Make Your Own Faux Cupcakes

Saturday, April 24, 2021

Make Your Own Faux Cupcakes

Recently I made a birthday themed series of fake cupcakes!

Here's how easy it is to make your own using cupcake liners, spray foam and joint compound:

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Starting with cupcake liners in muffin tins, I added marbles to weigh down the cupcakes. This is because once decorated, the cupcakes can get top heavy and tip over without any weight at the bottom. I also like to keep them in a tin while working with the spray foam. Because it is meant to expand, the foam is going to balloon out in every direction possible. If the cupcake liners are not inside of a tin then they loose their shape and the liners smooth out - no more crinkly edges!

You can click this link to see last week's DIY Artificial Spring Plants post where I used the same technique to make faux plants.

And of course be sure to check this video by Dawn Newell of The Pink Tree for her full cupcake tutorial. It's the video I learned from myself 😍

Here is the spray foam that I use.

You will want to make sure to shake it thoroughly per the directions of the can, and make sure to wear gloves and eye protection. It's also a good idea to cover your work space with a drop cloth and make sure to use old cupcake tins. When this stuff gets on your surfaces, it can be nearly impossible to clean off 😉

This is a photo of the foam cupcakes after letting them dry overnight. You can see that some of them round out perfectly, while others look lumpy and weird. I generally don't worry too much about this as icing, or in this case joint compound, covers most sins!

If there are any super ridiculous bumps, I go ahead and give them a trim with a foam cutting knife. You can find this one here, but any serrated knife will do.

Now on to the decorating-

Using light weight joint compound, mix a bit with acrylic paint to get the color of icing that you desire. It's really important to use the light weight formula. When joint compound dries, it tends to shrink up a bit and can even crack. The heavier the compound, the more likely it is to crack so avoid the regular or standard weight!

I have found that matte finish acrylic paint works the best for coloring. I've tried gloss, but it made the compound less firm. Depending on how much paint that you add, even matte finish can thin down the compound. I've read that some crafters add flour to their mixture to toughen it back up, but I've never tried it myself.

Because this set of cupcakes was a birthday decor series, I used brightly colored foam cutout for sprinkles and party favors. I made my foam cutouts by using my Cricut Maker cutting machine, but you could always use a paper punch, cut them by hand or even purchase faux sprinkles ready made. I found these cute ones on Amazon.

*You can try experimenting with real (edible) sprinkles but I don't recommend it. Over time the sugars tend to break down causing the sprinkles to fall apart or fade. Once I tried coating chocolate chips in resin to seal them. Well the exterior of the chips stayed nice and firm, but the insides of the chips melted causing the chocolates to collapse. And it wasn't even really all that hot, just a sunbeam from a window and bye bye candy!

Live and learn...😎

In the bottom two photos you can see where I poked holes into my foam cakes (for the party favors) before adding the joint compound icing. It is soooo much easier to add decor when holes are pre-made, let me tell you. I used a metal chopstick, but any stick will do.

The party favors I picked up at Dollar Tree.

You can click here to browse their online selection of party supplies.

When it comes time to apply your icing, you can smear it on with a knife or go fancy and use a pastry tip and icing bag. I like to do a mix of both whenever I'm creating to help add variety.

These are two cupcakes that I applied the 'icing' to with a knife. I like to stick with one color at a time and add the toppings before moving on. This way the still-wet joint compound will hold the toppings in place. Sometimes when drying, toppings might loosen and come off. For some reason this seems to happen every time I use faux cherries! It's no big deal though, just add a bit of glue and your toppings can go right back home.

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Now for the pictures of the completed birthday series: