Hi Everyone,
Someone just asked me how I make the toppers for our Chanukah cupcakes.  They are made from Royal Icing. Royal Icing is a mixture of egg and confectionery sugar. Royal Icing is fabulous as you can make whatever you can imagine. I beat one egg white and one cup of confectionery sugar in a mixer using the whisk blade, for about 5 or 6 minutes. You are looking to get it to be like a marshmallow fluff consistency. I then divide it into bowls, as many bowls as the colors I want to make. Then until ready to work with a particular color, keep the bowl covered with a wet cloth. The good thing about Royal Icing is it dries quickly and gets hard, the bad thing about Royal Icing is it dries quickly and gets hard, meaning if you leave it in the bag for a few minutes it will form a crust on the edge and become difficult to work with. So, keep it covered.
Once you have decided on colors,  (for the candles and stars I used blue, white and yellow) fill either a pastry bag or a ziploc bag with a small hole cut out of the corner.  In the beginning I found it helpful to draw what I wanted to make on a piece of parchment paper, then trace over it with the pastry bag and fill it in. The candles are a rectangle that I filled in, the flame shaped to look of  a flame and then filled in. For the stars, which are bi-colored, I used 2 bags with 2 different colors of Royal Icing in each. Then I traced over a star and used alternating colors for each “leg” of the star. in this way it looks like the colors are inter twined. When the Royal Icing dries it will be very hard and easy to use for toppers.
Chanukah is a great time of year with so many ideas for fun cupcake toppers, decorated cookies, and fun cakes.
~Love From Our Kitchen to Yours