Marshmallow Flower Tutorial

Hello everyone! 
Rather than a recipe share today I thought I would do something different and share a tutorial: marshmallow flowers! Such an easy way to make mini cupcakes look especially pretty and give them the wow factor! When I made these a few weeks ago everyone asked me how I made them and were really impressed by them! As tempting as it is to let people think that these were really difficult so you are obviously a cake decorating genius, I will share this not-so-secret, super-easy method! You don't have to though of course...

Decorating Time: Approximately 15 minutes to decorate 20 mini cupcakes
Difficulty: Easy! 
You will need: coloured sugar, marshmallows, scissors, chopping board.

1. Firstly take a big handful of mini marshmallows and cut each one in half diagonally: you should then have two petal-like halves. I have only ever used white marshmallows for this because I like the contrast of the white with the coloured sugar "petal" (we'll get to this in a minute!) so I don't know how any other colour would turn out. I suppose you could even skip the middle steps if you used a coloured marshmallow and just put them straight onto the cupcake - even easier! 

2. Once you have a good stock of "petals" ready, gently try to expose more of the sticky side from where you cut it as the marshmallows tend to somewhat curl along the cut so the sticky bit gets covered. Just very gently pull back the curled bits to let the sticky side show a bit more. But not too much or your petal may look flat and misshapen. I tried to get a picture of this step but it seemed impossible to be able to adequately show you what I mean, so I am sorry about this! This step isn't actually that important. I just like to have more of the marshmallow with colour.

3. Take each petal and dip the sticky bit into some coloured sugar (any colour - be creative!!) and give it a gentle wiggle to coat it evenly. The soft bit of the marshmallow should not be covered in sugar so give a little tap to get any excess sugar off. Try to work quickly with this step (and all the other steps really...) so that the sticky bits don't dry too much or enough sugar will not stick! A tutorial for making your own coloured sugar is planned, so check back in a week or so!

4. Once you are happy with the colour and shape of your petals (it is completely okay to pinch and pull them a bit to get the shape you want - just be careful!) pick five and carefully place them into the icing on top of the cake. I used whipped cream icing for this and they stuck beautifully. Push the very end of the petal into the icing so that the petal is sticking almost upright then gently push it down so that it appears to be coming from the cupcake horizontally. Repeat with the remaining four and adjust so that the five together resemble a beautiful flour. 

5. Finish off your flower with a little cluster of edible pearls, three was the perfect amount for my cupcakes - when I needed a fourth pearl I felt that the petals were too far apart so adjusted them so that the centre was smaller. 

Then step back and admire your little garden of flower-cakes!
I hope you found this tutorial helpful and are now able to make some very easy but very impressive looking cupcakes - if you have any further questions (or just want to show off your attempts - I would love to see!) please leave a comment :)

Teri x

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