Moooooo-ve Over Other Sweet Treats, The Cows Are Coming Home!

I have been having a crazy-busy spring/summer season!  Lots of travelling and hosting guests who've come to tour NYC.  I've also been filling baking orders, but have been on such a time crunch I was never able to photograph and blog about them.  This time, however, I tried something new and decided to share my experience:  Fondant.

I have been afraid of fondant and dreading the day I had to use it.  Finally, that day came and I reluctantly purchased the necessary tools to make these cow cupcakes.  I have no idea when or how I developed the idea that fondant was a messy, sticky, difficult substance to work with, but I could not have been more wrong!  It's pliable, not terribly sticky, and FUN!!

These cutie cows were favors for a birthday party.  I was shown a picture to work from, and it was clear that the only way to accomplish this design was to use (in my opinion) the F-word.  Fondant.

Unfortunately, since I have family visiting from Buffalo, I was not able to photograph each step involved in putting these together.  I wanted to be efficient and still spend time with my guests.

To that end, I bought pre-made white, black and pink fondant from Michaels.  I also used candy eyes and black decorating gel for the snouts.

To begin, I rolled out the white fondant.  I made pretty thick discs and next time will make them thinner, since there's really no reason to use so much when topping a cupcake.

These are the tools I used to cut the shapes:

I used my graduated circle cookie cutters and matched the size of the head to the size of a cupcake.  Next, I used a smaller circle for the pink "snout" area.  After cutting the snout I used my fingers to press it onto the white head, forming it into an oval shape.  I used the smallest cutter from a "Fondant Flower" set from Michaels Craft Store to make the spots on the cow.  Certainly, you can make all kinds of different spot shapes, but I decided to be a little more uniform in the design, though I randomly placed them on the head so no two cows would be the same.  :)  The smallest circle cutter was for the ears.  I cut circles and then pinched the bottom of the circle together for a 3D ear effect.

I assembled them in this order:

• Large circle head
• Pink circle snout pressed onto the head
• Black spots randomly placed on the head
• Pressed in the eyes (which didn't stick very well, so I dabbed some black gel underneath them to act as a "glue".
• I rolled bits of white fondant to make a "snake" sort of shape for the horns.  I placed them underneath the head and pressed the "forehead" area down into the horns to make them stick.
• I rolled pink fondant on top of black fondant and then cut circle shapes with a cutter.  I pinched them into an ear shape and used the same "sticking" method as the horns to make them stick to the head.
• Random smiles, smirks, and nose dots on the snout using the black gel.
• I left them on a cookie sheet overnight to dry.

The next day I made vanilla cupcakes and vanilla buttercream icing.

I placed a dollop of buttercream on top of the cupcake and then pressed a cow on top:

And that's it!  The process took about 2 hours of rolling, cutting, shaping and placement.  I had fun doing it and can't wait to try some more new designs with my new friend, fondant!!  :)