I made these cupcakes for my daughter, Cara's, 7th grade teachers. Each of her teachers got a cupcake and each cupcake had a fondant topper that had something to do with the subject that they teach.
These cupcakes came from the same batch of cupcakes that we used for my son's teacher's cupcake (see
this post for tulip cupcakes and
this post for Star Wars cupcakes). So, the cupcakes are just baked, cooled completely, and then iced by using a large star tip to pipe chocolate buttercream on top the chocolate cupcakes.
The cupcake below was made for her language arts teacher. I made a 3D book out of fondant. Cara wanted the title of the book to be The Giver, which is a book they read during the year. So, I decided instead of just writing 'The Giver' on the front, I would look the book up online and draw the cover using a brown food coloring marker. Cara was happy when she saw it.
The next cupcake was made for her P.E. coach. I rolled out some white fondant and let it dry just a little (it helps the food coloring markers draw more smoothly without catching on the soft fondant). I drew the volleyball first using a black food coloring marker. The I used different colors of food coloring to paint on the basketball, tennis ball and tennis racket. Then I went back with the black food coloring marker to finish the details. I cut the picture out using a small paring knife when I was finished and stuck the fondant sports topper into the icing.
This cupcake was made for her math teacher. The process for this topper was the same as the sports one above except I left a little tab of fondant at the bottom when I cut it out to stick into the icing.
The cupcake below was made for Cara's science teacher. I used the same food coloring painting technique going back for the details with the food coloring marker as I did for the sports topper. I did use a toothpick dipped in water to take some of the lighter purple color away to make bubbles in that section.
I made the following music note cupcake for her choir teacher. After I painted the music note with red food coloring, I used edible shimmer dust to make it glitter.
This last cupcake was made for her social studies teacher. Again, same painting technique as the sports topper.
All her teachers liked the cupcakes, and Cara was excited to give them a little thank you treat. :)