Sugar Tea Cup and Saucer for my Bear Tea Party

My baby girl wanted a Bear Tea Party this year. If you follow my blog you would have seen the Bear pinata blog that I have just finished. She wanted a polar bear having tea!! And of course she wants that on her cake too. And what is a Tea Party without a Tea Cup? So here it is, the sugar Tea Cup.

Start by finding a real tea cup and a saucer that you like. You will use them as a mold for your sugar version. You will need gum paste or fondant (gum paste is more durable - but I had some fondant already open so I used fondant this time). Take your fondant or paste and roll it to form a circle slightly bigger than your saucer and about 1/8 of an inch thick. Dust your saucer with corn starch or icing sugar. Place the rolled fondant on top of the real saucer and gently press against it to mold to the shape.

With a some scissors cut the edges of the fondant as close as possible to the saucer. If necessary (normally if your saucer is of an intricate shape like this one) turn the fondant and the saucer upside down and trim the edges with an exacto knife.

Turn back up, lift gently to make sure the fondant is nit stuck to the plate and let dry for at least 2 days. Every so often lift fondant from plate to make sure it does not stick.

For the cup the process is very similar. If your cup is wide,  roll a circle of fondant about 1/8 thick and gently place inside the icing sugar dusted cup. Slowly and gently stroke the fondant so it takes the shape of the cup. This might take a while but it is worthy unless you like wrinkles on your cup. If the cup is narrow, you need to roll the fondant and cut a piece of fondant about an inch taller than your cup in the shape of a rainbow.

Gently put one end of the shape inside the cup and then press the rest so it forms a cup inside your real one. Cut the excess once you meet the beginning of the piece. Press gently to stick the edges together (You will get a rough area where the 2 ends meet - it is OK we will smooth it later). Also cut the excess from the top of the cup with scissors or with the exacto as you did with the saucer.

Gently lift the fondant cup to make sure it does not stick and let dry for 2 days. Same procedure as the saucer.

I cut little flowers with a flower cutter from my cup and saucer to make it even cuter - but this is optional.

For the handle, you can do different designs. I rolled a little log of fondant and twirled it to a nice shape - let dry on top of a sponge (so it does not get flat).

Once your pieces are dry, you can let them as is or you can decorate them. The first thing to do is to smooth the rough edges. I use a metal nail emery board that I have just for cakes. Carefully file the edges and any roughness you can find. If the ends were your edges meet are too rough, you can make a paste with icing sugar and a little water (tooth paste consistency) and rub it into the rough area flattening it with a spatula. Let it dry and voila! smooth cup. With the same paste glue the handle to the cup and let dry.

I painted my one with food color paints, and shimmers. I also added little sugar flowers that I made earlier with a flower cutter and fondant. I dusted the flowers with pink and gold dust.

Draw your design with some marker in paper so you have an idea of how it will look in your cup. Once you have a design you like, grab your paint brushes and go.

For this one, I drew some vines first, then added some leaves. I then drew some strawberries and glued the cut flowers. I finished it all with some gold dust on the edges.

Now we are ready for tea.

If you like this post you may also like:

Bear Pinata
Swimming Pool Cake