Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Canadian Maple Cupcakes


As you may or may not remember, I bought a tub of red fondant for a Valentine's Day cake. I remember because that red fondant has been haunting me for months! You can catch glimpses of it on the Red Sox and Hokie Hi-Hat cupcakes, but I still have about a quarter of that tub leftover. Ugh. How many things can one do with red fondant?

Another little factoid that you probably wouldn't know unless I told you: my Canadian Lit class is meeting for the last time tonight. This class has been rough-going throughout and Evan even wrote a post about the existential crisis it has thrown him into. However, what final class meeting would not be improved by cupcakes?!

(The answer is none.)

So, in honor of our class closing and our Canadian-ish professor who finally said "ay" in class last week, I used as much red fondant as I could to decorate these (now Canadian) Maple Cupcakes.


Aren't they just too cute? This line-up reminds me of the Target circles. :)

In case you were curious about technique, I made another of my only marginally helpful stencils for the maple leaves. The letters I cut out with the cookie cutters from my Wilton 100 pc. set. That was so unbelievably easy that I'm going to try to have cookie cutters for all fondant dealings from now on! (It's not a practical wish, but a wish nonetheless.) And I love that the cookie cutter letters are just the right size to cover the whole cupcake without hanging off. Perfect!

And now I have a question for those of you who work with the fondant. See how my fondant is all shiny and soft? It gets that way when I decorate the cupcakes and then leave them in their carrier. I thought I wasn't supposed to refrigerate fondant, but is it okay that my fondant has gone all slippery and wet? It's not traveling yet, but I don't want it to get that far. And I know that if I were using the fondant for anything other than flat letters laying on a cupcake, then I'd be in trouble.

I might have just answered my own question by remembering that I refrigerated the hi-hats and those fondant VTs kept their shape.

Anyway... anyone who knows about the optimal storing conditions for fondant, do let me know!

To the rest of you, good luck trying to go through today without singing "Oh, Canada..." It's already taken up sure residence in my head.

8 comments:

Jecca Andrew said...

i really wish i could sing you the song right now. actually i wish me, tristan and my canadian friend megan could sing you the song right now.the other week in the cafeteria, tristan actually stood on his chair and belted it out while i sat and belted it from my chair. we love canada.

Kate said...

I like the pop-out window. I knew the hockey guess wasn't right since the playoff games are on Tuesdays, but I couldn't think of what else might be Canada themed since Canada Day is in July (I think).

Anyway, these are adorable. I have always stored my fondant in the cabinet and never had trouble with it that way. Still, I haven't worked with fondant since I got to the City because I haven't a clue where to start looking for it. In VA I just got it at Michael's. And now I'm anti-fondant so...yeah.

Amanda said...

Yeah, the storage of the fondant is fine. It doesn't dry out or get too wet in my "pantry." The wet/stickyness only happens once the fondant is on the icing and in the cupcake carrier. I think there is just too much moisture for the fondant to pick up.

Do you refrigerate cakes after you cover them with fondant? I know you are much braver in that area than I am. :)

Evan said...

One sure way to keep from singing "Oh Canada": have no idea about any of the words except "Oh, Canada."

Marilla @ Cupcake Rehab said...

They came out really cute... I keep thinking of that song from South Park 'Blame Canada' :)

Ash said...

These are very cool!!!
I haven't really played around with fondant... so I can't help you out there... but they do look way cool!

Anonymous said...

I thought you weren't supposed to refrigerate fondant due to condensation? I hope I am not making that up.

How To Eat A Cupcake said...

I used to work at a bakery and whenever we refrigerated cakes with fondant decorations on them, the fondant always got sticky because of the humidity in the fridge.

For regular storage, we kept our fondant on a shelf in a bucket at room temp.