Polymer Clay Cupcakes Mini Tutorial

You know I love cupcakes and so I was super excited to try to make my own mini cupcakes.

For the tutorial you will need polymer clay, glass head pins, flat head pins, translucent liquid Scuplty (TLS), various sized wire nuts, and amazing mold putty. I am going to assume that everyone has basic knowledge of working with polymer clay and some basic tools on hand.

We will start by using the wire nuts and the amazing mold putty to make molds for the cupcake bottoms. The bottoms can be made by hand by rolling a cylinder and making vertical lines on the sides, but I wanted easy and consistent. Amazing mold putty is easy to use, although it is a bit expensive (note the $19.99 price sticker, use a coupon!!!). The molds a flexible making it easy to pop the polymer clay out without using a releasing agent, like cornstarch. Scrap clay may also be used to make molds, but it won’t be flexible and you will need to coat the inside to make the clay easy to remove.

Mix the two parts of the putty together (check the package for more precise instructions), form into a ball and push the wire nut into the putty. Wire nuts are used to secure electrical wires and can be purchased at any hardware store. The impressions I made were so precise that the writing on the bottom of the nuts can be read on the molded clay. Once the putty is cured you can mold cupcake bottoms endlessly. The wire nuts make a tapered, perfectly fluted bottom.

To make decorative stick pins mold a cupcake bottom and then insert a glass head pin through the center. You can see the yellow heads here, they will be covered with the frosting in the next step. Glass head pins are a must since these need to go into the oven to cure. To make charms add a rounded “muffin” top to the bottom and insert a flat head pin.

I made two different kinds of frosting. Piped, which is clay rolled into a “snake” and coiled up to a point and frosted with a glass bead cherry on top. To make frosting mix a small amount of polymer clay with a small amount of TLS using you fingers to really mix the two together to get a nice frosting texture. I used a mini popsicle stick to spread my frosting on my cupcakes.

I stuck my pins into my poly filled pins cushion to bake for the recommended time. I have to say the the light pink ones are my favorite, but they are all really fun. You can sand the finished pieces (I didn’t) and add a coat of sealer. I’m going to dip mine in triple thick glaze and maybe sprinkle on some glitter or micro beads, but I needed to photograph them before I did that, they are so shiny after dipping its hard to get a clear picture of them.

I’d love to see your finished cupcakes if you give this tutorial a try. Have a super crafty weekend!