Need B & W cupcake ideas

We're planning a shower for my niece and her wedding colors are black and white. She wants cupcakes at the shower and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for fancying them up a little. I could do chocolate or devils food cupcakes with white frosting, but as far as decorating them...I could use ideas for decors or those hard icing cupcake toppers...things that will look classy but still be cute for a shower. It can't be too labor-intensive, since we'll be talking quite a few cupcakes having to be decorated.

Lori, your local walmart will copy onto edible paper any pattern or picture that is not copywrited for like 7or8.00 per 8X10 sheet.

you can copy a houndstooth pattern, cut it out and put it on fondant circles that you precut with a biscut cutter to fit the cupcake top.

OR, make a white fondant circle and make smaller differnt sized black circles, and put on top. not really polka dots, but circles.
they are classy.

or any geometric shapes for that matter, triangles, etc.

pin stripe them.

I'll look for pictures later.

Hey, these look cute. I don't think I could handle doing fondant for each cupcake, but if I did white buttercream with tiny black flowers...maybe some of those little silver balls, too...doesn't look too hard.

Those flowers are cute.

all you would need is the cutter, rolled out gumpaste/fondant mixture (it doesnt crack as easily)

and they sell a peice of foam at hobby lobby in the cake part, where you push the flower down with your round fondant tool, and it picks up the petals like that. I dont know the type of foam, I want to find out so I can buy some in a larger peice for cheaper, instead of buying their 3.99 peice thats labled 'for cakes'. LOL

wow,that really looks beautiful,love it

the picture finally loaded all the way. LOL

after looking at those cupcakes- they have a pretty pattern on them. That is some GREAT crusting buttercream, or its fondant that was put on an impression mat when rolled and then cut with a cookie cutter to fit.

I am betting fondant, because see the ruffled edges? its just cut and set on top. those are SOOO dang pretty!!

Where in the hell would I find tools used to do something like that? They look stunning, and I do see that it looks to be fondant. I found a cool site online that sells lots of baking items. Their cupcake liners are adorable, and they sell lots of sugars.

http://www.layercakeshop.com/

I'm not an expert like most of these ladies,but what i would do to make it easy is: i would use vanilla buttercream,try to make it a smooth layer,then use black buttercream in one of those frosting bags to make a back flower on each one,then place acouple of those silver things,sounds much easier and faster

Well, I sort of like the look of the black fondant mini flowers with the edges sort of curled up and the silver thingies inside...or they could be white pearls inside and would show up nice, too. A mini flower cookie cutter would be awsesome to find. It would be fairly easy to roll fondant and cut a bunch of flower shapes on a mass scale. Hmmm. I'm going to keep looking.

Okay, I bought a set of like 11 tools at walmart, its by wilton. its for fondant gumpaste stuff. they have came in SOOOO freakin handy. I couldnt do shit before I got them. LOL

They were 20.00 at walmart. 29. at hobby lobby.
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=93495A5C-423B-522D-F27FD2E8535573B6&fid=D765F8CA-1E0B-C910-EA4AA093460A907F



you would simply, roll out your gumpaste/fondant (50/50 or 60/40 really works best, ) fondat doesnt really dry hard, gumpaste dries really hard, you want something that will hold shape, but not crack when dry.

When working with it, keep crisco on your hands. seriously.

roll it out, cookie cutter it, then take your round ended tool and press it into the center of the flower. bringing the pettles up. thats where the foam block comes in handy, but I dont know the hardess/consistancy of the foam. (just couldnt afford it when I saw it)

OH and you would want to color the fondant/GP before you started. color it a day or so in advance, so you know if you got it black enough.

