Tiki Tacky Cupcake Toppers

This weekend, a beautiful friend who is expecting her second child was showered with lots of love and gifts.  I had the priviledge of providing the cupcakes for the celebration.  Now, the sweet ladies who planned the shower came up with such a fun theme -- Tiki Tacky!  A luau theme with tons of pink and purple.  I loved the idea, but what to do, what to do... as a cupcake topper?  I kept seeing the bright hibiscus flowers in Hawaiian print shirts in my head but had no idea how to create such a thing.  And I couldn't find anything I liked locally...

So I made a big batch of royal icing for the first time ever -- using Wilton's recipe and flavoring with raspberry extract.  I kept reading that you could make decorations from it and let them dry on wax paper that could be peeled away before using as a cake topper, so I gave it a whirl...  I could not have been more pleased with how much fun these were to make!

I didn't take any pictures of the process because I wasn't sure they'd turn into anything I'd want to share.  Now I wish I had taken them anyway...  I knew I wanted a 5 petal flower but I didn't have anything around the house that was the right shape.  I meant to look up some clipart to try.  Instead, I noticed that a co-worker had on the most perfectly sized 5 petal flower earring and I asked her if I could trace it.  Although she's still convinced that I'm crazy, she obliged me and here's what I made with them!  I laid the drawing under a sheet of wax paper and piped the outline of the flower.  I then flooded it with the same color icing thinned a bit.  While wet, I added a lighter drop of icing to the center and used a toothpick to pull it up each petal.

I let them dry for about an hour and went back and piped on the raised outline in pink and stamen in white.  I let them dry overnight.  I still wasn't satisfied with those stamens as the icing was a little too thin so they spread out too much.  I picked up a little cake glitter and used corn syrup to paint it on the stamen tips.  Once everything was completely dry, I peeled them off the wax paper and they were ready!

Since it was for a baby shower, I wanted to include something 'babyish' for the cupcakes, too.  So I used a technique I saw from IBakeCakes to make a quilted fabric look from fondant, to make a Hawaiian print I used for onsies and baby bottles.

Here's how the cupcakes turned out -- thank you to my friend, Corrin, for taking such a great photo!

I'm linking this post up over at Tidy Mom I'm Lovin' It Friday.  Check it and all of the other wonderful posts over there out and join the party!