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Learn how to easily make tropical leaf cupcakes. These cupcakes are perfect for a tropical, Hawaiian or Luau party.
With simple fondant leaf decoration, the simple tutorial will walk you through the process of creating beautiful cupcakes that everyone will love.
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There are SO many ideas for creating beautiful tropical cupcakes. The problem is deciding which ones just look beautiful and which ones are realistically going to look beautiful when YOU make them.
You know what I mean.
We have all seen them.
The Pinterest pictures in all their glory, yet when you create them they don’t look half as good as they did in the picture.
The good news is that you wont have that problem with these tropical leaf cupcakes. Regardless of your skill level in cake decoration, these cupcakes will be ideal for you.
The secret to creating these tropical leaf cupcakes is that they need to be done in 3 stages. But don’t freak out, because it means that these stages make the process feel like you are actually doing less!
3 Stages To The Perfect Tropical Leaf Cupcakes
Materials You Will Need:
Before you start anything, ensure that you have the following items to hand.
Stage 1: Create The Fondant Leaves
The first thing you need to do is create the leaves.
These leaves will be left to harden for a few days, but you can make them as early as you like in order to get prepared.
Step 1: Using green fondant, place some CMC powder inside and mix together.
The CMC powder will ensure that the fondant hardens when it is left to dry.
Step 2: Using a silicon leaf mold, place the fondant over the mold and wipe off the excess fondant.
Step 3: Very gently peel the leaf away from the silicon mold.
Step 4: Place the leaf over a fondant shaping foam.
Tip: If you don’t have a shaping foam, an egg carton could also do the trick.
Ensure that the leaves are laid in different positions to ensure that they don’t look exactly the same.
Leave the leaf’s to harden for two to three days.
Step 5: With a small paint brush, brush some gold shimmer dust over the creases in the leaves.
Stage 2: Bake and Cream The Cupcakes
Whilst the fondant leaves can be prepared ahead of time, ideally you want to bake the cupcakes either the day or the day before you need them. You want to ensure that your cupcakes are nice and fresh for the party.
Step 6: Bake the cupcakes. It doesn’t really matter whether you choose to bake from scratch or whether you use a packet mix.
I personally always use a packet mix for parties simply because I find it quicker and easier.
Step 7: Once the cupcakes have cooled, pipe the buttercream onto the top in a simple swirl.
Tip: How To Pipe A Classic Buttercream Swirl
If you have baked the cupcakes the day before the party, STOP at this point. DO NOT put your fondant leaves on the top.
As tempting as it is to completely finish the cupcakes, you do not want to risk moisture transfer from the buttercream to the leaves which could cause them to go soft and floppy.
If however you are needing the cupcakes completed for a party on the same day, proceed to step 8.
Stage 3: Putting all The Pieces Together
Step 8: On the day of the party, the fondant leaves can be gently placed on the top of the buttercream. Remember, do NOT add the leaves until the day of the party!
The leaves will however look perfect for several hours, so you don’t need to be concerned about doing this at literally the last minute.
Once the leaves have been added, the cupcakes are complete.
You have now created some super easy tropical leaf cupcakes that look pretty amazing.
The taste of the cupcake, buttercream and fondant together is pretty awesome too.
These are the type of cupcakes that will look professional on the table, but the skill level is super simple.
Need some more recipe ideas? Check out our entire range of party food ideas that are perfect for the kids and adults too. There are plenty of homemade birthday cakes, cupcakes, cookies, chocolate popcorn and other delicious recipes that guests will all love.
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