I’m so excited to be here at CakeJournal sharing our love of cake! I recently made a cake for a Twins Baby Gender Reveal Party and the them was “What Will They Bee?” When I got that order, it occurred to me that I had never made any bees for a cake, so I thought it would be a great opportunity to learn… and share!
This is what I use:
Yellow, Black and White Fondant (or gum paste)
Extruder
Water (or sugar glue would work perfectly)
Small brush
Xacto Knife
Small Rolling Pin
Miniature Heart Cutter
Black Food Marker
#12 Wilton Frosting Tip (or other tool to make half circle indention for the smile)
1/2″ Dowel Rod
6″ wires
Coffee Straws (not pictured)
Once you have everything gathered, it’s time to get started.
Step 1:
First up, you’ll want to get a ball of fondant that’s just over half an inch in diameter. I used my #12 tip to give you an idea of the size I used.
Step 2:
To make the bee’s body, shape that ball into a tear drop. I use my pointer finger to roll it on my mat to flatten out the one end and get it pointy.
Step 3:
Next you’ll need a tiny rope of black fondant. I use my extruder to do this – it makes the job so easy!
Step 4:
I use one of the larger hole disks that came with my extruder.
Step 5:
To get the bee body ready for the stripes, take your brush and paint on a tiny bit of water. You don’t want to get it too wet, just dampen it.
Step 6:
Cut your rope of fondant into 3 strips… maybe 2 inches long each. It doesn’t have to be exact. Then lay the stripes over bee’s body on the damp area.
Step 7:
Then you’ll want to tuck the ends underneath the bee. I use the handle of my paint brush to roll down the sides and tuck it under.
Step 8:
Once you’ve got it tucked, you’ll need to roll it over, careful not to flatten the stripes. Then use your Xacto blade to cut the extra off and make the ends meet underneath.
Step 9:
Now you’re ready to make some wings for your little bee. Roll out a small ball of white fondant and cut out tiny hearts. These make perfect little wings! Note: you could also use a tiny tear drop cutter or even an oval… I just thought the hearts add a whimsical feel to the bees.
Step 10:
Add a tiny dot of water to the top/front of your bee and attach the wings (two hearts) there…slightly overlapping the pointy part of the hearts (see the overlapping in the next picture).
Step 11:
You’re almost done! Take a food safe marker and draw on some eyes. You could also use tiny balls of fondant here, but the markers make it so easy!
Step 12:
To finish your bee, use a #12 Wilton frosting tip (the small end) to make a half-circle indention that will be a smile!!
At this point, you could add the bees directly to a cake or cupcake and they would be super cute! But if you’d like to really make them shine, you can put them in flight!
Step 13:
For this, you’ll want to take a 6″ wire and wrap it around a dowel rod to make it curly. Be sure to only curl about 1/2-2/3 of the wire – you’ll want one end straight to insert into your cake or cupcake. (I had to uncurl that one a little bit… it wrapped too much of it!)
Step 14:
To attach the bee, put a little water (or edible sugar glue) on the end of the wire and insert it into the underside of the bee. And it’s ready to go!
Step 15:
For actually placing the bee (on a wire) on a cake or cupcake, I like to put the end of the wire into a coffee straw and then insert that into the cake/cupcake. Like this…
Tip!
Coffee straws can be found in the paper products aisle of most grocery stores (near the regular straws) and they’re just smaller than a standard straw … perfect for wires.
See? Also, the straw is food safe and it also helps the wire to not tear the cake or cupcake!
That’s it! I’d love to hear about any bee cakes you’ve done or please leave any questions in the comments!
Happy Caking!
Rose
Hello,
These bees are stinkin adorable. Just wanted to say that your straw trick to keep the integrity of the cupcake and frosting intact is genius.
Thanks so much!!
What gauge is the wire you are using?
I use 22 guage. 🙂
I was wondering if you can print your tutorials?
They are adorable. How much fondant do you think I will need to make ~40 of the bees? I have never used fondant and i have no idea. For example, about how many bodies can you get out of a 2-lb tub of fondant? Thank you so much for any advice!
For the body alone (the yellow part) I use about .3 oz per bee, so you could potentially get over 100 bees from 2 pounds of fondant (assuming you make them the same size as me!). Best of luck! Rose
Thanks for the great tutorial. I made the bees for cupcake toppers for a friends b-day. I’ll post the completed pictures soon but the bees are there. Had to improvise with the wire.
I’d love to see your pics!
Rose these are adorable! I was wondering where did you get the extruder ?
I got mine at Amazon.com : https://amzn.to/109T3Kp
Can’t stop looking at these. So cute! Thank you for the how-to.
Hello Rose i love how you share your skills in baking and decorating cakes/cupcakes. I just like to ask how long can you store gumpaste decorations?
Hi Rommel! In my experience, gum paste decorations last for months, maybe longer! They just need to be stored in airtight containers and not in any direct light. I hope that helps 🙂
Very cute and looks so sweet! I love those cute little bees! Thanks for sharing Rose 🙂
Thank you Beckie!
These look bee-delicious and very fun to have on Easter or Spring Parties.
These are so precious! I love bumble bees as a design motif, so it can’t get any better than decorating cupcakes with them!
They look amazing! I’ve got a silly question though.. how did you make the frosting? Is it buttercream? Thanks!
It’s American buttercream! Thank you 🙂
They are so adorable specially on the bee hive like cupcake. I’ve made a few bumble bees for a garden theme cake & had them on flight as well. Only difference I made was:
1) I rolled tiny balls of white fondant & shaped them in to a tear shape to make their wings
2)I rolled two tiny balls of fondant for their eyes since I don’t have edible markers here.
I’m definitely going to make these cupcakes 😉 Thanks for the inspiration Rose
I want to make a beehive cake one day. Can’t wait to hae the opportunity to use this info!
These are absolutely adorable! I sent this over to my friend who is obsessed with all things bumblebee. Too cute!
Oh how adorably cute!!! thanks for sharing!!! I love the tip about the coffee straws….Genius!! hehehe!!!
Thank you for commenting sweet friend!
Fantastic idea! I love it. Thanks for sharing 🙂