For Louis’ birthday party, I had my Mom in visiting from Idaho the week before.  She has a background in cake decorating and used to make the most AMAZING cakes for us growing up.  I knew there was no better time than then to get her to help me to make something for Lou’s party.  So glad I roped her into this! 

They turned out so super cute! AND are edible too.  Woot!

I wish I’d know this trick before now.  I would have been rocking the cupcake world.  Not that I make a lot of cupcakes for things…but still.  Wilton makes a Meringue Powder that creates a “royal icing” that you can use for decorating. 

All you need to make it is:
— 3 tablespoons Meringue Powder
— 4 cups (about 1 lb.) confectioners’ sugar
— 6 tablespoons warm water

Mix them together 7-10 minutes at a low speed until you have a super thick consistency of icing.  Boom.  Done.

If you want anything other than white, add some color and you’re ready to rock and roll!

Use a Teflon sheet (or some wax paper) and put down the design you want to make.  Obviously we went for pirate hats.  I made the print available [HERE] so you can make these very same ones if you’d like. 

Trace over the main design and let dry.  If you leave it for a few hours, it will be hard as a rock and you can peel the little hats right off of your surface cleanly.  It feels like magic when you do it.

Fair warning: because the icing consistency is so thick, it is super hard to push out of the tips.  Not to the point that you can’t do it, but your hand will feeeeeel it when you’re finished.  It did mine.

We went over the black hats with a freehand design of the skull & crossbones.  I say “we” but I really mean my Momma. Because she’s awesome.  I made the black dotted eyes on all of them but she did the majority of the skull/crossbones backbreaking work.  Thanks Momma!!

Even though the icing dries super hard, still make sure to make a few extras in case you break them before they make it to the cupcakes.  I know from experience…as I smashed four of them in one foul swoop by dropping my cellphone straight on top of them.  Whoops.

There you have it!  Easy peasy and super adorable!  We had a ton of compliments on our cupcakes during Louis’ birthday party.  We ARGH pretty blessed with resources full of talented people willing to teach us how to take our creativity to the next level.  Plus, my Momma is the best.  Ever.