Monday, September 20, 2010

Fondant Pumpkin Cupcakes


Welcome to Red Couch Recipes!  Please have a seat on my Red Couch.  My daughter Tati (14-year old, Polka Dot Pantry Sweets) and I had fun on Saturday working with fondant.  We are relatively new fondant makers and players.  She made sunflowers with homemade fondant; I made pumpkins. The homemade fondant is easy and cheap to make.

Tati's Cupcakes


Almost every Autumn, I make a Autumn Harvest Cake, with fruits of the harvest made out of marzipan.  I will share the Harvest Cake with you later.  The fondant pumpkins are a fun project to do with your kids; even young ones can make the pumpkins. If you are into more artistic fondant pumpkins, go to  Judy's Cakes  where she has great tutorial for fondant pumpkins.  Next time I will try her method.

First, make your favorite recipe, or from a box if you are pinched for time, for chocolate cupcakes.


Then make a recipe of buttercream frosting and decorate them with your favorite tip.   I have included the recipe for buttercream that we like to use.  Both the buttercream recipe and the fondant recipe are from my sister Jacqueline at Purple Chocolat Home.

Buttercream Frosting
Blend together 3/4 cup room temperature butter, 4 cups powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract, and 3-4 tablespoons water. You may need to add extra water, depending on how thick you want it. For chocolate, add 6-8 tablespoons cocoa powder, depending on taste and coloring.

 
Then make a batch of homemade fondant.  I really like the taste of homemade fondant so much better than store bought. 

Marshmallow Fondant
16 oz. marshmallows - use good quality marshmallows
2-3 T. water
2 lb. powdered sugar

Place the marshmallows and water in a large microwavable bowl. Place in the microwave and microwave 30 seconds until the marshmallows are beginning to melt. Remove from microwave and stir the melted marshmallows and water together. Repeat until completely melted and blended together. Place in your large KitchenAid or other heavy duty mixer bowl. You will need a powerful mixer to blend this. Use your bread kneading hook. Add the 2 lb. powdered sugar. You can also add 2 tsp. almond flavoring. Begin to mix the dough at a low speed. Mix until completely blended.

After your fondant is done, you will want to start coloring it. Take a little of the fondant out and save it for pumpkin stems and color the rest orange. Use as much food coloring depending on what shade of orange you want your pumpkins to be.  I added a bit of cocoa powder to tone down the color of the orange fondant.  You will need to knead the fondant until the color is completely mixed in. You can mix the orange in your KitchenAid or Bosch or just knead by hand.  Next color the saved out fondant by mixing in green coloring for the pumpkin stems.

Notes:  I think the tricky part is getting the right amount of water.  You don't want too much water because then the fondant is sticky and you don't want too little, because the fondant is too dry.  Just experiment a little bit. 

Roll the orange fondant into balls.  Next time, I would make the balls smaller if I were using the pumpkins for cupcakes.  I am used to making marzipan pumpkins that top a cake.


Using a toothpick, poke a hole in the top of the ball for the pumpkin stem.  Then use the toothpick to make lines in the pumpkin.  Then make stems out of the green fondant and insert in the pumpkins.


The mini pumpkins in all their glory.  You could, of course, make them into different shapes or add warts.


Place the pumpkins on the cupcakes and beware of the pumpkin eating spider!



Thank you for dropping by Red Couch Recipes.

27 comments:

The Sewing and Knitting Loft said...

Great cupcakes, I love pumpkins!

Barb

Renée said...

Soooo cute Joni. Thanks for your sweet comment on my blog yesterday and these cupcakes are awesome! You're rooster should be arriving soon.

Cathy said...

Your little fondant pumpkins are so festive, Joni, and are perfect on top of those yummy cupcakes. The little ghosts and goblins at my house would love these on Halloween.

Lynn said...

They turned out great, very seasonal! I've never worked with fondant, maybe I'll give it a try-thanks!

shannon i olson said...

cute, home made fondant is on my list of things to do!

Unknown said...

Very cute Joni!! I'll have to check out that tutorial. I've not taken the leap to fondant yet :)

Blessings!
Gail

Joy Tilton said...

I had no idea making fondant would be so simple! Love the idea of an Autumn cake, anxious for you to post about it. Really love your blog!

FROSTED! said...

Love the pumpkins! So cute and easy. I'm going to have to try them!

Sue said...

I love these! How fun to do these with your daughter:) The pumpkins and sunflowers look perfect...I love that you dusted them with cocoa for the authentic look:)

Now, on to your giveaway...

Sue said...

I've never tried working with fondant. You did a great job!

Marigene said...

Adorable cupcakes!

Jacqueline said...

Too cute on the pumpkins on top of the cupcakes. i love the sunflowers too. Your fondant looks great and is cheaper than marzipan. I think we should get together and make the Harvest cake together this year. The one I put in the cookbook was not my favorite as the frosting was too light colored.

Thanks for the great recipe for pie. I was going to hop on over and tell you I had posted it, but time flew away. It was too delish.

Bonnie said...

I love these cupcakes! Your pumpkings are so cute, and I'm glad to have a homemade fondant recipe to try. I am not a fan of purchased fondant.

Jana H. said...

Cute, Cute, Cute! I like that they are not too difficult and they look great!

Unknown said...

so cute! I love little desserts my little one can help with. they make her feel so special

Clements Family said...

Very cute! We LOVE cupcakes!!

Janet said...

These are adorable!

Anonymous said...

Great job Joni! Love the cupcakes!! Although after this summer's fondant cake, I'm a little nervous to try fondant again. It was a lot of work, but you made it look so easy!! Great job, and very good looking cupcakes! http://burntapple.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/toy-story-3-birthday-treats/
Traci

Beth said...

How adorable! I've never made fondant before. You are inspiring me, Joni.
Hugs, Beth

the country cook said...

Well aren't those just the cutest! You had me at the picture - I had no idea those were homemade pumpkins, though! I'm going to have to come back to this tutorial. - www.delightfulcountrycookin.com

HoosierHomemade said...

Very cute! I've been wanting to try marshmallow fondant for awhile...you have inspired me!
Thanks so much for adding them to Cupcake Tuesday!
~Liz

Unknown said...

Nice!! Those look so tasty. I just discovered the fun of fondant myself. Good job!!!!

Kyla Armstrong said...

These are so cute! We posted them our on cupcake blog!

http://cutecupcakesallthetime.blogspot.com/2010/09/fondant-pumpkins.html

Yvonne @ StoneGable said...

Joni, What a great tutorial! I love the butter cream frosting recipe, and how it is piled high on those cupcakes! I have never seen a recipe for fondant like yours before. I would love to try my hand at making those little works of fondant art!
This is such an inspiring post!
Yvonne

Holly Lefevre said...

Love your pumpkins...love what you can do with fondant. I only recently tried the marshmallow fondant and it is the best!

Lori@Paisley Passions said...

SUPER yummy looking!

Anonymous said...

That is awesome! I usually hate fondant but your marshmallow version sounds great! Btw, I am your newest follower. I am loving all of the recipes that you have been linking up. :)

- Megan
www.polishthestars.com

Engageya