Helicopter Cupcakes

Birthday boy Evan was celebrating his birthday at school with three dozen of these Helicopter cupcakes. I guess he wanted to continue the theme of "aircraft" cakes after the toy fighter jet-topped birthday cake I made him for the birthday celebration he had with his family on Saturday. 

helicopter cupcake toppers

The cupcakes are double vanilla bean cupcakes, with a whole vanilla bean in the cupcake batter, and another whole vanilla bean in the vanilla bean Swiss meringue buttercream frosting! See the little flecks of black in the pic below? That isn't dirt. It's vanilla bean seeds! These little cakes were packed full of fragrant vanilla flavour for sure. I let my daughter have an extra cupcake for snack after school and she said "mmm tastes like ice cream!", her face covered in frosting! 

vanilla bean seeds scraped fresh from the pod

Vanilla Bean Swiss meringue buttercream

The cupcakes are topped with cute little red cartoon helicopters. I had to resist the urge to add faces to each helicopter. I was scratching my head trying to figure out what I was gonna use for the rotors, when I had a lightbulb moment. Ding! How about using a letter "X" cutter! Perfect. Made my life so much easier too, instead of having to hand cut strips and then stick them together, right? 

Double Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

In similar fashion, for the landing rods, I used a letter "H" cutter! This one involved a little more work because I had to cut the "little lines" off of each of the Hs because the font for the larger letter cutters makes this kind of "H" with the little lines extending.

cartoon fondant helicopters

For the background that each helicopter was on, I rolled out sky blue fondant, and a cloud-like pattern, using my textured roller. I attached the helicopter on using a little bit of water.  

view from the side

Hope Evan and his classmates and teachers enjoy these yummy vanilla bean Helicopter-topped cupcakes! Happy 5th birthday, Evan!

one happy birthday boy!
(pic courtesy of Evan's mummy)