Valentine Cupcakes: icing

brummiebird443

Hi everybody,
my 2 daughters (age 6 & 3) have decided that they want to bake daddy some cupcakes which have to be covered in hearts and pink icing! I love baking cakes with the girls but to be honest i dont understand icing! I bought a packet of fondant icing from the supermarket and mixed it up according to the instructions but all we ended up with was a really thin runny mess on the cupcakes. I've found a really lovely picture of what i'd like to attempt but i dont understand what icing has been used. how have they got them to look so neat? Can i use the ready to roll stuff or is there something else i can try? any advice would be greatly appreciated.

rosemarym_2

The cakes in the photograph look as though they have been topped with rounds cut out from a sheet of fondant icing. You can get it ready-made from the supermarket (only in white).

brummiebird443

thanks for replying so quickly can i add food colour (paste) to the ready to roll icing?

ames100

when you say fondant icing what do you mean- icing sugar?

i would reccomend the blocks of icing that you roll out, trim the tops of the cakes so they are flat (mine always rise with a peak) then get a round cutter and some little heart ones and you should be able to achieve something very similar to the picture.

The icing normally comes in white blocks so if you get some red food colouring you can mix it in to make pink icing, or marbelled- this will stain though so be careful with your girls clothes and maybe make them in red cases for the extra festive feel.

ames100

these would make a sweet finishing touch as well

http://www.tesco.com/superstore/xpi/7/xpi52736997.htm

brummiebird443

thank you so much for all your advice. I was going round in circles trying to work out what all the different types of icing were and where to use what. (is it royal, is it fondant agghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh) I bought a packet of "fondant icing" (tate and lyle i think) that you had to add water to and then spoon over the top of the cakes,what a disaster! it was way to runny and u could see through it but the girls loved it (it was bright fuscha pink , thanks to an over generous helping of food colouring)

I'm going to go and buy some of the ready to roll stuff and see how we get on. The sprinkles are very very cute too.

thanks again.

Gingernutmeg

Yes, you can colour ready to roll icing. The pastes are better for this, if you can get them - they're less messy than the liquid and they don't affect the texture. But the liquid's ok if that's all you've got, but the kneading it in isn't a job I'd give to the children You'll end up with red and pink everywhere

ames100

yep royal is the stuff you want 500g in tescos (white) is just under £2, looked on the website and they dont do pink but dr oetker (SP) does a kit which comes with pre-coloured red, yellow, black and one other colour i cant remember now!!

have fun x

Gingernutmeg

Royal is 'piping' icing - it comes in either powder or ready made and it's the stuff that's white and dries hard (or you can make it yourself with icing sugar and egg whites, or pasteurised egg white). Think snow scenes at Christmas. Fondant is the 'ready to roll' icing that comes in blocks, mainly white but sometimes in colours. This is the soft icing on Christmas cakes, and it's difficult to make yourself.

I think the OP needs fondant icing for this, going off the picture, not royal. You can't usually buy coloured royal icing, unless you mean the tiny tubes of 'writing' icing.

ames100

woops! Gingernutmeg is right- too much reading up on icing me thinks...................

rachbc

yep thats rolled fondant - our local cake dec shop sells ready coloured fondant in loads of colours at £1, cheaper than buying the paste colours if you are only going to do it once. I just bought black for dh's pacman birthday cupcakes!