Peace, love and Bobby Sherman. It was the golden era of bubblegum music, tie-dyed shirts and bell-bottomed pants. In the late 60’s and early 70’s colorful daisies and happy faces were on everything, at least in my world, from posters and bed spreads to flowery stationery and book covers. Somewhere in my stash of relics from my innocent youth there’s a “Have a happy day” button – the real deal, so groovy and far out, as I hope you’ll think these retro 60’s-inspired tie-dyed decorated daisy cupcakes are.

 I used a few Wilton Cake Decorating products that I’ll tell you about as we go along. So are you ready to have some Hot Fun In The Summertime? That was my favorite song in 1969 by Sly and the Family Stone.  I still love it and crank it up when it’s on “The 60’s on 6” on Sirius radio.  Ha!

The daisies are made in two parts – small yellow fondant circles for the happy faces and the white fondant daisy cut-outs.

I made the smiley faces by cutting yellow fondant with a small round cutter and then drawing on the iconic happy face using a Wilton Decorating Pen in black.

Next, I rolled out Wilton’s Decorators Preferred Fondant in white and used the daisy gum paste cutter. They come in three sizes.  I tried the medium and small but decided on the medium which was on the larger size for the cupcakes which is the look I was going for.

Next comes the fun part if you like painting (and vodka). Did I say that out loud? Anyway, I placed a drop of Wilton’s Icing Colors in a palette – blue, green, orange, lemon yellow and pink. I recommend using one brush per color to keep the colors true.

To dilute the full intensity of the colors, I filled each little cup with vodka. Any clear alcohol will do. In my experience, the alcohol sets the colors better than water and keeps the vibrancy which I like. Mix it up with the brushes.

The colors will naturally blend together on the fondant. I started out by swiping one color per petal. In the photo below, it was blue. I then swiped green over it. Try not to cover the entire petal with color at first. Keeping some areas white will pick up the other true colors, say pink. If you like violet, brush the pink over the blue. You’ll get the hang of it. Each flower will be an original work of art.

The center smiley faces adhere to the daises if each are moist.  If they’re too dry to stick together, dab a bit of water on the daisy center. I love the convenience of using a water brush so I don’t have a bowl of water nearby that can get knocked over.

Let the painted daisies dry for a couple hours or overnight. This will give them more strength and stiffer petals to keep their shape. I transfered them to a mesh baking rack as opposed to a fairly open rack so the petals don’t flop down and loose their shape.

Time to bake! Yay!

When I saw these brightly colored Wilton baking cups I knew they’d be perfect! I used the yellow, blue and green – 2 per cupcake. Don’t separate the two papers completely. This will keep them tighter during baking.

For the vanilla cake I used a box mixed because I really do like them but I added vanilla bean paste and Wilton’s Treatology in Creamy Custard for an added note of flavor. I also added the same Creamy Custard flavor to my white icing. Very yummy.

Hello! What’s this cool and psychedelic effect? Why it’s only the best and most fun icing decorating toy in my kitchen this summer! It’s Wilton’s ColorSwirl Three-Color Coupler. In my last post before my blog-cation I wrote all about it and gave you tips on how to use it. You can read more about it in my 4th of July Cupcakes post.

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I have this thing for the combo of pink and orange. This time I invited yellow to the love-in. Wait!  I’m having a flash back! Come to think of it these were the colors of my bedroom in the late 60’s with a dose of lime green. Loved it then, still loving it now.

Here’s more delicious swirls. Did I tell you how much I love this ColorSwirl Three-Color Coupler?  Oh yes. I guess I did! You know what? I think I’m going to give one way at the end of this post!

Tell me the truth, have you ever seen a happier and more cheery cupcake?

Let’s have our own Summer of (cupcake) Love and if you’re going to San Francisco be sure to wear some flowers in your hair or anywhere else that you’re planning to visit and pack up a few of these 60’s inspired tie-dyed smiley faced cupcakes. They’ll make anyone’s day a happy one!  Because….

…all you need is love. (and hopefully they won’t notice you smudged the perfectly swirled icing putting the cupcake into the box). 🙂

 For a chance to win the Wilton ColorSwirl Three-Swirl Coupler, just leave a comment with your email. 🙂  I’ll post when the give-away ends.  Good luck & Peace!

As a Wilton Brand Ambassador and member of the Wilton Sweet Treat Team, I received product and/or compensation for this post by Wilton Cake Decorating. All ideas and opinions are my own and all the products were chosen by me to share with you because I use them and love them and thought you might love them too. 

Wilton Cake decorating products used in this post:

Decorating Pen in black
Decorators Preferred Fondant in white
Daisy Gum Paste Cutter
Icing Colors
Brushes
Water Brush
Brightly Colored Baking Cups
Treatology in Creamy Custard
ColorSwirl Three-Color Coupler

p.s. You might have noticed I’ve changed the name of my blog from Pink Martinis and Pearls to Sweets To Impress.  A girl can change her mind after six years, don’t you think? Everything is the same and all that is Pink Martinis and Pearls links back to Sweets To Press. 🙂