . . small navy blue birdies.
See?
So here’s the recipe and instructions for the cupcakes. I hope you have as much fun as I did creating these. ♥
Moist, fluffy vanilla cupcakes topped with rich & creamy vanilla bean white chocolate frosting and topped with a hand-stamped fondant medallion.
Ingredients
- ~5 oz (145 g) white fondant
- AmeriColor Soft Gel Paste, Navy Blue
- 2-1/2 cups (275 g)(10 oz) cake flour, sifted
- 1 tablespoon (15 g) baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon (5 g) salt
- 1 cup (237 ml) whole milk, at room temperature
- 2 large egg whites (60 g), at room temperature
- 1 whole egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) Pure Vanilla Extract
- 1/4 teaspoon (1.75 ml) Pure Almond Extract
- 1-1/2 cups (300 g) granulated sugar
- 1 stick (115 g)(8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup (227 g)(8 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 6 oz quality (175 g) white chocolate
- 1/2 vanilla bean, seeded and scraped
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 mL) almond extract
- Generous pinch of salt
- 3 cups (375 g)(13.5 oz) sifted icing sugar
Instructions
- Roll white fondant on cornstarch-dusted (or icing sugar) surface until 1/8" thin, or even thinner and cut as many 2.25" diameter circles as needed (you will want to make a few extra). Let dry overnight.
- Apply a thin layer of soft gel paste (I used AmeriColor Navy Blue) onto a new, clean rubber stamp using a small angled paintbrush (that you designate for food use) and gently press down upon fondant circles. Touch up any unstamped spots with your paintbrush. Let dry. {see video tutorial}
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and center the oven rack. Line 2 muffin/cupcake pans with your favourite standard-size cupcake liner, and put the first cupcake pan on a baking sheet. (You will place the second cupcake pan on the same sheet in the oven once the first tray is baked.)
- Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a medium-sized bowl. Whisk together the milk, eggs, vanilla extract and almond extract in a medium bowl or large glass measuring cup.
- In an electric mixer fitted with the whisk or paddle attachment (I used the whisk), cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until very pale and creamy, about 5 minutes.
- With the mixer still on medium speed, alternate additions of the flour mixture and milk-egg mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture (3 dry additions, 2 wet), beating after each addition until incorporated. Continue mixing on medium speed for 2 minutes.
- Divide batter evenly among your cupcake liners–about 2/3 full–and bake until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs only, about 16 minutes.
- Carefully remove the cupcakes from the pan and let cool on wire racks. Repeat with second tray.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip butter for 3-4 minutes on medium speed (I use “4″ on my KitchenAid). Butter will become very pale & creamy.
- Melt chocolate in microwave in a small heatproof bowl, or over a pot of simmering water on the stovetop, stirring often. Let cool.
- Add melted chocolate to butter and beat until incorporated. Add extract, vanilla bean and salt and mix on medium speed for 1 minute. Add sifted icing sugar, beating on low speed until just combined, increasing to medium speed until well combined.
- Pipe a generous swirl of frosting atop each cupcake, using pastry tip 1M, or the tip of your choice.
- Gently press a fondant medallion upon each cupcake. Best enjoyed same day.
Sweetapolita’s Notes:
- I used Satin Ice Rolled Fondant
and Americolor Soft Gel Paste Navy Blue
for this project.
- I found the bird rubber stamp at Michael’s Craft Store, but there are so many gorgeous options on Etsy.
- I use this Ateco Fondant Work Mat
for all of my fondant work (and more!).
- I used the 2.25″ round cutter from this Ateco Plain Round Cutter Set
.
See you soon with a slightly spookier recipe. And for my Canadian friends, Happy Thanksgiving!
Oh my they are gorgeous! Lady you are so clever and super talented. Thanks for sharing your amazing goodies with us. xx
Thanks so much, Tammi!
So beautiful! I love them!
This is so helpful and beautiful! Such a good idea for any occassion. Gorgeous as usual, Rosie! :)
Happy weekend! xo
Thanks so much, Alba! Happy Weekend to you too!
Great tutorial — can’t wait to give this a try.
LOVE these!! Also love video tutorials- yay!
Great tutorial! I will definitely try it for future cupcake decorating.
Thank you. I really enjoy reading your posts. Rubber stamping on fondant is such a creative idea. I will give it a try soon.
Thanks.
These are absolutely adorable Rosie! Happy Thanksgiving to you, and your family!
Thank you so much, Jessica! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family as well!
Oh, I love the bird stamped medallions! That’s genius.
This is just wonderful! LOVE the idea!
Such a wonderful idea! And the video was very helpful :)
Thanks so much!
Oh wow, I love these! And thank you so much for your videos–they’re so much fun to watch!
This isn’t something that I’d ever think of doing myself but what a fabulous idea; I love how you can customise it to whatever you want! Thanks for another great idea and super cute video xo
Thanks for the sweet comment, Kathryn! xo
Great tutorial!!! Thank you. :)
That is such a wonderful idea! So cute and can’t wait to try it out!
What an adorable idea…and so many poosibilities!
oh how cool! Awesome girl!
Your creativity and talent never fail to astound me!
These are beautiful, and I love that your little one got involved!
These are so pretty!
—-Spectacular. Sweet. Sinsational.
You. Inspire. Me. xx
I love this!
