Cupcake Decorations

There's a broad range of cupcake decorations and cupcake toppers for you to use on your little desserts. You can either choose ready-made designs, or have your baker come up with something that's totally unique to your event. The cool thing is that decorating cupcakes is easy and fun. Here are some ideas that we love:

Fresh Edible Flowers
If you put edible flowers on a guest's cupcake, they may assume that it's safe to eat, so avoid using non-edible blossoms and only use ones that are organic, and pesticide-free. Many farmers or commercial growers grow flowers specifically for consumption - these are the blossoms you want!

Here are some favorites in the edible blossom world: roses, chrysanthemums, calendula, lavender, tulips, yucca, dianthus, English daisies, and marigolds. If you are into adorning your cupcakes with fresh blossoms, consider crystallized them with sugar. So how is it done? Crystallized sugar flowers are made by covering them with superfine sugar. Bakers get the sugar to stick to the petals and leaves by covering it first with egg whites or meringue powder. Petals are usually separated from the rest of the flower to prevent too much wilting.

Most bakers crystallize their own blossoms, but they can be purchased already done, which is pretty expensive.

Stenciled Powdered Sugar
Whether hearts, a letter or some other shape, powdered sugar is a simple and easy way to dress up the top of your cupcake. The only thing with this open though, is that you will probably need to skip the frosting. Most icings will absorb the powdered sugar and make it invisible. Best to keep your decorated cupcake plain for this option.

Gum Paste Flowers
This is probably the most expensive option out there, as gum paste flowers take so much time to create. If you really like the look of a flower, but know that it's poisonous, then it's not a good choice for your cupcake. You can solve this problem by having gum paste flowers created.

Personalization
Have your baker hand write each guest's name on the top of their cupcake with butter cream frosting. The frosting color of the names should contrast the frosting on the cupcake. We've seen this done a few times, and you should see the look on the guests' faces when they see their customized and personal cupcake!

Frosting Fun
In some cases, the décor is the frosting itself. This works really well, when using tiered displays, or if you can vary the pattern of cupcakes with different colored or textured frostings. For instance, say you have 2 styles of cupcakes: one is chocolate frosting and one is a dyed pink white chocolate frosting. If you're using a four tiered cupcake stand, place alternate cupcakes on each tier. Varying the colors makes a design all its own. Match the frosting colors to something in the wedding, the textures of the wedding gown or something at the venue.

Cookies
Love Biscotti or Madeleine’s? Place one on top of your cupcake! There are many possibilities here. It could be as simple as an Oreo cookie, if that is what you love. Or, have you baker come up with something that looks good and fits in with the cupcakes. Check out our Cookie Recipe section for some great ideas.

Frosting Monograms Couples often get monogram cake toppers for their wedding cake. Why not ask your baker script your monogram in butter cream frosting on the top of every cupcake? It works!

Spun Sugar
It's a mess to make, but we love spun sugar. This process creates a intricate and delicate web of glossy golden caramel strands that can be used to wrap or top pastries (such as the croquembouche cake) to produce a dimensional and festive appearance. Is it just decor? No way, it's edible! You can eat it for sure - it actually melts in your mouth. Small strands of it make nice cupcake decorations. Yum!

Fresh Fruit
A small chocolate covered strawberry? Kiwi fruit covered with fine sugar? A couple of raspberries soaked in brandy? The choice is yours. Decorating your cupcakes with fresh fruit is an easy and inexpensive way to dress them up.

Dragees or Sprinkles
Oh so easy, the easiest of all cupcake decorations. Dragees and sprinkles come in dozens of different styles. All you have to do is pick one and sprinkle them on your cupcakes. Done! But, beware my fellow Californians, silver dragees are illegal in California. Oh so sad, but true.

Royal Icing Designs
Flowers, butterflies, hearts, or any shape will complement your wedding. They can be custom made in any size, color or shape and are edible! Royal icing is made from gently beaten egg white, lemon or lime juice and powdered sugar. The egg whites are sometimes substituted with meringue powder, to avoid risk of salmonella. Alternatively, pasteurized and refrigerated egg whites can be used. This frosting dries hard pretty quickly, and is commonly used for cupcake decorations.

Chocolate
Swirls of dried chocolate, chocolate sprinkles, chocolate shavings, chocolate chunks, Hershey's kisses, molded chocolate designs, or anything else chocolate you can think of!

So that's it for cupcake decorations!

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