To save it, make a ball out of it, cover it with crisco and wrap in plastic wrap. It will stay for weeks and weeks like that.

and you could make these a few a day for a week or so till you got them done


Okay, I went and looked at wiltons website to find you the link to tthe tools. and I NEED sooo much of this!! Hobby lobby in lufkin doesnt even have some of it.. all they had was the foam. the other flower holder things would be SOOO nice to have!!

http://www.wilton.com/store/site/department.cfm?id=D763CF14-1E0B-C910-EAFADE2DFDA5581D&fid=D763CF34-1E0B-C910-EA97030FE7D281C7

I'm sorry, I have to stop looking for stuff for you now... I might spend money I dont have... LOL

Lori, the lillypad cake? the yellow flowers are just daisy cutter cookie cutter cut outs that I stacked. The set came with 3 sizes, for like 2.49. at hobby lobby. a larger one, that one and a smaller one. and hey, look on the soap ilse, and the clay crafting isle. You'd be suprised at the stuff you can find

The Wilton link is very helpful! I did find s ome little flower cutouts there. Still looking! I've never worked with gumpaste. A little scared of it.

I dont like working with strait gumpaste, plus its expensive. I really do like working with gumpaste/fondant mixed. Its easy to work with, it holds it shape, and it doesnt get real dry and crumbily like strait gumpaste does. and its still edible. thats the main thing, you wont have a guest breaking their teeth off on it

This is quite possibly the BEST cupcakes I have ever eaten....amazing really.
They don't have to be pink.....you could make them black or white, or purple
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/pink-champagne-cupcakes/26f6f790-0852-4bfc-8f73-8d4cfc8cf496?WT.dcsvid=Mzc2Mzc1NDkwNgS2&rvrin=E53FFB87-E7A8-43CE-993E-1B5F0CB5C440&WT.mc_id=Newsletter_BC_04_22_2010

I like buttercream better than fondant anyway Lori. And if you worry that they won't look as good, you could dip the tops in colored sugar. Some in black and some in white. Put a flower on top of that and they'll look super fancy with a fraction of the work of fondant.

buttercream definitely tastes better,i love it,but fondant looks nicer

you gotta put buttercream under the fondant. LOL

you can get buttercream as smooth as fondant. and there is such a thing as rolled buttercream. I dont know how to make rolled butter cream, I've never tried. But you have to be REALLY good to get your BC smooth as fondant. LOL I aint that good, I'll stick with fondant.

Erin, I got that recipe yesterday in an email from Betty Crocker called Cupcakes, Cupcakes, Cupcakes! It looks interesting but the reviews are not all that good. I found this one while I was looking for ideas yesterday:

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dr7b2ff_30hbq82wdx

I would try either of them to find out which I like best.

I got this gum paste flower kit from Wilton. It has the roller, the foam, different flower cutouts, and it was included in the 4 for 3 promotion.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ZNUTCG/ref=oss_product

I also got some really cute black and white cupcake papers, black and white chunky sugar, edible pearls, and white food coloring. I'm hoping the coloring will make the buttercream even whiter. Has anyone used it?

I'm getting nervous. I know they're just cupcakes, I don't know why I'm so uptight.

If you use buttercream, be careful about black. It takes so much food coloring it stains teeth. I recently went to a wedding with teeth staining icing (teal) and many people didn't eat it because of that. It happened at a recent shower too. I never eat icing that is really dark because of that and there will be others that won't eat it too. Of the ones that eat it, it will become the topic of the party. If it were my party, I would use the gum paste for the black, not buttercream.
Hope this doesn't sound rude, just wanted to share what I have seen happen.

I'm only using black for the tiny little fondant/gumpaste flowers. All of the icing will be white. But I know exactly what you mean. DH just turned 50 and I used some black on his cake. Eew. It stains more than your teeth.

My daughter's birthday party is tomorrow and the cake is in the oven right now. She wants black buttercream but I figure the teens won't mind.

Could someone please post the recipe for the buttercream icing. Thank you.

I have a slew of tiny black flowers made. What is the best way of adhering flower centers (I want to use white sugar pearls) after they have dried? I don't want the centers falling off!