Hello!

I am doing New Year Eve themed cupcakes with one of the designs being a firework. Any advice on how to best achieve the look or design of a firework using edible ingredient and processes? Fondant, chocolate, candy melts? 

Thanks for all the help!

Here's an idea. This is an under-developed tool for the decorator --a simple pate choux paste recipe (cream puff dough) piped into the sunbursts, baked, then covered with colored granulated sugar and probably some edible glitter--then they are so light you can stick them on a skewer or a spaghetti noodle and wiola, fireworks.

Cream puff dough is immensely pipeable--perfect for monograms and writing.

I guess I brushed it with something to make the sugar stick--can't remember what.

And you can color the pate choux before you bake it. If you bake it low & slow it doesn't brown. You can make it with shortening and keep it fairly white also. I've colored it with Koolaid with good results.

You probably brushed it with one egg white beaten with a tablespoon of  water.

Egg white & water would work perfectly great but I can't remember. Maybe it was that or piping gel--or even just a confectioner sugar & water glaze. Mighta been the egg white. Mighta been alcohol and air brush color.

????????

ASo you made little dough balls and then covered them with strands of granulated sugar? Or an egg white mixture to make long thing strands? A little confused! Thank you for all the help

Wait. The shells of cream puffs and eclairs is called pate choux in french. Here's a recipe similar to the recipe I use: http://www.marthastewart.com/349990/pate-choux it is a very straight forward and easy thing to make---might not seem so till you make it once but it really is. So you make the pate choux pastry dough by cooking it in a pan on the stove--then adding the eggs as described in the recipe--it makes a paste.

You can pipe with this stuff at this point. It's lovely to pipe with. Just put it in a piping bag and pipe the starburst designs, the design of the fireworks you want to make, like in my picture. Then bake them in an oven on a lower temperature. Now they are little golden brown light as air starburst shapes.

Then you color some granulated sugar in the firework colors you want.

Then beat some egg white and water to brush on the baked starburst so when you sprinkle on the sugar that you colored it will adhere to the surface. You probably could use piping gel too

The 'fireworks' are very lightweight and so you can stick a wooden skewer in them or a spaghetti noodle in there to get them 'up above the cupcake like real fireworks.

I hope this is more understandable. If this interests you I'll be glad to fill in any gaps in my directions.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That recipe I linked to gets a little fussy when you go to make the cream puffs (click on the thumbnail picture at the bottom of the recipe for those more inticate baking instructions)----I just pipe the designs I want and bake them about 325 or 360* till they're done--depending on the size of the project. They will be crisp and fully cooked when they come out of the oven.

*fareneheit of course, sorry.

Thank you so much for taking it through me step by step! I ended up piping with candy melts and then using lustre dusts for the colours - but i will defiantly keep the choux pastry in mind for net time and any future projects!

Thank you again for all your help i really appreciate it! :)

thank you and you're welcome

oh wow if they are the ones on your fb--such explosively firetastic work!!

and your hydrangea cupcakes are beautiful!!

wow

mgostin,

Your fireworks made with the candy melts came out great! Do you mind sharing how you did it? I tried doing fireworks for one of my first cakes with buttercream and it didn't go well. I've always wanted to try again somehow, but wasn't sure how to go about it.

Hi VaBelle,

Sorry for the late reply - have been away. How I did the candy work fireworks is by melting the candy melts so they were at a very 'sloppy' consistency, place it in a piping bag with a no 2 piping nozzle and then piped on non-stick/baking paper. I piped by creating lines going out in all different directions from a centre point, some were long, other shorts but I made sure that all the lines slightly overlapped so that the firework could dry in one piece. They are very fragile though so they need to be handled with great care!

good luck!