Ski cupcakes!

Skiing is not a sport I have ever been able to get on with. I love the idea of being in the mountains, with the fresh air and the views and the exercise. Unfortunately I spend most of my time on skis on the verge of tears and/or a panic attack. Looking up or down a steep slope fills me with panic and the idea of pointing slidey, slippy things strapped to my feet straight down one does not compute. My brain just won’t let me do it. But neither will it let me go on a ski holiday and not go up the mountain to enjoy the fresh air and the views and the exercise. My time on skis probably adds up to a good month but the last time I went a few years ago the kids were better than me after two days. And the idea of being responsible for them made it even worse!

So sadly I think ski holidays may be a thing of the past for me: the kids are much safer without me and to be honest it would terrify me to see them on skis anyway… Ski cupcakes are a lot less scary proposition and I made these for my son’s friends’ birthday party at an indoor ski slope. Much safer. Although it turns out that these skis are almost as tricky to deal with as the real thing.

Non-threatening cupcake…

Last year the birthday boys, Tano and Shrey had a spy themed party with another friend, Nicholas. This year the invited kids (possibly the luckiest children ever) were supposed to be going in the sky diving wind tunnel as my friend Vana, mum of one of the birthday boys, is a sky diving champion and spends a lot of time in it. I had a go last year and it is so much fun. And no, there is no chance I will ever be jumping out of an actual aeroplane. Just the thought of it gives me palpitations. Unfortunately the wind tunnel was shut due to flooding but I had said I would make skiing and sky diving cupcakes. The skiing ones I am quite pleased with but the sky diving ones can most definitely be improved upon:

“Parachute and clouds”. Sort of…

The skis were very easy to make. I just rolled out some sugarpaste and cut strips and gave them pointy tips. Then I used a pencil to lean the tips on to get the upturned point and left them to dry:

Sugarpaste skis and parachutes

I made little crescents for the boot bindings and attached them with edible glue. I would normally use water as glue but as they were going to be standing up I thought I might need something a little stronger. I struggled with how to make parachutes. In the end I cut out small discs of sugarpaste and then used a tart tin for the edges:

Making sugarpaste parachutes

The hardest bit for me was getting the stripes of a parachute. In the end I cut out more parachute shapes in a contrasting colour and used slices of those on top of the base colour, and covered them in a good layer of glitter. Possibly the problem is with the colours I used as much as anything else but in the end they reminded me more of cherries than parachutes!

All the cupcakes were chocolate flavoured and topped with chocolate icing and then the skis and snowflake sprinkles or parachutes and mini marshmallow clouds. I decorated them the night before the party and put them in the box. I was so disappointed in the morning when I opened the box to take a picture and realised that the moisture in the buttercream had softened the skis that I had so carefully dried out and some of them had “wilted” and worse, some of them had actually broken.

Skis are not to be trusted…

The party was a huge success and my son had a brilliant time. I don’t think 9 year olds are too worried about the odd broken ski, luckily, but I would love any advice anyone can offer on how to avoid the same thing happening again. I know you can put Tylo powder in the sugarpaste to help it harden, maybe leaving it out was my mistake?

Happy Birthday to Tano and Shrey and thank you from Linus for a great party!!! And thank you Vana and Shenny for letting me make the cupcakes – I will do better next time!

Categories: Baking, Cakes, Chocolate, Cupcakes

Tags: baking, birthday, cake, children's parties, chocolate, cupcake toppers, cupcakes, frosting, icing, parachute decoration, parties, ski decorations, skiing, sky diving, sugarpaste