30th birthday cupcakes recipe

These 30th birthday cupcakes are complete with a handmade fondant topper, sweet vanilla buttercream, and soft sponge.

Perfect for personalising, these 30th birthday cupcakes are impressive. Each topper is made with white fondant, navy and blue food colouring as well as flower paste, silver luster dust, and edible pearls. Take your cake decorating skills to the level with these cupcakes.

Ingredients

1x batch of our basic cupcakes recipe

For the buttercream icing:

• 110g butter, room temperature
• 500g icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 30ml milk

For the toppers:

• 400g white fondant
• 50g flower paste
• Navy and pale blue food colourpaste (we used Sugarflair's Navy and Ice Blue)
• 120g edible pearls
• Silver lustre dust
• Edible glue
• A dab of clear white alcohol such as vodka or gin for painting

You will also need

• Piping bag
• Wilton 1M nozzle
• Double sided wavy cookie cutters (we used an approx 4.5x5.3cm cutter for the larger shape and 2.5x3cm cutter for smaller one)
• Acetate stencil with a modern flower design (we used the 'Mehndi cookie' design from Lindyscakes.co.uk)
• Small brush with soft bristles (we used a new make-up brush)
• Number cutters
• Alphabet cutters (we used number and alphabet cutters from Cakecraftworld.co.uk)
• Fine paint brush
• Rolling pin

Method

1. Bake a batch of basic cupcakes and leave to cool completely before icing.
2. To make the buttercream icing, add the butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract to a large mixing bowl, then beat for about 5 minutes with an electric whisk until smooth. Pour the milk gradually, a little at a time, if you need to loosen the mixture. You may not need all of the milk.
3. Colour 350g of white fondant with a touch of Ice Blue and Navy colour paste until you have your desired blue shade. Set aside the remaining 50g of white fondant.
4. Roll out the fondant to 1/4 inch thick. Placing the acetate stencil on the top of the fondant, roll over the pattern with the rolling pin. Leaving the stencil in place, rub the exposed parts of the pattern with a touch of vegetable fat or butter. Taking the soft brush and the silver lustre, brush over the top of the pattern to leave an even silver colour and then lift the stencil gently away from the fondant. Repeat for each of the cupcakes.
5. Using the larger wavy cutter cut out a wavy circle 'topper', making sure the stenciled pattern is in the middle. Then with a touch of edible glue, stick one edible pearl into each point of the wave and repeat until you have 12 toppers. Leave the toppers to dry on a large sponge or parchment paper. You will have some blue fondant left for the centre circles.
6. For the smaller toppers in the centre of the cakes, roll out the remainder of the blue fondant and cut 12 small plain circles with the plain side of the small cutter. Then roll out 50g of white fondant and cut 12 wavy circles with the same cutter. With a touch of edible glue or dab of water, stick the blue circle to the wavy white circles.
7. Roll out the flower paste to 1/8 inch thick and leave it to dry for 10 mins before cutting out 12 number 3s and 12 number 0s to make the 30 signs.
8. With your fine brush, silver lustre and a touch of white alcohol, paint the numbers silver and stick them to the centre of the smaller blue toppers.
9. Stick the smaller toppers to the middle of the stenciled pattern.
10. Fill a piping bag and attach the Wilton 1M nozzle. Ice the tops of your cupcakes with a flat swirl of buttercream and place the toppers onto the cakes.

Top tips for making 30th birthday cupcakes

These cupcakes can easily be adapted to suit other birthdays too. Just choose the right number cutters for the right age.

If you don’t have time to colour the fondant yourself, opt for ready coloured fondant instead. You could also choose other colours too.

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Chocolate cupcake recipe

Hummingbird Bakery’s vanilla cupcakes recipe

Birthday cake recipes