My daughters gave me a Halloween cupcake challenge…doll sized! Today I will share with you how I made four different DIY Halloween polymer clay cupcakes for our American Girl dolls. Our inspiration came from real cupcakes that included Oreo cookie spiders, buttercream pumpkins, spooky cookie crumb ghosts, and festive sprinkles!
I purchased a cupcake silicone mold from Mold Muse on Etsy. You can find this mold here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/113909119/kawaii-cupcake-mold-mould-resin-polymer?ga_search_query=cupcake&ref=shop_items_search_9
I used the above mold and polymer clay to make the cupcake wrapper base and the cake centers. These clay parts were stacked, as shown, and baked at 275° for 20 minutes. The parts adhere together during baking.
Below is a picture of our real Oreo spider cupcake inspiration. We love Oreos and black licorice!
I found a perfect sized Oreo cookie mold on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/listing/223029893/flexible-mold-tiny-chocolate-cookie?ref=shop_home_active_4
Using black polymer clay, I made enough Oreos for the top and bottoms of the cookies.
Next, I rolled out white polymer clay with my rolling machine on setting 7.
I used my circle cutters and cut out the center filling and eyes. Assemble your Oreo cookies. You can also used straws for your cutters. If clay gets stuck in cutter, gently push out with paper clip.
You can find these specific cutters here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-Pc-Dotting-Circle-Round-Mini-Cutters-Polymer-Clay-Ceramic-Pottery-Set-/142291442747?hash=item21213b1c3b:g:XNsAAOSw4CFYsMh3
I used a clay extruder to create the black spider licorice legs.
This Sculpey clay extruder had 3 multi circular tips. I used the middle sized tip for the spider legs. After black clay was extruded. I used a toothpick to poke a hole into the white clay center filling of the clay Oreos. I gently put the black clay strings into the holes and cut with tiny scissors to desired length.
The peak of the clay orange frosting was flattened out and the Oreo spider was placed on top. I did use a small dab of Sculpey Bake and Bond to ensure cookie adhered to frosting.
The frosting top with spider was baked at 275° for 17 minutes. Once cooled I used a black fine tip Sharpie to add circle dots in the eyes. The frosting top was glued to cupcake base with E6000 epoxy glue. I think our clay version looks very close to the real thing! 🙂
Below is a picture of our ghost cupcake inspiration! My youngest daughter requested these cupcakes to have A LOT of frosting!
Instead of using the frosting mold, I decided to use my Sculpey clay extruder and a single circle tip. I used the 3rd from the largest size.
I extruded long row of white clay and rolled into a tower. Once at desired height I cut with my Xacto knife.
Here is my little tip on Oreo crumbs….I use black gravel that is used for miniature models. It looks great and saves some time. We wanted our ghosts to have Oreo crumb eyes and mouth.
You can find this gravel here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0062VGXP2/ref=od_aui_detailpages01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The “Oreo crumb” pieces were pushed into the clay with tweezers. They adhere with baking. The ghost frostings were baked at 275° for 20 minutes. The frosting top was glued to cupcake base with E6000 epoxy glue.
Below is a picture of our pumpkin cupcake inspiration.
We wanted the frosting of our pumpkin cupcakes to have a buttercream look so a little tan and yellow clay were mixed with white clay. Remember when mixing clays that the color will be a shade darker once baked. Once mixed we used the frosting mold above.
I had previously purchased these tiny pumpkins off of Ebay here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-Loose-Pumpkins-Dollhouse-Miniatures-Fruit-Vegetable-Supply-Deco-Halloween-Day-/401384227056 FYI these are coming from China and do take a bit to deliver.
I pushed a little pumpkin into the top of the frosting mold to create an indention / nest. Then the pumpkin was removed. I did not want to bake these pumpkins in the frosting because I wasn’t sure on the color fastness of the clay used in the pumpkins and I also didn’t want the pumpkins to be overbaked since they were already baked once. The cream frosting was baked at 275° for 14 minutes. Once cooled the pumpkins were matched up to the frosting indentions and glued in place with E6000 epoxy glue. The cupcake frosting tops were glued to the cupcake base with E6000 epoxy glue.
The pumpkin cupcakes turned out super cute and will also look great in Thanksgiving displays.
Lastly, below is our real sprinkled cupcake inspiration. Lime green and black sprinkles were make from polymer clay. To learn how to make polymer clay sprinkles see here: http://brandyshappyhome.com/diy-polymer-clay-sprinkles-2/
A bright orange clay was used with the mold above. We inserted our previous baked sprinkles gently into the unbaked orange clay. The frosting was baked at 275° for 14 minutes. Once cooled, the frosting top was glued to the cupcake base with E6000 epoxy glue.
The Wellie Wishers LOVE helping out in the kitchen!
These AMAZINGLY cute Wellie Wishers Halloween dresses can be purchased from Dresses for Dolls on Etsy for only $6 each! Thanks for your sponsorship! https://www.etsy.com/shop/Dressesfordolls
***Tip***I was asked how I clean my mat that I work on when using clay. I use a Magic Eraser. Thanks for asking! 🙂
Craft on!
Did you use any kind of sealant to make it shiny?
I use PYM II acrylic protective sealant on almost all of my polymer clay.
Everything looks wonderful! Thank you for sharing your tips.
You are very welcome! 🙂
Thank you so much for this awesome post and directions!! I am so excited to try these!! 🎃
Thanks Kylie! 🙂 I can’t wait to see what you create!
Will you adopt me please?? Your tutorials are so very clear – and love the pictures – you make me think I might be able to do some of these!! Keep up the wonderful work for even us big kids (ok, so I’ll never see 65 again!!) Thanks so much for all of your great talent. Your kids must love you to the Moon and Back!! Melinda
LOL! Thanks Melinda! Little and Big kids alike LOVE to do doll crafts! I’m so glad you are enjoying the tutorials! 🙂
Thank you so much for giving us such detailed instructions for creating all of these wonderful polymer clay food items. I have been trying to teach myself how to do this and your tips have been invaluable.
I love this comment! Thank you! I’m thrilled by tips are of help! 🙂