Istanbul Inspired Cupcake Toppers

Unlike with North American holidays where holiday parties precede the actual holiday, Eid parties always happen after Eid takes place. They can’t take place before, because it would be Ramadan anyway. So because of this, often times it can feel as if Eid stretches out for a while. At least for about two weeks. 

My weekend was filled with Eid parties and weddings even though Eid was last week. To bring some holiday spirit to the party, I decided to make Istanbul inspired cupcake toppers for store-bought cupcakes (I’m too busy to do my own baking!) 

Inspired by the Istanbul skyline, I decided to make my cupcake toppers in the shape of the Blue Mosque. I’m a big fan of Turkey’s mosque architecture. 

Making these toppers was a breeze. Sometimes I’ve seen bakers top cupcakes with a small cookie iced in royal icing but as I really didn’t have time to bake, I took a different route.

I sketched out my topper design on a piece of paper, experimenting with the size. Once I was happy with the design and size, I cut my topper out.

Using this paper cut out as an outline, I traced this shape on a piece of cardboard. Then I iced each cardboard topper with white royal icing (recipe here.)

You could make a purely sugar decoration but it usually takes a few days to harden before it can be used as a topper. Since I didn’t have time for that, using a cardboard backing was necessary for me. You’ll want to make sure the cardboard is thin enough to cut out easily with scissors but thick enough to actually stand on it’s own when inserted into a cupcake as a topper.

Once the royal icing had dried for a few hours (about half a day), I used a blue edible ink pen (you can find edible ink markers at places such as Bulk Barn or Michael’s) to sketch out the mosque. These days I’m really liking the look of rough illustrations so edible ink markers were perfect for this job.

And there we have it – homemade look with minimal effort. That’s what I’m all about it.

Thank you to my professional cake baker friend, Arwa, for letting me use her royal icing when I was too rushed to make my own batch from scratch 🙂

Vanilla cupcakes: Dlish Cupcakes.
Chocolate ganache cupcakes: Swirls Cupcakes. 

Photos: Manal Aman

Hello Holy Days Shop!
Shop products by Hello Holy Days!