This was my first experience decorating with fondant and it was a blast! These fresh cheery cupcakes with fondant icing may look intimidating, but they’re actually quite easy to make. Upon returning to Chicago some of our friends invited us over for afternoon tea. Beyond thrilled at discovering more people who enjoy having tea, I started to plan what to make. It dawned on me that as much as I love tea, I needed (ok, more like wanted) a cookbook purely dedicated to afternoon tea recipes.
I discovered The Perfect Afternoon Tea Recipe Book by Antony Wild and Carol Pastor. It’s a beautiful book with gorgeous photographs and detailed instructions. It’s interesting to note the differences between British and American cooking terminology, such as self-raising flour for self-rising flour, plain flour for all-purpose flour, bicarbonate of soda for baking soda, icing sugar for confectioners’ sugar, cornflour for cornstarch, wholemeal flour for whole-wheat flour, sugarpaste for fondant, etc. Luckily enough, the book has both the English and American terms.
I used fresh cherries as opposed to the glacé cherries used in the original recipe, as I thought that the candied cherries would be too sweet when paired with the fondant icing. These fresh cherry cupcakes are moist with sweet citrus notes; the cherries are like hidden gems, delighting the taste buds. The sweet fondant icing is optional, but really makes these cupcakes standout.
Featured Ingredient: Fondant
Fondant is a baker’s dream as it makes decorating possibilities almost endless in scope! Most wedding cakes are made with fondant and if you have ever seen the show Ace of Cakes you’ve seen some of the wicked things that fondant can accomplish. However, fondants are not created equal; in fact, some taste quite awful. Premade fondant is usually made with a combination of gelatin, glycerin, corn syrup, and sugar. These premade fondants have a tendency to taste mediocre at best and have a chewy texture, though I’ve heard Satin Ice fondant tastes pretty good and claims to have a soft creamy texture—though I have yet to try it. On the plus side, premade fondant is super easy to work with and saves the hassle of making your own fondant.
Homemade fondants can be made from a variety of ingredients, among the most popular are the marshmallow and buttercream fondants. Since I believe cupcakes and cakes need to not only look good, but taste good as well, I will be searching for the perfect fondant recipe in the coming months. I will compare homemade fondant recipes with store bought varieties and will happily share my results. For now, use whatever fondant recipe or store bought variety of your choosing, though I do have my eye on this marshmallow fondant recipe if you want to get a head start on me. If you do, let me know the results.
* Note: I personally do not care for the premade Wilton fondant.
Coloring Fondant
Use a toothpick or wooden skewer to add a few streaks of dye to a wedge of fondant (These fondant icing colors can be purchased at Walmart or Michaels, as well as online).
Knead the fondant dough until the color is uniform throughout. Add more dye until desired look is reached.
The fondant is now colored and consistent throughout.
Making the Fondant Base for the Fresh Cherry Cupcakes
Roll out the fondant until ¼ inch thick. To add texture use an embossed textured rolling pin or fondant ribbon cutter. Make sure to press hard for a more defined texture.
The Textured Fondant
Once the fondant has been texturized, use a scalloped biscuit cutter or cookie cutter to cut out circles.
I used Wilton Leaf Green for the base and a combination of Wilton Leaf Green and Kelly Green for the leaves.
Making the Fondant Leaves
Roll out the fondant and then use a leaf cookie cutter or fondant punch to create the leaf shapes.
The Punched Out Leaves
We added texture to the leaves to make them look more lifelike. We used the 9 and 10 Wilton gum paste tools, but this could easily be accomplished with a butter knife or fork—though it might take longer. Luckily, my neighbor Annie is well stocked from the many Wilton tent sales she’s been to over the years, so we had lots of tools at our disposal.
The Textured Leaves Up Close
Fondant dries really fast. When you’ve completed the leaves, place them in an airtight container until ready to attach to cupcakes.
Making the Fondant Cherries
Pinch little pieces of fondant and roll them into balls. Make them in pairs, so each pair is similar in size.
Note: It requires a lot of dye to make fondant red. Make sure to use a “no taste” red, so you don’t alter the taste of the fondant.
The Fondant “Glue”
Use royal icing to bind the fondant to the cupcake and to the fondant decorations.
“Gluing” the Fondant
Use small amounts of royal icing to bind the fondant to the cupcakes.
Fresh Cherry Cupcakes with Fondant Icing Base
The Finished Cupcake
To make the stems, dye a small amount of fondant brown and roll into a thin “snake”. Cut the snakes into ½ inch pieces. Glue on the decorations by putting small amounts of royal icing on the underside, then stick to fondant base.
The Finished Fresh Cherry Cupcakes with Fondant Icing. Aren’t they pretty?
What Not to Do
Our first fondant cherry cupcake looked a little strange. . . We quickly realized two stems are necessary.
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Fresh Cherry Cupcakes with Fondant Icing
Print recipe
| Serves | 18 cupcakes |
| Region | British |
| From book | Adapted from The Perfect Afternoon Tea Recipe Book |
Ingredients
filling
- 1 1/2 Cups self-rising flour (spooned and leveled)
- 2 Teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 Cups ground almonds (blanched almonds ground in a food processor until fine)
- 3/4 cups butter (room temperature)
- 1 cup caster sugar (or superfine sugar)
- 3 eggs (lightly beaten)
- 1 lemon (for zest)
- 1 orange (for zest and juice)
- 8 Ounces fresh cherries (pitted)
filling (Optional)
- 1 tablespoon brandy or Calvados
fondant topping (Optional)
- 12 Ounces fondant (store bought or homemade)
- green food coloring
fondant decorations (Optional)
- 5 Ounces fondant (store bought or homemade)
- red and brown food coloring
- 4 Ounces royal icing
Note
1. When coloring fondant red, make sure to buy "no taste" red dye. Otherwise, the flavor might be compromised. 2. I would not store these cupcakes in the fridge, as fondant can have the tendency to bleed when refrigerated. 3. Fondant dries really fast; when making the decorations, store them in an airtight container until ready to assemble.
Directions
| Fresh Cheery Cupcakes Filling | |
| Step 1 | |
| Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 18 cups of a muffin pan with paper cases. | |
| Step 2 | |
| Combine the flour and baking powder in a medium mixing bowl; sir in the ground almonds. | |
| Step 3 | |
| In a large bowl, combine the butter and sugar. Beat until creamy. Add one egg at a time and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Mix in the lemon zest from half a lemon and the orange zest from half a orange. Mix in the brandy and 4 tablespoons orange juice, then add the dry ingredients and fold in 5 ounces cherries. | |
| Step 4 | |
| Fill the paper cases three-quarters full. Add remaining cherries, making sure each cupcake contains some fresh cherries. Bake for 20 minutes or until gold and springy to the touch. Leave to cool for a few minutes before turning them out on to a wire rack. | |
| Fondant Topping and Decorations | |
| Step 5 | |
| For the topping, color the fondant green and roll it out to 1/4 inch thickness. Emboss with a decorative rolling pin or fondant ribbon cutter. Cut out 18 circles and "glue" them onto the cooled cupcakes using royal icing. Roll 36 red fondant cherries, 36 brown stems, and 36 green leaves. Stick into place using royal icing. | |
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