Tea Party Cupcake Toppers Tutorial: Part 5, the Table.

The first time I made my miniature gumpaste tea set cupcakes, I covered the entire cupcake with a circle of gumpaste so it resembled a tablecloth of sorts.

And that worked acceptably well.  But the cupcakes were kind of domed, and even with a bunch of buttercream icing beneath the gumpaste tablecloth, my surface was rather rounded and difficult to work with.  

The second time I made these cupcake toppers, I was making them for a friend's daughter.  But I wasn't making the cupcakes themselves.  I knew I had to come up with another idea.  The perfect, easy solution?  Oreo cookies!

Those classic sandwich cookies are the perfect size to serve as flat, edible little tables to go atop cupcakes.  And covering them couldn't be easier.  All you need to do is cut out a circle of gumpaste that's a bit bigger than your Oreo cookie.  I'd actually loaned out my set of circle cutters to a friend when I made these, so I ended up just searching through our cups until I found a glass that was the perfect size.  No fancy equipment needed, clearly!

You can ruffle the edges of the gumpaste circle if you want to get fancy, but that's not necessary.  Just drape and let dry.   Doing the cupcake toppers this way allows you to make them well ahead of the event--weeks and weeks, even.  And I'm all for eliminating anything I can from the last-minute party prep.  Plus, you get an Oreo with your cupcake.  Bonus treat!  Nothing wrong with that, nothing at all.

Other Tea Party Cupcake Tutorials: