Red and Gobo Cupcakes
Below are decorating instructions for Duff’s Fraggle Rock Cupcake Kit that ships nationwide with Goldbelly. Order yours here.
We will decorate two Fraggle cupcakes, Red and Gobo, the same time, going back and forth from one to the other. This will help with drying times and using leftover fondant from one step and mixing it into a new color for the next.
Tools Needed
A small cup of water
Something to ice with —> a butter knife or a spatula
Something to cut with —> a butter knive, a small kitchen knife, or an extaco knife
Something to apply water with —> a paint brush, a q-tip, or even your finger will work
Something to roll out fondant with —> a rolling pin, a large bottle (like a wine bottle), or can (like a room temperature can of soda)
Tips & Tricks
Make sure your surface always has a light layer of cornstarch to prevent your fondant from sticking to your workstation. If your hands are sticky you can rub cornstarch into your hands. If your fondant is very sticky you can mix cornstarch into your fondant until it is smooth and not sticky.
If your fondant is dry, try kneading it again. If it’s still dry you can add a bit of cornstarch or coconut oil to soften it some.
Always put fondant scrapes back in the bag so they do not dry out.
Ice your Fraggle cupcakes
Take two cupcakes out of your kit. Squeeze your bag of icing ino an “O” shape on top of one of the cupcakes.
Use a butter knife to smooth the icing all over the top of your cupcake. It doesn't need to be perfect but it should consistently cover the entire top of the cupcake.
Repeat on the second cupcake.
Cover the cupcakes in fondant
Red’s Cupcake: Take your blue fondant out and cut into halves. Set aside one piece and put the other piece back in the bag.
Mix the blue half piece with one quarter piece of the pink to get a royal blue.
Add a little cornstarch to your workspace and rub into/around on the surface
Roll the royal blue fondant into a circle slightly larger than the large circle cutter in your kit.
Press the circle cutter into the rolled out fondant to make the circle. Put your scraps in an airtight bag.
Carefully line the circle with the top of the iced cupcake and place on top. Gently smooth the top of the cupcake so it will conform to the top of your cupcake.
Gobo’s Cupcake: Take your red fondant out and cut into halves. Set aside one piece and put the other piece back in the bag. Repeat the same steps as Red’s cupcake.
Fraggle Eyes
Take ⅓ of the white fondant out of the bag (keep the rest in the bag)
Cut the fondant into equal quarters and cut away one of the quarters. Place that quarter back into the bag.
Take the 3 quarters and mix together. Cut again into equal quarters. These four pieces will be the eyeballs.
Make sure you have plenty of cornstarch on your hands and surface area. If your fondant feels very sticky you can mix cornstarch into your fondant to make it smooth and not sticky.
Roll the fondant with your hands in a circular motion. When it resembles a large marble set aside.
Repeat with the 3 remaining pieces. Set aside 4 eyeballs to firm up. Make sure there is some cornstarch under the balls so they don’t stick to the surface.
Red’s Face
Take your yellow fondant out and cut into quarters. Set aside one piece and put the three other pieces back in the bag.
Take ⅓ of the white fondant and mix together with the piece of yellow fondant.
Add a little cornstarch to your surface and roll the yellow fondant into a circle slightly larger than the large circle cutter in your kit.
Press the circle cutter into the rolled out fondant to make the circle. Put your scraps in an airtight bag. (You can put it in the yellow bag or the bag the toothpick came in).
Make two little notches, one of the top middle and one on the bottom middle.
Line your circle cutter with your fondant circle cut out and shift it over about ½ inch. You want to cut out a crescent moon shape that cuts into the two notches you made.
Repeat on the other side, you want the final shape to be symmetrical and look like a lemon. Set aside scrapes.
Add two notches, one on the left middle and one on the right middle sides.
Just like you did above, you are going to use the circle cutter to trim the fondant and make Red’s face a little squatter. Take the circle cutter and line the edge to the left notch and trim about ½”-¾” off the top of the Red’s head. Repeat on the right side.
Make sure the shape is symmetrical on the left side and right side. If it’s a little off you can use the circle cutter to trim it down until it looks even.
Put a small dot of icing on the royal blue cupcake and place Red’s face on top. Orient the face towards the bottom to leave room for Red’s hair.
Doozer’s Nose
Take a marble size chunk of your scraps from Red’s face and role into a ball. Set aside for later.
Gobo’s Face
Mix the remaining scraps from Red’s face and mix in a quarter chunk from your yellow fondant and one pinch of red fondant (about the size of a peppercorn) to make Gobo’s orange face.
Add a little cornstarch to your surface
Roll the orange fondant into a circle slightly larger than the large circle cutter in your kit.
Press the circle cutter into the rolled out fondant to make the circle. Put your scraps in an airtight bag.
Make two little notches, one of the left middle and one on the right middle.
Line your circle cutter with your fondant circle cut out and shift it down about ½ inch. You want to cut out a crescent moon shape from the top of your circle.
Repeat on the bottom. You want the final shape to be symmetrical and look like a lemon. Hold onto the scraps.
