Archive for May, 2009

Giraffe Cupcakes

Friday, May 29th, 2009

Giraffe cupcake

Giraffe cupcake

Grrreast for a jungle or zoo party, or any time you want to “stick your neck out” when making cupcakes, consider these fun giraffe cupcakes.

What You need: 1 cupcake; yellow frosting; 2 thin pretzel sticks, 2 puffy cereal pieces (such as Cocoa Puffs or Kix); 1 pink Necco wafer; thin black licorice or black writing icing; 2 mini chocolate M&Ms; food-safe pens. (Instead of pens, you can try writing icing.)

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Use dab of icing to attach puffy cereal to tips of pretzels. (You may want to cut the pretzels to make them shorter.) Let dry for a bit. Use food-safe pen to draw nostrils and mouth on Necco wafer. Arrange 6 licorice strands (or draw 6 lines with writing icing) for stripes and place wafer on top of them. Add M&M eyes. Insert pretzel horns.

Dragonfly cupcakes

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

Dragonfly cupcake

Dragonfly cupcake

Use candies of various shapes and sizes to make dragonfly, butterfly and bug cupcakes. Go with pastels or bright colors, but whatever you do, have fun!

What You Need: 1 cupcake; green frosting; assorted candies such as jellybeans, Jordan almonds and candy-covered mints; food-safe pens.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Arrange candies on top. For dragonfly shown, make row of three pink jellybeans and position yellow Jordan almonds on each side for wings. Draw 2 black “eyes” on round candy and add for face.

Frog cupcakes with big eyes

Sunday, May 24th, 2009

Big-eyed frog cupcake

Big-eyed frog cupcake

No piping or fancy stuff is needed for this hoppin’ good frog cupcakes!

What You Need: 1 cupcake; green icing; red string licorice; 2 green sugar-coated fruit gels 2 red M&Ms (mini or regular).

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Add green fruit gels near top of cupcake. Use dabs of icing to stick M&Ms to fruit gels. Add bit of licorice in smile shape.

Apple for the teacher cupcakes

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

Apple cupcake for teacher

Apple cupcake for teacher

Cupcakes that look like apples would be a nice treat for the last day of school, or for a favorite teacher (for non-favorite teachers, add a gummy worm).

What You Need: 1 cupcake; icing tinted red; red sugar or sprinkles; candy spearmint leaf; scissors.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Sprinkle with red sugar. The spearmint leaf is probably quite thick; use scissors to cut it in half or in thirds (you can use one of the other pieces on a second cupcake.) That’s it!

Baseball cupcakes with licorice

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

Baseball cupcake with licorice

Baseball cupcake with licorice

You may have seen baseball cupcakes with the stitches piped in red icing or gel. Those are fun, but what if you don’t want to haul out the pastry bag and tips, or your hand is a little unsteady? Licorice can even the score.

What You Need: 1 cupcake; white or off-white frosting; red string licorice (such as Twizzlers Pull-N-Peel); scissors.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Cut strand of licorice long enough to curve in a U shape on top of the cupcake. Cut about 9 smaller bits of licorice in equal lengths. Arrange long strand in curve and press slightly into frosting. Arrange smaller pieces on top for stitching. (They should stick to the larger strand.)

Dog cupcakes

Saturday, May 16th, 2009

Dog cupcake

Dog cupcake

My friend’s sweet little girl is having a puppy-themed birthday party and I suggested these easy puppy dog cupcakes. The ears and tongue are made from cutup fruit rolls!

What You Need: 1 cupcake; chocolate frosting; red fruit roll; Junior Mint, malt ball or other round brown candy; 2 blue mini M&Ms; scissors.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Cut fruit roll into ear and tongue shapes (you can do this freehand with kid-safe scissors or–adults only–a knife, and you can make a template from paper or cardstock first if you need to.) Bend short ends of ears slightly and insert each near top of cupcake. Add tongue to bottom. Place chocolate in center and add eyes. There are lots of variations you could make. Use white frosting and black gel icing for Dalmatian cupcakes and so on.

Sun cupcakes with shades

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

Sun cupcake with sunglasses

Sun cupcake with sunglasses

It’s supposed to more than 100 degrees in my town this week, so I figured it was a good time to post this sunshine cupcake. All you need are fruit gels, M&Ms and licorice (no piping, but you’ll need to get your scissors sticky!)

What You Need: 1 cupcake; yellow frosting (I used “Spring” frosting in a can); assorted sugar-coated fruit gels or gems; 2 black M&Ms; 2 small sections of black string licorice; scissors.

How to Make It: Frost cupcake. Cut fruit gels in quarters using scissors. Arrange gels, pointy side out, slightly overlapping the edge of the cupcake (eat the extras wedges!). Place 2 black M&Ms upside down for sunglasses and add black licorice to each side for frames.