Saturday, January 8, 2011

Festive Edible Christmas Cake Decorations

By Anya Shiela Richards


Why use non-edible decorations on your Christmas cupcakes when there are edible ones? Edible Christmas toppers are exactly what the name suggests - decorations sitting on top of cupcakes that can be eaten. They come in a wide array of designs, tastes, shapes and colors. Other than the appeasing effect they have on the taste buds, they give a finished look to a cake. To use cupcake toppers, cover the cake in frosting and then put your chosen edible toppers on top. The frosting helps to hold them firmly onto the cake.

Edible cupcake toppers can be bought readymade or you can easily make them at home. Because sugar cubes may be tricky for you to shape, use royal icing to make these edible Christmas cake decorations. While the readymade ones are guaranteed to have a distinct taste, it is more fun making them yourself because you can experiment with different shapes, colors, even flavors. At the end of the cake decoration exercise, you will also have moved a notch higher in your cake making expertise. Again, when you choose to make the toppers yourself, there is room to invent as many different shapes as you like.

When you purchase edible cupcake decorations, you get ready-to-use colored hard sugar shapes. Making edible cake decorations at home involves deciding what motif or design you want and then shaping it yourself. This gives you much more leeway, as you can choose not only the design, but also the color and flavor of your cupcake topper. For Christmas, however, most people use traditional shapes (tiny Santas, colorful Christmas tree ornaments, snowmen, angel figurines, Christmas trees, candy canes ...). Color your creations by hand, using the food coloring of your choice. Traditional Christmas colors are red, green and white - but when you make your own edible toppers, you may want to use other colors as well.

Edible gold glitter has got to be the most popular edible cake decoration. Do not forget to use some on your cupcakes. It will add a glitzy touch and make them look really special. Other equally glamorous edible Christmas cake decorations are edible gold or silver balls and stars. Firm icing is used to make these. They are readily available in shops but if you trust your icing preparation skills, you can try them at home too. Get the strength of the icing right and you can cut your stars and balls easily.

The easiest edible cupcake toppers to use for Christmas (or any other occasion) are made of candy sprinkles. Beginners can start making edible cake decorations using candy sprinkles to form tiny candy canes, berries, snowflakes or Christmas tree ornaments. If you would like to decorate your cupcakes with festive edible Christmas motifs, but don't want to make them yourself, you can purchase fantastic ones for as little as $1.50. Examples of readymade edible Christmas cake decorations include Christmas tree ornament toppers, mitten toppers, gingerbread men toppers, snowmen toppers, Christmas present toppers, penguin toppers, and much more. Edible cupcake decorations with a Christmas theme are sold in packs of 6, 8, 12 or even 24 toppers, making it easy to calculate how much you will have to spend to decorate the number of cupcakes you have made.




About the Author: