These birthday cupcakes are absolutely adorable and will bring so much joy to your little ones and their friends!
I am so excited to finally being able to blog about these birthday cupcakes that made my little girl’s party extra special.
Creating something new for my children every year on their birthday is not just fun for them but also an enjoyable challenge for me. Every year when they present me with a request (like a Sonic the Hedgehog or Hello Kitty cake) I am never sure if I can pull it off but after a little bit of research and trial and error I seem to end up with something we all love.
This year was no different except that Vika couldn’t settle on ONE cake she wanted. I also lacked the inspiration and skill to deliver on her requests until I stumbled upon something very special by Sweetapolita who is my number one stop for anything cake and confection related. Vika is a huge animal lover and has a really soft spot for puppies so when I saw these hand stamped cupcakes by Rosie of Sweetapolita I knew exactly what I needed. Rubber stamps! The great thing about these birthday cupcakes is that depending on a stamp you can create a great variety of cupcakes toppers. You never have to repeat yourself.
I was delighted with how they turned out. All my hard work paid off when I saw the excitement and joy in my daughter’s eyes! These birthday cupcakes were just perfect for a little girl’s birthday party as the cake toppers themselves evoked images of a child’s drawings. Don’t you think? And the tea towel that served as a back drop was made using the “self-portraits” of the children in Vika’s class! Here is one done by Vika.:-)
You can use any cake recipe and any frosting recipe but you do need fondant, never used rubber stamps, paste food colours and a small brush to make these. Here is what I did.
A day (or a week ahead) ahead:
Roll out fondant as thin as you can on an icing sugar dusted surface and cut out medallions to fit the diameter of your cupcakes. Make sure you dust your surface well with icing sugar as fondant tends to be pretty sticky. Lay them out and dry overnight. I live in England where it’s often rainy so I really struggled to get my toppers very dry, and at one point I had a humidifier going for a while to draw all the moisture out!
As soon as your fondant toppers are dry you can stamp them. I used paste food colour (Dusky Pink by Sugarflair) with just a drop of water in it, then I painted each stamp with a small paint brush and stamped the toppers. Rosie of Sweetapolita made a great tutorial on her website if you would like more details. If you have ever used a rubber stamp before you can quickly master this technique.
Ingredients for the cupcakes {Makes 24}:
- Cake Flour- 2 ½ cups/275 gr
- Baking powder- 1tbsp.
- Salt- ½ tsp.
- Kefir or Buttermilk (I used Kefir)- 1 cup
- Eggs-1 large at room temperature
- Egg whites- 2 large at rooms temperature
- Vanilla Bean (seeds scraped out)- 1
- Sugar- 1 ½ cups
- Butter- 8 tbsp/115 gr at room temperature
Note: Recipe adapted from Sweetapolita
Method:
Preheat oven to 325 F/160 C. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl, in a separate bowl mix together the egg, egg whites, kefir or buttermilk and vanilla seeds.
In a large bowl whip together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. To the bowl with butter mixture add flour mixture and egg mixture in 2 or 3 additions alternating them, starting with the flour mixture and finishing with the flour mixture.
Fill your 2 lined muffin tins with cupcake batter about ⅔ full and bake for 15-17 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.
Ingredients for Frosting:
- Mascarpone (chilled)- 8 oz/250 gr
- Cream Cheese(chilled)- 8 oz/250 gr
- Butter(at room temperature)- ½ cup/125 gr
- Icing sugar- 1 ½ cups
- Vanilla- 2 tsp.
- Paste food colour (Dusky Pink by Sugarflair)
Method:
Combine mascarpone, cream cheese, butter, vanilla, sugar and food colouring if using in a food processor and pulse just until smooth and creamy. Do not overprocess. It’s important that your mascarpone and cream cheese are cold from the fridge and butter is at room temperature, this way you will have nice and stiff frosting that is easy to pipe. (This frosting could also be made using a hand mixer or a stand mixer.)
Pipe the frosting on the birthday cupcakes using a star tip and place your stamped medallions on top.
Samantha says
Oh my goodness, the photos are as amazing as the cupcakes.
Vikalinka says
Oh thank you! They were so much fun to make!
IRENA says
That is too sweet! Happy BD to a party girl!
Vikalinka says
Thank you Irena!
Joyce M Haase says
Will the fondant animal stamp circles also stay firm if you inserted them vertically to stand in the icing? that would also be cute on the display….and show off that beautiful, colorful icing….
Vikalinka says
I am not sure if they would stay firm, mine got soft after being in contact with the frosting but I also heard that different brands of fondant stay drier.