Owl Toppers - What a Hoot!
I'm excited to finally have some new cake decorating posts to share. In reality, it's only been about 6 weeks since I've made a cake, but it feels much longer. For most of 2013, I've had at least 2-3 cakes a month to make! Things have slowed down this Fall, but I think they are starting to ramp back up again. I just finished a cupcake topper order and have a big project coming up next weekend. I don't want to give it all away, but if you have a little boy (or girl) who loves trains, you will want to check out my two-part series starting next Monday! But, today I'm sharing my latest order I just finished - baby shower cupcake toppers.
Have you noticed how popular owls are recently? I've seen so many owl decorations for this Fall, but even in the summer it seemed they were everywhere. One of the more popular places I have seen owls are in children's clothing and baby items. I was excited to create toppers following this trend when I was asked to make some for a friend's baby shower. Now I've made toppers for a wedding shower, tons of kid's parties, and some other Holiday get-togethers, but I hadn't made baby shower toppers yet!
These toppers were a "hoot" to make. Sorry, you had to know that pun was going to be used somewhere... I had a blast making them and hope the mother-to-be loves them. We will be out of town for the shower, so I'm glad we were able to help contribute to the special day.
When making toppers, I like to have some sort of pattern I use. Whether it is a cookie cutter, or printed template, I like to try to keep the shape and size uniform on the toppers. Thankfully I found an easy way to do this for the owls, they were really simple to make! I hope you enjoy this tutorial and share it with anyone having an owl themed party.
Owl Topper Tutorial:
- Dye fondant the color of the owls
- Roll fondant to around 1/16 in
- Cut out oval shapes around 2 1/4 in long (I actually bent my 2 in round cutter, I had multiple ones that size)
- Using the cutter again, cut down about 1/2 in from the top - keep the piece off to the side, you will use it for the wing
- Use a "C" shaped tool (common in the fondant tool sets) to indent into the owls body, starting about 1/3 way down. Do 3 indentations in the first row, two in the second, and one in the third. These help create the look of the owl's ruffled feathers.
- Roll out white fondant paper thin
- Cut out two round circles for each topper, I used the lid of an edible marker that was roughly a 1/2 in diameter.
- Attach eyes by painting gum glue on the back with a paint brush (gum glue = small balls of fondant or gum paste dissolved in small amount of water, the ratio doesn't have to be precise)
- Color a black dot in the center of the eyes using an edible marker
- Dye a small amount of fondant orange
- Roll out orange fondant paper thin
- Cut out small triangles for the beaks and attach them with gum glue
- Get scraps of owls that were cutout from the top to use as wings. Use a rounded cutter to round off one side to serve as the top of the wings. You will only have 1/2 the number of wings since the scraps only made one. Cut out additional wings using extra purple fondant.
- Use gum glue to attach the wings to the body
Enjoy! Feel free to share this post on social media. See the buttons below for easy sharing on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest! Check back later this week for some delicious recipes.
