Patch work cupcakes

I'm back home and a new blog post was waaaay overdue. I'd actually decided to try these after a tutorial I'd seen online. I decided to do my own after a lot of the things I was told to do in said tutorial royally hashed things up! (i'll point these out along the way so you don't make the same mistake!). So to keep you guys busy until something bigger is laid down, here is my step-by-step photo tutorial for patch work cupcakes...

What you'll need

Cake batter
Cupcake cases
Ready to roll fondant
An assortment of gel food colours
Black powder food colour

Paintbrush
Circular cutter
Rolling Pin







STEP 1

Fill your cases with your batter (I usually don't bother including these bits but I thought I'd show you guys how they rose so you can judge how big you wana make the size of your cupcake domes.

STEP 2

With cases filled to the shown height (above) they rose like this. Ideally, I'd have liked the domes on the cakes to have been a little higher, but it can be hidden with extra butter cream. Lesson learned!

STEP 3

Using a knife, spread your butter cream in circular motions on top of your cakes. This is where I had to create a slight dome. Since making these, I actually saw a really good tip to smooth your butter cream out by dipping a knife into really hot water and then running it over the butter cream.

STEP 4

Preparing your fondant. Now, when I read this on the other tutorial, they told me to wet it all just before I rolled it out after I'd laid the pieces on. This was meant to be because some of the fondant would have inevitably dried out a little and potentially caused cracking. DON'T DO THIS!!! If you do then, even if you do dust your pin with icing sugar, the whole thing will just stick to the pin, you'll have to peel it off and start all over again! 

Colour your fondant, roll our your large piece first, and then quickly cut/make your shapes to go on top. You can add a little water underneath each of these to make them stick and avoid cracking.

STEP 5

Using a large rolling pin, roll over the full piece so that the smaller shapes squash into the large back piece. Doing this on a rolling mat is useful to avoid the fondant sticking to the surface.

STEP 6

Using a round cutter, cut out your toppers for your cakes. Note: When I did this I used a cutter that fit neatly over the top of the cupcake. I'd recommend that you use one slightly larger, if you want it to cover the entire cake without any sponge showing.

STEP 7

Lay your pieces over the cupcakes.

STEP 8

Put just a sprinkle of your black colouring dust and mix with a teeny tiny droplet of  water (for large paintings, you should really mix with vodka as it gives a better consistency. For such a small piece, however, water is fine). Test your colour on a little piece of paper before painting directly onto your cake. Once you think you are able to paint with it, paint stitches around the edge of your shapes.

FINISHED PIECE

Because it was my first trial, I played about a bit and tired a few different types of stitches for the patch work. I actually like the mix, but you could do a full set of one or the other.