So clever! Ok, but I have to admit that seeing your daughter doing this makes me feel a little bad, because I’m terrified to try something like this and here is your little girl fearlessly decorating cupcakes. Maybe it’s time for me to get over these fears.
Oh now that’s just darling! You are amazing…I wish you were close enough to me, that I could order all my goodies from you. LOVE that you used a stamp on fondant.
Hugs,
Jamie :)
I love your birds, they are beautiful. Cupcake medallions are such a great way to decorate cupcakes and take them to the next level.
I did a similar project last week, but with my kids for a fun spin on cupcake medallions. Check it out at
http://leelabeancakes.blogspot.com/2012/10/kid-bites-decorating-cupcakes.html
It’s a great way to get the kids involved in decorating for parties or just for fun!
I love your website, Rosie. It’s beautiful and inspiring.
These are lovely, a simple and easy solution for a great looking decoration! Thank you so much Rosie!!!
So cute! And videos are so helpful when trying to learn something. :)
I did stamps on fondant covered cookies for a wedding. I had to make 144 of them. I ended up soaking a felt pad inside a plastic container with black americolor gel and then using it like an inkpad to stamp with. It worked great and was reall fast. You can see what they looked like on my blog, http://citrusspicebakery.blogspot.com/2012/06/wedding-cookies.html
My 11 year old daughter is in love with France. I can’t wait to try these with the Eiffel Tower :) thanks for all your recipes and creativity
Thanks for the great idea. Can’t wait to try these. I purchased a load of rubber stamps a while back with this in mind. Now if I could only find them…
These are TOO cute! I love the simplicity of the birds! I will surely be trying out the rubber stamp technique!!
that is a great idea, I want to try it now.
That was awesome lovely!!! Oh, it made me want to stamp fondant sooo baaad!! ;)
Loooove, V
(they are ready for a magazine!)
These are super cute, I adore the birdie stamps.
Thanks for the great post! How long can the medallions keep?
Thanks, Christine! The medallions will keep for at least several months if you keep them in a cool, dry place (not airtight). I like to store my fondant decorations in a clean pizza box. Hope that helps!
rosie! love the idea, and the effect is truly lovely… ! great video, too. loved putting a “voice” to the picture and your blog writing!
These are absolutely beautiful!
These are just beautiful! thank you for the inspiration, I’ll be trying them soon!
How do you get your fondant medallions to dry hard and not go soft? I made some fondant cut outs, let them dry for several days and when I put them on the frosting, they kind of melted and went soft. :(
That’s too bad, Terri. I wonder why your medallions softened–something tells me it’s the brand/recipe of fondant you used, maybe? I use Satin Ice, which is a bit more $$, but it dries like porcelain, literally. Especially when rolled nice and thin, as with these medallions. I hope that helps!
add an even amount of gum paste to the fondant & they will dry nice & hard :)
These are amazing! So simple but so tasty. Unfortunately when I was piping the icing on my fourth cupcake my bag split and I was covered in icing! I had to spread the rest with a knife but they were still great. I also used satin ice fondant and it does dry out really well.
Thanks so much for the recipe! I am oficially in love with your blog.
Emma x
I love this! I am going to try very soon… Loved the tutorial, especially your nail polish color (and the stamping lol)!
Wow! Awesome idea!
I wonder, though, could you use white chocolate disks instead of fondant? Or would the coloring not absorb as well?
These look amazing! I love the decoration, it’s simple but beautiful.
If I’m using vanilla paste on the frosting, how much should I put?
Thank you!
this look fantastic… i will try soon.
If I cut the recipe in half, would it alter the outcome? Instead of using a half an egg could I just use the whole egg? The reason I’m asking is because I want to make chocolate and vanilla cupcakes.
Lovely recipie! How long in advance can I make the cupcakes and the frosting? Can they keep for a few days? Thanks!
I tried these cupcakes last night after trying 2 others right before.
The first 2 were complete, COMPLETE failures. Then I tried yours
As a last resort…Boy how I wish I would have tried this one first!
Tasted great and was moist, light, and fluffy. Nice dome tops too!
Wow you really know what you’re doing. I will serve these
at my child’s b-day party. Thank you!
Hi Rosie
I wanted egg whites does to cake compared to using whole eggs, I noticed this recipe a combination of both? I seen some recipes only calling for egg white and some solely eggs yolks, can you please school me on what it does?
Hi Rosie
I wanted to know what egg whites does to cake compared to using whole eggs, I noticed this recipe uses a combination of both? I have seen some recipes calling for egg white only and some solely eggs yolks, can you please school me on what it does?
Hey Rosie,
I just wanted to say a big thank you for posting this vanilla cupcake recipe!
I have tried so many recipes, and some are very temperamental that I gave up on trying anymore!
UNTIL… I tried yours! such an easy recipe, no fluff.. brilliant fluffy moist cupcakes!
thanks again
Hi! Does this frosting need to be refrigarated? Thanks!
Hi Majo,
The frosting is just fine at room temperature for up to 2 days. Hope that helps!
Hi – since we aren’t really “sticking” the fondant to the frosting, would it be ok to use a stabilized whipped cream frosting? Thanks!
I’m going to give these a try but with a few modifications, like omitting the almond extract (I can’t stand almond extract!) and adding half of the vanilla bean to the batter and the other half to the frosting and I’ll be using this frosting instead:
http://tastykitchen.com/recipes/desserts/thate28099s-the-best-frosting-ie28099ve-ever-had/