I made these tulip cupcakes for my son, Caleb's, 4th grade homeroom teacher. On a list of her favorites she wrote tulip down for one of her favorite flowers, so we thought that would be cute. Caleb helped pick what colors to make the tulips.
The cupcakes are just chocolate cupcakes baked, cooled completely, then iced using a medium-sized open star tip to pipe a large swirl to cover the top of the cupcake.
To make the tulips, I bought some long lollipop sticks and cut them in half. I painted them green with some watered down food coloring and set them aside to dry. Next, I tinted some fondant green to match the color of the sticks. I rolled out the green fondant and cut out shapes similar to tulip leaves. I used some fondant tools to thin and elongate the leaves in the necessary places. Then I lay the leaves on top of some of the extra lollipop sticks to let them dry with a little curve to them.
I tinted some fondant pink and rolled a piece into a ball. I inserted one of the green lollipop sticks into the ball to serve as a base for the tulip petals. I rolled out the rest of the pink fondant and used a large petal cutter from a set I have to cut out 5 petals. Using some fondant tools I thinned and rounded out the petals where needed. Then I used some water to attach the petals around the ball base. I smoothed and furled my petals here and there to get the look that I wanted for the tulip.
Next, I inserted the tulip into the cupcake and then placed two of my leaves into the icing on either side of the stick. Then I repeated the steps for the purple and yellow tulips using their respective colors of fondant.
I was happy with the way these cupcakes turned out. I thought they looked sweet, bright, and Spring-y. :) Caleb's teacher really liked them too! :)
(I created my animated name at this site.)
