Book of Mormon Temple Cupcakes and Display

A month ago I was asked if I would be able to make some kind of cupcakes that would go on a temple centerpiece for a CES midyear training convention. I of course said sure! It took a little while to decide what I would do but after seeing the picture below on pinterest I knew this would be the time to finally attempt to decorate using fondant. Go to Bird's Party Blog for the full tutorial.

 I have always loved playing with clay or Play-dough, so I thought it wouldn't be too different or difficult. In fact I was confident enough in my skills with clay and Play-dough that I decided that I would make 150 fondant dolls in just a little more than 2 weeks! Call me crazy but because I would be doing this for service and for a church function I knew I'd get some extra help and that my understanding would be quickened. And boy was it quickened, because a few days into the first week of starting  my husband and I realized we needed to go on a business trip to Vegas the next week. That meant I has 1 week to make the dolls instead of 2!

Of course that meant I went straight to work as soon as I could and in any free time had. The full inspiration behind the display was actually quite amazing with how everything came together. Because in seminary this year the teachers are teaching from The Book of Mormon and the cupcakes would be around a temple I thought 3 Nephi would be the perfect place to draw my inspiration. This is when Christ is visiting the America's at the temple after his resurrection. I originally decided I would make both Nephite and Lamenite dolls that would surround the temple and a Christ doll.

My inspiration from the gospel art book

 However after sharing my game plan I was told that in addition to the temple and the Book of Mormon as inspiration, the theme of the convention would revolve around the phrase, "They are with us still" and Pres. Eyring's talk, "We Must Raise Our Sights". The temple centerpiece would also be a modern temple. Because of this I decided to make half of the dolls modern and the other half from the Book of Mormon times. I was super excited.

My first few dolls were not so cute. I mean these guys look like they could be on a Pepto-Bismal commercial.

But with practice I got much better!  I got a little lazy and almost wanted to just leave them bald. But the perfectionist in me beat the laziness and everyone got hair.

I love the pockets and the fact that they are each holding a set of scriptures! If we added a little name badge they could be perfect missionaries too.

 For some reason the Savior came out great from the very beginning.

 My modern ladies.

 And my Book of Mormon people.

The end result was beautiful! Of course no one wanted to eat the people though. It was funny to see some people wrap up their little doll in a napkin to take home after eating their cupcake! There were 15 centerpieces total and no two were the same.

P.S. I was able to make all the dolls in 4 days! 

A few tips I learned along the way:

-Use water and a small paintbrush to glue fondant pieces together.

-Wait for the fondant to dry a bit before using your edible marker to draw on the faces, if not the color will bleed like in my Pepto-Bismal dolls.

-When making pants it is easier to wrap a skirt first and then cut them into pants after they are attached to the stick.

-Having a gum paste/fondant tool set helps with the details.