Kid's Cupcake Decorating Class

It's always fun to show kids how to do something new, and then see them put their own spin on things! I was engaged by Kreative Eventions to conduct a Cupcake Decorating activity at a young lady's birthday celebration, for about a dozen and a half energetic 8 & 9 year-olds! It was a super fun and fully hands-on activity to engage the kids and encourage their creativity. Everyone did so well, creating their own unique panda, sheep & Angry Bird cupcakes! 

Sheep, Panda & Angry Birds cupcakes made in class

Cupcake Decorating Activity

The party was held at a condo function room, and there weren't proper tables, but we made do with what we could! Like how my polka dot table cloths brightened up the room? Hehe.

ready to decorate our cupcakes*

Each kid got to decorate 3 chocolate cupcakes. Since we only had an hour and a half to decorate, I went for 3 straightforward designs, that everyone could do more or less independently, without the use of fancy cupcake decorating tools. Each design used a different technique, to make things more interesting. First, the kids got to frost the cupcakes, simply by piping swirls of frosting on from a piping bag. Some of the kids opted to use 1M piping tips for a fancier design. 

operation frosting*

Once they were done frosting, I demo'd how to make a fondant panda. Making a panda figurine is straight-forward. Just roll two white balls of fondant and stack them together. Made 4 small black sausage shapes for the arms and legs and stick them to the body. Roll two black balls for the ears and stick them on top. 

demoing how to make a fondant panda*

To make the panda's eyes, roll two white balls of fondant, then flatten them into circles by rubbing the balls down between parchment paper. Every kid had a small square of parchment paper to work on. I showed them how to take a corner of parchment paper and fold it over the small fondant ball, and then press it into a circle by flattening it gently! No rolling pin needed here. Add black pupils and a nose, and you've got yourself a panda. Some of the kids chose to make girl pandas, by simply adding a pink fondant bow on top. 

now it's our turn!*

pandas in the making*

It was cool to see how differently everyone's panda's came out. Some kids made their pandas limbs extra long! It was fun to watch them work. 

concentrating on moulding pandas

it's all in the details

Spider-panda?

ballerina/gymanst pandas

The next cupcake was an Angry Bird cupcake. I know my son is really excited to see the new Angry Birds movie that's coming out soon, and these kids weren't any different. To decorate the angry birds cupcakes, the first thing is to completely cover the surface by dipping the frosting part of the frosted cupcake in red sanding sugar. I opted to use this instead of just piping on red frosting so that I could show them a different technique, and also to avoid all that red food colouring! 

making the Angry Bird's yellow beak*

rolling tiny black circles for the eyes*

To make the white breast for the bird, make a larger white circle, using the same technique that was used to make the panda's eyes. Then make fondant eyes, a yellow beak, a red crest and a black V-shaped snake of fondant for the eyebrows, and you've got yourself a red Angry Bird! The kids did really well on these Angry Birds too! Check out their work:

a mellow Angry bird*

really angry eyebrows on this guy*

The last cupcake we decorated was a marshmallow sheep cupcake! This guy was pretty simple to make. First, make the sheep's head by rolling some light brown/peach fondant into an ovalish shape. Then indent his nostrils in with a toothpick or skewer. Add on fondant eyes, and two raindrop-shaped fondant pieces for his ears.

moulding the sheep's oval head

For the wool, arrange mini marshmallow all over the frosting until there's no place left to stick some on! Of course, many of the marshmallows went into the kids' mouths before they got onto the cupcakes! Luckily I brought lots of extra marshmallows. 

carefully adding on the ears

can we eat our cupcakes yet??

The kids all did so well making the panda, Angry Bird and sheep cupcakes! For some of them, it was their first time decorating cupcakes! I'm glad everyone had a super fun time (I did too!) Happy Birthday, Himaja! Enjoy your cupcakes :D Can't wait to teach more cupcake & cookie decorating classes!

nearly pro cupcake decorator here! Well done!

can't wait to dig in! nom-licious panda!

*many thanks to Peacube for all the help and for these pics!!