This cute and creepy Cauldron Cupcake is a small replica of a larger cauldron cake I made a few years ago and is my favourite Halloween cupcake ever! It’s got a few elements to it but when you bring it all together it looks amazing and will grace any party table this season very well indeed! Check out below the tutorial for a video on how I made it!
The time consuming part of this design is the decorations, however the decorations on top of the cupcake can be made ahead of time, so when the time comes to make them, all you need to do is top the cupcakes with sugarpaste and buttercream and decorate!
I recommend using modelling paste for stability and keep your decorations in a cake box or another container that the air can get to (not in a sealed box, otherwise they may melt). For more on types of icing, check out my blog post here. Ideally, leave your shapes to dry overnight until they are firm before using to decorate.
I recommend using actual edible glue as opposed to water as water can make your shapes soggy. My top tip with edible glue is less is more! Only use a small amount.
For this I have used white modelling paste and coloured what I needed using Sugarflair colours in Tangerine, Melon, Party Green and Grape Violet. I use pre-coloured black modelling paste for the cauldron details and pupil of the eyeball and pre-coloured black sugarpaste for the top of the cupcake.
I’ve used my flat top vanilla cupcake recipe and vanilla buttercream recipe, both of which can be found here.
Equipment can be purchased from Iced Jems. Cases from Scrumptious Sprinkles.
Equipment
- Flat topped cupcake
- Cornflour in a shaker
- Small rolling pin
- Large circle cutter
- Piping gel & silicone pastry brush (OR small amount of buttercream)
- Black sugarpaste
- Black modelling paste
- Orange modelling paste
- Yellow modelling paste
- Green modelling paste
- Purple modelling paste
- Smoother
- Scalpel or sharp knife
- Edible glue & paintbrush
- Dry paintbrush
- Drying foam
- Blue edible pen
- Ball tool
- Green buttercream
To top the cupcake
Roll out black sugarpaste on a surface dusted with cornflour and cut out a large circle, a little bigger than your cupcake.
Paint the top of the cupcake with either piping gel or a little buttercream and secure the circle of black sugarpaste using your hand. Make sure to fix it all the way around and to the case so no cake is showing. This will help for the end design and also keep the cupcake fresh underneath.
Then, for the cauldron rim, roll in your hands a sausage of black modelling paste. Then, roll it out more using a smoother. This ensures an even roll without finger prints. Lift this gently and place it around the edge of the cupcake to gauge size. Then with a scalper or sharp knife, cut off the excess.
Using a paintbrush and a little edible glue, fix this rim in place. Then, with a dry paintbrush, brush off any excess cornflour.
For the tentacles
Roll your chosen tentacle colour of modelling paste (in my case, orange) into a smooth round ball. Then, roll it into a sausage and using your fingers, mould this into an ‘S’ shape and leave to dry on foam.
For the suckers, roll small pieces of a contrast colour modelling paste (in my case, yellow) and roll small round balls, then using a ball tool or the end of a paintbrush, indent them with a small round. Using a little bit of edible glue, stick these along the side of the tentacle. Leave to dry completely on foam.
For the bubbles
Roll small balls of whichever colour modelling paste you like to make the ‘bubbles’ in the cauldron. I’ve gone with a green to match the buttercream I will be using and also a purple. Leave to dry on foam.
For the eyeballs
Roll balls of white modelling paste. Make them larger than the bubbles but not as big as the tentacles. Leave these to dry on foam.
Then, using an edible ink pen in your chosen colour, colour in a circle in the middle of the eye ball. Then roll a small ball of black modelling paste and stick on top using a small amount of edible glue and do the same with an even smaller bit of white modelling paste for the ‘twinkle’ of the eye.
To decorate
Spread into the cauldron some green buttercream, as it’s meant to be a bubbling concoction you can be as messy as you like! Then stick in all of your dry decorations. For effect, I stuck a few ‘bubbles’ to the side of the cauldron using a little edible glue.
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Happy Halloween and happy baking!
Britt xo