Black lace, skulls and pearls cupcakes

Lately, I've notice an upward trend in the use of skulls for bridal showers & weddings (till death do us part). I think they'd also be great for birthdays and Halloween too.

The Black 3D skulls were very easy to make using this Wilton 3d skull chocolate mould and black candy melts. You mould them in two halves, but with a little melted chocolate they glue together seamlessly.

The cupcakes are baked in Black lace cupcake papers. They're great to bake with, as no muffin pan is needed to support them, they sit flat on a baking sheet, which means I can get two dozen on one shelf of the oven at a time.

I've finished the tops with a 1m swirl of buttercream icing and a few Kiwicakes own brand sugar pearls. The long strands of pearls were made with fondant, that has a little tylose added, which was moulded in these bead moulds (6mm & 3mm).

Pirate Party Stack - from Kiwicakes test kitchen

My little pirate turned three at the start of spring. He quite specifically requested a pirate party and to have it onboard a train - as you do when you're three apparently. I suspect his older sister had creative input. 

Here are his party cupcakes. Party food for kids and their families had to be transported to the bush station with us onboard the train. So to keep things simple these cupcakes were perched on a silver cardboard cupcake stand. It comes flat-packed, so I could slot it together at the destination.

Given that the party day coincided with both moving house weekend and Australian Nana coming to stay, this party food had to be quick and easy. I thought red and stripey cupcake papers looked the part. I popped these cute skull and crossbone flag picks in cupcakes for adults and I topped the kids ones with pirate sugar icing decorations to eat.  Super easy for me and they were a hit!

Here is the birthday boy with his sword, looking a bit too cute to be a real pirate if you ask me!