Kids Decorating Cupcakes

This past weekend I spent a long weekend at home with my family! It was a great to take a break and enjoy some quality time with my family for Mother's Day weekend. It was busy as I helped my sister out with a cake decorating demonstration for a local scout troop, attended my niece's first ballet recital, made a cake, visited with my in-laws, and had a special lunch on Mother's Day for my mom and sister! We try to pack in a lot whenever we have a chance to come home. One of my favorite activities, though, was having my niece and nephew help me out with some adorable cupcakes for Mother's Day!

We were going out to eat for Mother's Day, but I decided we needed some special cupcakes for dinner the night before. I was making a birthday cake for a friend of our family, so I decided to use the extra batter to make some cupcakes. My niece and nephew are always very eager to help me decorate cakes and cupcakes, so I wanted them to get to help. The solution I came up with was to do all the baking and piping icing myself, but then let them help me decorate fondant hearts.

This idea is easy to do, and the kids were so proud of them. They got to use edible markers to color the hearts and my niece wrote a message. I helped my nephew out by writing a message from him, but he loved coloring the heart.

Here's how I made these:

• Bake and cool cupcakes
• Pipe icing on cupcakes using the 1M tip (or a similar open star tip)
• Roll out white fondant (or some light color) to around 1/8 in
• Cut out the fondant shape you are wanting using cookie cutters or knife (I printed out some heart clipart to the size I wanted, and then traced it with a knife)

• Allow the shapes to harden for at least 30 mins
• Using edible markers, let the kids color and decorate the fondant shapes

• Place on top of cupcake icing

• Serve and enjoy!

This is a such a simple way to let your kids get creative and help out with decorating cupcakes (or cakes)! These would be great for gifts for Mother's Day/Father's Day, birthdays, Teacher Appreciation Day, etc. The kids were so proud of them, and my mom and sister LOVED the personalized touch.

My new link party, Sweet Tooth Tuesdays, starts tomorrow morning at 8 AM! It will be open until Friday morning, some come back and link up anything you have made (recipes, crafts, DIY projects, etc). Follow me for a reminder about the party and updates (you can find various ways to follow me on my sidebar).