Put a small dot of icing on the red cupcake and place Gobo’s face on top. Orient the face towards the bottom to leave room for Red’s hair.
Red’s Hair
Take your pink fondant out and cut into quarters. Set aside one piece and put the three other pieces back in the bag.
Mix the one quarter with the leftover scraps from Gobo’s face to make a coral color.
Cut two equal parts of coral.
Roll the fondant with your hands in a circular motion. When it resembles large marble, use your fingers to pat it into a flat pancake shape. About 1 ½“ - 2” in diameter.
Repeat with the other half of the coral fondant.
Use a toothpick to poke a small hole in the center of each flattened circle.
Use the side of the toothpick to imprint a line from the center of the circle out. Think of the hands of a clock and imprint at 1 o’clock, 2 o’clock, 3 o’clock, etc. (You don’t have to do exactly 12, you can do more or less. I did about 24.)
Set aside on a surface with cornstarch
Red’s Mouth
Take the rest of your red fondant out of the bag and divide in half.
Add a little cornstarch to your surface and roll the red fondant into a circle slightly larger than the large circle cutter in your kit.
Press the circle cutter into the rolled out fondant to make the circle. Put your scraps in an airtight bag.
With your butter knife, cut the circle in half.
Just like we did with Red’s face, we are going to use the circle cutter to trim Red’s mouth to the right shape. Add a notch to the center bottom of the red semi circle.
Trim about ½“ off of the left side and the right side, making sure to use your center notch as a guide.
Trim the top of the “V’ shape with the circle cutter to create a smile.
Use a dot of water or icing to stick the mouth to Red’s face.
Gobo’s Mouth
Use the other half of the red semi circle cut out and cut a “V” shape just like you did with Red’s mouth.
For Gobo’s mouth you are going to cut across the top with a butter knife instead of using the circle cutter to make Gobo’s mouth to appear larger.
Use a dot of water or icing to stick the mouth to Gobo’s face.
Red and Gobo’s Throat and Tongues:
Take a pinch of black and roll into a peppercorn sized ball and flatten between your fingers to make a very small disk.
Cut the disc in half.
Place a dot of water on the top of Red’s mouth and place one of the halves on the top of Red’s mouth. Take the other half and do the same with Gobo’s mouth.
Take a pinch of pink, around a small pea size, and roll into a ball. Press the sides slightly to turn it into the shape of a pill.
Press with your fingers to create a flattened oval shape.
Cut in half (save the other half for the other fraggle)
Use your toothpick to imprint a line halfway down.
Trim your tongue if it looks too long for Red’s mouth.
Place a dot of water on the top of the black throat.
Repeat the steps for Gobo.
Gobo’s Hair:
Take out two quarter pieces of the pink. Cut one of the pieces in half and put the other half back in the bag. Mix together the pink pieces to make it into one piece.
Roll it into a log shape by rolling the fondant on your workstation and lightly pressing down with your fingers. It does not need to look perfect.
Take about a pea size amount of the royal blue that you used to cover Red’s cupcake and roll it into a skinny rope. Make it as long as the pink piece. It also does not need to look perfect. Place the blue piece on top of the pink piece and roll the two together.
Then pick up the piece and twist it around to look like the stripes of a candy cane. Fold the piece in half and repeat the steps over and over until the pink and the blue start to make purple but it’s not mixed all the way. It should look like there are streaks of pink and blue in the purple. Roll, twist, fold, repeat
Once the color is mixed, roll it into a log about 3-4 inches long.
Make sure your surface has some cornstarch on it and press the log into the table, flattening it to be about 1” tall and 4” wide.
Imprint your toothpick into one side of the flattened shape to resemble strands of hair. Leave a small amount of the other side untouched.
Use the side of your toothpick to cut out, by imprinting hard, a few little “v”s on top of the hair. If the hair is too long on the sides, use your butter knife to trim the sides.
Once you have the hair the right size you can squeeze a line of icing along the top of Gobo’s head. This is to give the hair a little lift.
Place the hair on top of the icing and gently press the bottom side of the hair to the head. The icing should be propping up the top of the hair.
Use a toothpick underneath to prop up the hair if it keeps drooping down.
Finish Red and Gobo’s Eyes
Take a pinch of black and roll 4 balls, about the size of a peppercorn.
Dampen the tops of the white eyeballs with a very small amount of water.
Set the round black balls on top of each eye ball and pat down gently.
Put two small dots of icing on the top of Red’s face and Gobo’s face
Place the eyeballs on top.
Attach Red’s Hair
Make sure Red’s hair is firm and not flimsy
Stick two toothpicks behind Red’s eyes, at about at 45* angle.
Put a small amount of icing at the base of each toothpick.
Place the hair onto the toothpick and adjust if necessary
Congrats! Your Red and Gobo are complete! How did they turn out? We want to see them! Tag us at @duffgoldman @hensoncompany and @goldbelly on social!
The second season of The Jim Henson Company’s Emmy Award-winning “Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock” is now streaming on Apple TV+
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