Super Mario Cupcakes

Super Mario Cupcakes, originally uploaded by Pocheco.

This was my first time working with fondant. I've been dreaming about fondant ever since I first saw Colette Peters of Colette's Cakes use it in a recipe about 8-9 years ago. From the first time I saw it, I was transfixed: how could something look so smooth and beautiful and still be edible?

Since then, I've done hundreds of searches on fondant, falling in love with fondant and the seemingly infinite forms it can take. I've even read up on recipes on how to make it, but was always a little intimidated.

This weekend, it was my friend's birthday party, and I wanted to make cupcakes for them. I asked David what I should make as a theme, and he replied with Super Mario Brothers. Of course! Perfect. I did a quick internet search, and this is what I saw.

I've seen these before, and always thought they were awesome, so I thought I'd try to make them. I was a little intimidated by how much the fondant would cost and how hard it would be to work with, but I decided to go for it anyway. I know of a great party store in Vegas that has a wide variety of cake decorations, called The Party Supply House.

David and I drove over there, and sure enough, there was fondant there. About $6 for an average covering for 24 cupcakes (the smaller package on sale, made by Wilton). Not bad! I bought some red gel dye, $1.99 (since the red kind you buy in a 4 pack at the grocery store only turns it pink) and then we went home.

Whipped up a box cake mix, Pillsbury's Funfetti, and stuffed them in the oven, and got to work on the fondant.

It was SO fun! I really loved it. I opened up the package and cut off a chunk. I looked up instructions on how to add color, and the first thing I saw was that you're supposed to use gel not liquid color. Since red was the only gel I had (Allison lent me her black gel too) I decided to go ahead and try mixing in liquid color from my basic super market set.

I made the blue first. I added a couple of dots, folded it over, and proceeded to knead it like play dough. After a couple of minutes, the blue was evenly distributed and I got a nice color. Fondant is made with some funny ingredients, including glycerin, and I was worried that adding the liquid coloring would destroy the consistency and that's why the internet advised gel color.

OK: liquid works fine. The only reason I could see that you wouldn't want to use it is that the liquid just squirts right out and can get really messy as you begin to knead it. If you do it slowly though, it's totally fine and seems the same as using the gel color.

I used and upside down drinking glass to make the blue circles (I just went through my glasses in the cabinet until I found a mouth that was about the area of the cupcake.) Once I mixed the blue into the fondant, I rolled it out on parchment paper until it was about 1/8 inch thick. Then I cut 12 circles and used a little buttercream frosting to glue the fondant to the top of the cooled cupcake.

I had a lot of fun mixing all the colors, and deciding how to make the various shapes from the game. David helped too, since we were running a little short on time. Overall, the experience was so much fun and really a lot easier than I thought. I am not going to be afraid to use fondant again, and am looking forward to the next excuse I have to use it!

I was happy overall with how they turned out, especially for a first go, but am hoping I can do better next time. They were a big hit at the party! Everyone loved them. Most people removed the fondant before eating it, but I'm one of the few people I know that actually likes to eat it.

FYI, I had edible marker that I used to make the eyes on the various characters. Those are really fun to use and can be found at cake decorating stores too. And overall, the whole thing, including cupcake liners I found for .99 was about $10 for 24 awesome cupcakes.


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Currently listening to War by U2