Cowboy Boot Cupcakes

Don’t you just love these cowboy boot cupcakes I made over the weekend?

I iced my chocolate-chocolate chip cupcakes with vanilla buttercream.  Here are the steps for decorating them:

• Make a stencil out of parchment paper in the shape of the boot.
• Roll out a small piece of white gumpaste and then roll it through the pasta roller (setting number 1, then again on number 3).
• Cut out the desired number of cowboy boots.
• Allow them to dry on a piece of soft foam.
• Follow the same rolling/cutting process for the stars.  I used a small star cutter to make it easy.
• Attach the star to the boot using egg white and a small brush.  Be careful not to get egg white all over the boot.  When you get ready to paint them, the color won’t stick to the egg white.
• Dry completely.
• Color your boots any way you’d like.  For mine, I used copper for the star and a mix of cocoa brown and canary yellow for the boot.
• Using a tip 1M, pipe a large, fat star on top of your cupcake.
• Release pressure and slightly twist your wrist to pipe another, smaller star on top of that. The twist between stars makes them fit together nicely.
• Place your boot on top of the cupcake before the icing has a chance to crust over.