I'm making 50 cupcakes for a 1st birthday party and she wants ladybugs on top of the frosting. Like in the pictures, http://www.flickr.com/photos/studiocake/2408830957/

However, she doesn't want fondant. What can I use to make lady bug disks that will be edible? I looked into the new sugar paper but that's super expensive.

Any ideas?

I was thinking royal icing but not sure how to go about it that way.

I personally would use modeling chocolate. I use it for flowers and lots of deco's . hth

You can make them in frozen buttercream transfers or use candy melts/chocolate to create the discs.

I agree. I would use modeling chocolate and airbrush them red

I've never used modeling chocolate. What does it taste like?

dark chocolate modeling chocolate tastes like a tootsie roll

if you are wanting to use royal icing Sweetopia.net has great tutorials on how to make things and then transfer them.

I've used milk chocolate to make my modeling chocolate and it tasted pretty good too.

You should probably explain to her that you're not going to achieve that exact look unless you use fondant.

I'm not saying it can't be done any other way, but it's not going to look exactly the same with any other method. And it will probably be a lot more trouble.

You can make your own modeling chocolate by using candy melts and corn syrup. You take a 14 oz bag of candy melts with a 1/3 cup of corn syrup. But you have to kneed and kneed it and kneed is some more. It is quite messy, but once you need it enough, it make a wonderful chocolate clay. There are many colors you can use. Even black for the lady bugs. I have worked with it, even covered a cake with it and loved the results. It won't be hard, like fondant, but it is nice to work with. You could even use some flavoring oils, (LoAnn's) to flavor it any flavor you would want. I really did enjoy working with it, after all the kneeding.

I've only done small royal ladybugs. Just made some red royal, piped red dots on waxpaper and let them dry. I draw on the spots with a food pen but you could make black royal dots, either wet on wet or pipe them on wax paper to and attach when they are dry.
Cupcake size ones may take a while to dry. But you can make them weeks in advance.
http://cakecentral.com/gallery/1730374 - the third picture

When I have left over royal, any color, I pipe circles on wax paper let dry and if my kids don't find them and eat them I use them as eyes, flower centres...
I keep them in a new pizza box in a dry dark cupboard and they last forever.

marzipan is nice to model with, too.

You can make them with royal icing. Just pipe them onto wax paper and then when they are dry you can lift them up and place them on the cupcake.

My other suggestion would be to make them on a sugar cookie if you thought the royal icing would be too fragile for you to make.

"But I don't want them done in fondant."

"Well, for them to look clean and dimensional, and correct, I will need to use fondant."

"But I don't want fondant!"

"If you want those cupcakes to look just like that, I will need to use fondant. You can pick them up off the cupcake, and no one has to eat them."

"Oh, ok, you're the cake decorator, I shouldn't tell you how to do your job, huh?"

"Nope."

I used royal icing. Made small red mounds and when they dried used and edible black marker to make the dots.

Modeling chocolate.

http://sugarsweetcakesandtreats.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-to-make-modeling-chocolate.html

Or royal icing half discs on parchment (this is what I would do).

I had a client want the fondant look but hated fondant so I used rolled buttercream. It had the look of fondant but sweet like buttercream. Just a thought.

Royal Icing would possibly make nice looking ladybugs, but even though the ingredients are edible, it certainly is hard to eat. Just imagine thos dots on the paper multiplied by the size of the ladybug. That would be so hard to eat, that 1 year olds couldn't do it. I would be afraid they might choke on them. Just a thought

Oh you're welcome. It's ok to laugh, really. I'm just making a point that does apply in other situations.

I used color flo and edible marker

I love experimenting with doing things differently, I love to. But I also know when it's appropriate to just say "You know, I really just need to do those in the medium they are best done with. You can just pop them off and the kids can play with them after they eat their cupcake!" End of story, and I move on to doing my work.

Those disks are removable, does your friend know that?

Does she just want cupcakes with lady bugs on top or does she want THOSE cupcakes?

If she wants those specific cupcakes then just do it fondant and she can take her's off her own cupcakes and let the other 49 guests decided for themselves whether or not they want to eat it.
You'd be surprised how many people really do like fondant.

I don't understand the aversion to fondant...they don't have to eat them, they're decorative.

But, having said that, you can make lady bugs out of good old fashioned butter cream too. That's how all us old gals did it LONG before anyone even heard of fondant.

Check out this link, there are a number of different ladybug cupcakes made all in buttercream.

http://www.google.com/search?q=images+of+buttercream+ladybugs&hl=en&sa=X&biw=1280&bih=520

I thought that if it's for little ones, you could make sugar cookies and ice them to top the cupcakes.

Like these:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/61644452/ladybugs-1-dozen-decorated-sugar-cookies?ref=sr_gallery_13&ga_includes%5B0%5D=tags&ga_search_query=ladybug+cookies&ga_ref=related&ga_page=1&ga_search_type=all&ga_facet=

http://www.etsy.com/listing/78109711/ladybug-sugar-cookies-one-dozen?ref=sr_gallery_5&ga_includes%5B0%5D=tags&ga_search_query=ladybug+cookies&ga_ref=related&ga_page=1&ga_search_type=all&ga_facet=

http://www.etsy.com/listing/44294207/ladybug-cookies-1-dozen?ref=sr_gallery_8&ga_includes%5B0%5D=tags&ga_search_query=ladybug+cookies&ga_ref=related&ga_page=1&ga_search_type=all&ga_facet=

I love the sugar cookie ides, I've used them as toppers! It's an extra treat for guests. But.... it certainly won't look exactly like the pic. Just ask in a nice friendy way if she has to have that EXACT cupcake. If she does, then she has to deal with fondant. If she just wants a ladybug that looks nice, you can use any of the mediums suggested as long as she knows they won't be the exact same.

Sorry should have put that they don't need to be exactly like that. Just the idea of lady bug disks on top of the frosting