Autumn is my favorite time of year. I love the smell of the leaves, the changing quality of the light, and the holiday preparations.

So I really enjoyed making these adorable autumn-themed cupcake toppers from a few simple cutters. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to make three of these designs.

What I used:
Clean work surface
Cornstarch
Rolling pin
Rolling cutter
Gold shimmer dust and small brush
Water pen
Stick tool
White icing writer
Large black sprinkles
Leaf cut-outs
Oval cut-outs
Round cut-outs
Toothpicks
Various colors of fondant
Small flower cutter
Cookie sheet lined with parchment (not pictured)

When I saw these cut-outs in my local craft store, I decided to challenge myself to create a set of toppers using them as my primary tools. These are affordable and easy to find.

Acorn Toppers
Step 1:
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. This will serve as a staging area as you make the toppers.

Step 2:
Using the largest circle cutter, cut out six yellow and six green circles as the  backgrounds of the autumn toppers. Place them on the lined cookie sheet.

Step 3:
The first design is the acorn. Roll out the light brown fondant rather thick.To create a “puffy” effect, place plastic wrap on it and use your mid-sized oval cutter to cut out several acorns.

They will look like this. Smooth out the edges gently with your fingers.

Step 4:
Repeat the step above with the dark brown fondant to create the caps of the acorns. Roll them out very gently to make them a bit wider than the acorn bottoms. Trim them as shown so they will fit together nicely.

Step 5:
Use your rolling cutter to very gently score the acorn tops.

Step 6:
Lightly wet the backs of the acorn pieces and affix them to the background color of your choice. Trim a small scrap of dark brown for the stem.

Step 7:
Give this simple acorn some added interest by dusting it with gold shimmer powder.

Fox toppers
Step 1:
Knead equal parts red and dark brown fondant to create a reddish brown for the fox design.

Step 2: Again to achieve a “puffy” effect on my design, I’ve rolled my fondant rather thick and placed plastic wrap over it. Use the mid-sized oval and leaf cutters to create the head and body of the fox.

Step3:
Use your thumb and pointer finger to model the head of the fox into a triangular shape.

Step 4:
Use your background circle to judge the scale of the shapes. Trim off the top and bottom of the leaf shape as shown.

Step 5:
The middle part of the trimmed leaf shape becomes the fox body. Trim the scraps to create two pointy ears.

Step 6:
Use the smallest-sized oval cutter to gently make impressions as shown on the head and body. Do not cut all the way through the fox. Just make a visible impression.

Step 7:
Use the water pen to  adhere the fox to the background at this point.

Step 8:
Using the smallest-sized oval cutter, cut out several white ovals. Trim them to fit where the impressions were made and attach them with the water pen.

Step 9:
Use the stick tool to make three dents in the spaces for the eyes and nose.

Step 10:
Squeeze a tiny bit of the icing writer into each dent to act as edible glue for the three sprinkles.

Step 11:
Firmly press the sprinkles in place and the fox is done!

Owl Toppers
Step 1:
Use the largest oval cutter to create several owl bodies.

Step 2:
Use the tip of the large oval cutter to hollow out the top of the owl’s head.

Step 3:
Use the smallest-sized circle and leaf cutters to cut out two circle and leaf shapes for each owl.

Step 4:
Use the water pen to attach the circle and leaf shapes to the owl body as shown. Also attach a tiny orange triangle for a beak. Use the stick tool to place dents where the eyes will go.

Step 5:
“Glue” the large black sprinkles in place by following the same steps we did for the fox. Then you can imprint a small shape on the owl’s body for added detail.

Allow the toppers to harden for at least three days on the parchment-lined cookie sheet. Then add them to your cupcakes for your holiday party. Just be careful…they might upstage the pumpkin pie!

Happy caking!
Renée