Here’s how it all began. Here was the original idea drawn out with cupcake topping ideas at the bottom.
October 2015: My daughter wanted to have a carnival themed birthday. One morning, I had the idea of putting all the cupcakes on a ferris wheel, but decided not to tell my daughter the idea because I was’n’t sure I could actually make it happen. Of course I told her, and then there was no going back. I made this cardboard prototype to get some dimensions and then went to Home Depot to get the materials. Coincidentally, they had a 1″ thick round piece of wood that was EXACTLY the size of my cardboard prototype. What are the chances?!
Here’s the beginning of the ferris wheel. I bought an electric jigsaw to cut out the center triangles and cut the wood into squares (and also my base). I then bracketed on the squares as my cupcake stands.
Mid spray paint. After painting everything silver, I sprayed it again with a diamond glitter spray.
Clown in progress which bits of the carnival tent, ring toss game and lollipop girl in view.
The food was the most fun to make. The yellow squiggle on the bottom left is the mustard for the hotdog. In the background is the beginning form of the boy with the balloon.
making the ducks for the fishing game
I wanted to have my daughter’s age in Marquee lights. I actually tried to find mini battery powered LEDs that I could affix to the fondant, but no avail.
Lollipop girl in progress.
#GoBlue
This was most people’s favorite. I’m not sure why! Someone suggested maybe it was the mixed media–in this case, fondant, wood and liquid (karo syrup).
Marquee lights completed.
A lot of the kids, said, “You didn’t make her face!” My response was, “That’s the point..the lollipop is bigger than her face!”
For the cotton candy, I pushed fondant through a press and then wrapped it around on itself and the fondant handle.
December 2014: Here are some of the first mini doughnuts I made. All are made of fondant and topped with royal icing. The sprinkles are actual sprinkles!I experimented making glazed doughnuts. Some I used just painted with translucent royal icing. Some I painted with gelatin so that it would peel a bit and look translucent when dry. And some I covered in clear glitter flakes.Fondant doughnuts
My almost 8 year old daughter made the kitten + accessories in the upper right of the picture. She also made the two doughnuts at the very top!Here they are! I wanted each cupcake to resemble a little picnic table, so I wrapped them with red gingham waxed tissue tied with a white ribbon. Then, I topped each cupcake with a smooth white fondant round before topping each with the doughnuts. An aerial viewsome close-upsThe “powdered sugar” on the doughnuts was actually dried white fondant that I ground up in a coffee grinder.A plate of mini cupcakesThis cupcake was the birthday girl’s favorite: Hot chocolate with marshmallows + a Malasada (Portuguese doughnut).
October 2013: This project was one of those that continued to morph well beyond my initial plan, even as I was putting it all together the last day. I knew I wanted a gum ball tree with a swing, and I knew I wanted a chocolate waterfall that created a chocolate lake. The mountain and tree are molded from Rice-Krispies Treats mixture. Once it hardened, I covered everything in fondant. Originally, my plan was to create the colorful walking path and intersperse the individual cupcakes on the white areas. But then….I decided that I didn’t want just the white background for my cupcakes, so I thought I would find a way to make the base green, like grass. I decided on crushed up green candies, but since I had to buy bags of multicolored candies, my idea morphed into a much more psychedelic experience than I had planned.Here’s a not so great photo of my all edible Candyland. I had a hard time trying to get the best angle to capture it all.All of the candies & treats on the cupcakes are made of fondant.I decided to add a mermaid diving into the chocolate lake. Her tail is adorned with slivers of jellybeans, and the splash is made of hardened chocolate.The chocolate bars are made of fondant and stamped with my daughter’s initials. I did re-use a Ghirardelli chocolate bar wrapper to wrap my fake bars.The gum balls are real gum balls. Originally, I was going to make all of the gum balls out of fondant, but I decided that real gum balls would be way more visually appealing and exciting. I also had planned to make a fondant person sitting on the swing, but my daughter thought it would better if we used the playing pieces from the Candyland game to really hammer the theme home.
December 2012: My daughter wanted Ariel cupcakes, but as before, I knew I didn’t want to make 12 of the same thing, so the theme became Ariel & Friends. Here’s a shot from the morning of the party as I am assembling each mermaid on her cupcake.All the mermaids, each with their individual scene. Only the birthday girl got Ariel, Flounder and Sebastian
October 2012: This year, the obsession was hula hooping and jump roping. It took a while, but I decided to make one girl per cupcake, and have all of them doing tricks with their hula hoops and jump ropes– sometimes interacting together.This girl is the one leaping in the air while two other girls spin the rope around her.Assembling all the girls and their ropes the day of the party.Not sure why I decided that this girl would be sitting down while holding on to one end of a jumprope.One of my hula hoopers. I put toothpicks in each fondant arm in order to support the hoops.Another jump rope holderThis girl would be in mid-air while doing a rope cross.My redhead now on her cupcake and holding her end of the rope.I made the hula hoops months in advance to ensure they would be dried out enough to stay put while hanging on the girls’ arms or around their waists.This hula hoop matched one my daughter had at the time.I dipped the string in fabric stiffener to make the jump ropes airborne.All of the fondant characters in actionDouble armed fondant hula-hooper
December 2010: A year later, my daughter was still obsessed with Sesame Street and actually wanted Ernie AND Bert cupcakes. I thought a lot about how to do this, and then somehow was struck with the idea of putting just Ernie in the bath. It became another creative challenge to put them all in different positions, some with bars of soap or scrub brushes but all would be relaxing and of course, with rubber ducky in tow. The sugar duckies I bought from my go-to supply store, Sugar ‘N Spice. I quickly realized that since I was covering Ernie with “suds”, I didn’t actually need to make full bodies. Most of the cupcakes are just Ernie heads, arms and legs.Here are all the happy fondant Ernie’s relaxing in their cupcake tubs.
December 2009: This was my second attempt at playing with fondant, and unfortunately, I only have this one picture. Once I decided to do 12 Grovers, I knew I had to make them all in different positions. My daughter’s favorite was the “U”.
