Vintage Frame Cupcakes Tutorial By Nina Evans Williams, Môn Cottage Cupcakes

Nina, from Môn Cottage Cupcakes, is an award-winning cake artist from Wales, UK. She is known for her beautiful painted cakes and also teaches private classes from home. In this tutorial, Nina shows you how simple it is to create two different types of pretty cupcakes

Equipment Required

PME Pearl edible lustre spray

• Clear alcohol/vodka

• Edible glue

• Blossom cutters (3 different sizes)

• Petunia veiner (Blossom Sugar Art)

• Round cutter (7cm)

• Various frame moulds

• 2 brushes (painting and for glue)

• Kitchen roll

• Cornflour duster

• Paint palette

• Rolling pin

• Work board

• White sugarpaste with gum tragacanth (Tylose) already added

• Pink sugarpaste

• Brown sugarpaste

• Rainbow Dust ProGel Colours: Leaf Green, Yellow, Poppy Red, Pink and Baby Blue

• Yellow dragees

• Edible pens: pink and black

• Gold edible dust

• Veining tool

Cherry Blossom Cupcakes

Step 1.

Roll out sugarpaste to about 3mm thick and mark with lines using the veining tool. Start making oval marks with the veining tool to make it look like knots in wood.

Step 2.

Carry on marking with lines using the veining tool so that you have a wood effect.

Step 3.

Cover all the area of sugarpaste with lines. 

Step 4.

Cut out round discs using the round cutter and leave to dry.

Step 5.

Dab a tiny amount of blue ProGel into the paint palette and mix with a tiny amount of vodka to create a wash. Paint the disc and you will see that the colour will ingrain into the wood effect and make it more authentic.

Step 6.

Making sure you have covered the disc in paint, leave it to dry.

Steps 7a & b.

Choose your frame mould, I chose the square frame mould. Dab a bit of cornflour into it. This helps to remove the frame later on with ease. Tap the excess cornflour out. 

Steps 8a & b.

Using your finger, squeeze the white sugarpaste into the frame mould making sure that there is no sugarpaste sticking out of the frame. The frame should pop out easily for you. Leave to dry.

Step 9.

Mix some gold dust with a little bit of alcohol. Paint the gold onto the frame and leave to dry, you should find that one coat should be enough.

Steps 10a-d.

Roll out some pink sugarpaste to about 1mm thickness. Using the various sizes of blossom cutter, start cutting them out. Using the petunia veiner, place the cut blossom in the middle making sure that it fits into the veiner correctly, not at an angle. Pull the top of the veiner down gently (this is the bit that sticks out) without squeezing too much and you should be left with a pretty flower. Do the same with all the sizes of flowers. 

Steps 11a & b.

Using the pink edible pen, mark lines from the middles of the flowers out as seen in the photo. Add a tiny dab of glue to the centres of the flowers and add some yellow dragees. You won’t need many for each flower

Step 12.

After the gold frames have dried, dab underneath with a bit of glue and stick them to the wooden effect topper.

Steps 13a & b.

Roll out the brown sugarpaste into tiny thin sausages. Twist the little sausages to give them a little kink to look like cherry blossom twigs. 

Steps 14a-c.

Dab a tiny amount of glue to the corner of the frame and stick the twigs onto it. Stick the different blossoms on randomly. As you can see, I used one large flower, two medium and three small.

Painted Cupcakes

Step 15.

Roll out sugarpaste to about 3mm thickness and cut out circles using the round cutter. Leave to dry.

Step 16.

Add a tiny bit of pink, green, yellow and red ProGels into different parts of the palette. Add a little bit of alcohol to each and mix.

Steps 17a–c.

Randomly paint dots of pink to the disc. If there is too much alcohol, rub off excess onto kitchen roll and add a tiny bit more gel colour. Paint the rest of the discs red and yellow and add the leaves in green. Leave to dry. 

Step 18.

To add a bit of contrast, add black detail to the flowers and leaves using a black edible pen.

Step 19.

Add some more leaves with the black pen.

Step 20.

Make frames in white and spray with PME Pearl Edible Lustre Spray. Place it onto the dry painted design where it looks best and glue into place.

Pipe your cupcakes as usual using buttercream, I wanted them flat so I piped the rose effect. Gently place the toppers on top of the buttercream.