Description
Celebrate the vibrant and colorful Day of the Dead with these festive cupcakes featuring chocolate bases topped with bright orange buttercream and intricate royal icing fondant decorations inspired by traditional sugar skull designs.
Ingredients
Cupcake Ingredients
- Chocolate cupcakes, baked and cooled – 32
- Buttercream frosting, tinted orange – 2 cups
Decorations
- White fondant – enough to roll out 32 circles approx. 1/8-inch thick
- Royal icing, tinted hot pink, yellow, aqua, and black – sufficient quantity for detailed piping
- Powdered sugar, for dusting
Instructions
- Prepare Fondant Circles: Lightly dust your work surface with powdered sugar to prevent sticking. Roll out the white fondant to about 1/8-inch thickness. Using a 2 1/2-inch diameter cookie cutter, cut out 32 circles to serve as the cupcake toppers.
- Mark Facial Features: With a toothpick, gently mark each fondant circle to guide the placement of the eyes and nose for precise royal icing decoration.
- Pipe Pink Teardrops: Using a #3 piping tip, pipe 8 long hot pink teardrop shapes in an asterisk pattern around where the eyes will be on each fondant circle, creating the petal-like eye decorations.
- Fill Centers with Yellow: With a #4 piping tip, fill the centers of the pink teardrops with bright yellow royal icing to add vibrant contrast.
- Temple Decoration: Pipe large yellow dots at the temples (the sides of the fondant near the eyes) using the same yellow royal icing.
- Pipe Nose and Mouth: Switch to a #1 piping tip and pipe an upside-down heart in black royal icing to create the nose. Then pipe the smile and teeth details carefully with black icing.
- Forehead Heart Decoration: Using a #1 tip, pipe a heart in aqua royal icing in the center of the forehead area on each topper.
- Add Aqua Details: Pipe small aqua dots around the yellow temple dots and scroll aqua royal icing on each cheek area for intricate detail.
- Accent with Black Dots and Commas: Pipe a large black dot above the aqua heart, flanked by two smaller black dots below it. Add two black comma shapes on each side of the large black dot to enhance design complexity.
- Add Yellow Accents: Pipe two yellow dots above the black elements and three yellow dots above each eye for bright highlights.
- Dry the Toppers: Allow the royal icing decorated fondant toppers to dry and harden overnight to ensure they hold their shape.
- Assemble Cupcakes: Spread or pipe the orange buttercream frosting evenly on top of each chocolate cupcake. Press a dried fondant topper gently onto the buttercream to finish the cupcake.
Notes
- For best results, use stiff royal icing for intricate piping that holds shape well.
- You can prepare the fondant toppers a day in advance to save time on the day of serving.
- Allow adequate drying time overnight in a dry, cool environment to avoid smudging.
- If you do not have food coloring, gel colors are preferred over liquid to maintain icing consistency.
- Store assembled cupcakes in a cool place but avoid refrigeration if possible to keep buttercream texture.
- Adjust cupcake and frosting quantities depending on desired serving sizes or cupcake count.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cupcake
- Calories: 280
- Sugar: 28g
- Sodium: 150mg
- Fat: 14g
- Saturated Fat: 7g
- Unsaturated Fat: 5g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 36g
- Fiber: 2g
- Protein: 3g
- Cholesterol: 40mg
