How to Use Vanilla Wafers for Cupcake Decoration

Top your favorite cupcake recipe with vanilla wafers for contrasting textures and flavors.

Cupcakes are a celebratory favorite and are a relatively simple desert to prepare. You can easily customize cupcake toppings depending on the event or person you are creating them for. Top your cupcakes with crumbled cookies, shaved chocolate, fruit, sprinkles or candy bars. The options are nearly endless in regards to the flavor combinations you can create. Try your next vanilla, banana or chocolate flavored cupcakes topped with vanilla wafers for a fun take on a traditional banana pudding.

Things You'll Need

• Plastic bag
• Sharp knife
• Wooden spoon

Instructions

Crumbled Wafer Topping

1. Determine the number of cupcakes you need to top. Anticipate using 1 to 2 vanilla wafers per cupcake.

2. Fill a plastic zipper bag with an appropriate number of vanilla wafers. Seal the bag and crumble the cookies with your hands or by using the back of a spoon or other flat/hard object. You can crumble the cookies down to a fine powder or simply break them into smaller chunks.

3. Sprinkle the crumbled vanilla wafers on top of your cupcake icing. Decorate the top with some of the larger wafer pieces by sticking them straight down into the icing.

Uncrumbled Wafer Topping

1. Determine the number of cupcakes you have and the amount of vanilla wafers you will need for each cupcake. If you are using whole wafers, one wafer per cupcake will suffice. If you are cutting the wafers in half determine if you want to completely cover the tops of the cupcakes or not.

2. Place a whole wafer in the center of each cupcake, either flat on the frosting or at a 90 degree angle to the frosting.

3. Cut the vanilla wafers in half, carefully, with a sharp knife if you don't want to use whole wafers. Place the wafers standing straight up, cut side down, in the frosting. You can create a pattern using the wafer halves, or you can just place them randomly in the frosting.

Tips & Warnings

• You can drizzle chocolate, caramel or any syrup flavoring over the vanilla wafers.

• You can also melt peanut butter and drizzle over the cupcakes.

References

• Wilton: Decorating Cupcakes
• Martha Stewart: Our Best Cupcakes
• Family Fun: Holiday and Seasonal Cupcakes