burrr, it's cold outside: Penguin Cupcakes

For my daughter's 2nd Birthday, I made the Penguin Cupcakes from the Hello, Cupcake book. I was a little worried that these would be a big fat pain, like the shark cupcakes were... but alas, these went much smoother.

To get the shape of the penguin on the top of the cupcake, I bought mini-doughnuts & doughnut holes. First I cut the mini-doughnuts in half. (The book called for plain, but I couldn't find any- so I got cinnamon flavored ones. I think that the plain would've been ideal, as the icing would have probably stuck to them better than mine, but mine still worked!)

Next, while I was waiting for my cupcakes to finish baking, I did some prep work..... making the penguins' bellies by cutting 1/8" off of the end of a marshmallow.

Then I cut the top off of those, so that the belly would have a straight edge.

After my cupcakes cooled, I iced them with thinned Wilton's decorator icing. Then I attached the cut mini-doughnuts, cut-side down.

Next I plopped a dolop of icing to the top of the doughnut, so that I could affix a doughnut hole there..

After sticking a doughnut hole ontop of the hole of the mini-doughnut, I reinforced my penguin's body with more icing to fill in the cracks.

Next, into the freezer to set, for about 15 mins. I found it helpful to have them in a muffin pan, so that they wouldn't fall over in the freezer.

While they were freezing, I tinted some chocolate fudge icing black, with Wilton's tint. Then, just before I got the cupcakes out of the freezer, I warmed the icing in the microwave so that I could dip the penguins to coat their bodies. Then I attached cut pieces of Famous Chocolate Wafers as flippers and stuck on the belly.

The feet and beaks were cut from yellow Starburst candy.

Then I attched the beaks to the head, just above the belly. For the eyes, I piped white icing and then stuck a mini-chocolate chip into it. And then I piped a tiny dot of white icing for a highlight in the eyes. The feet were stuck onto the outside of the cupcake liner with some icing.

To go along with the penguins, I had some cupcakes made to look like icy buckets of fish... complete coconut shavings, with small fish candy and rock candy ice.

Shark Cupcakes

For my son's fourth Birthday, I made the Shark Cupcakes (from the Hello, Cupcake book)...

Apparently, since the cupcakes were so frustrating to make, I forgot to photograph the process.... (So, most of my pictures are of the finished product.)
Here are the mini-doughnuts that I made into life-preservers. The book called for plain mini-doughnuts that were supposed to be dipped in white melted icing. I just skipped that step & bought powdered mini-doughnuts. Then I cut narrow strips of red fruit-by-the-foot and wrapped three around each doughnut. The strips were easily fastened together with a tiny drop of water to adhere the fruit-by-the-foot to itself.

I added the life-preservers to blue frosted cupcakes. To get that color blue, I used Wilton coloring (in royal blue, I think).  For a couple of the preservers, I used a small fork to take a chunk out of it - like a shark bite.

Some of the other cupcakes were topped with a school of Swedish Fish.

When I iced the cupcakes, I used the small spatula to make waves on top.

The hard part of making these cupcakes was the sharks. They were made mostly of a Twinkie. First I had to cut part of the Twinkie off at an angle- that was the side of the Twinkie that would be attached to the cupcake. The other end of the Twinkie I trimmed to look like the shark's snout. I cut a slice into the top of the Twinkie and shoved the piece of a Famous Chocolate Wafer to make the dorsal fin. Then I attached the trimmed Twinkie to the iced cupcake with extra icing & popped it into the freezer for about 15 minutes.

Next, I had to melt some grey-tinted icing in the microwave & dip the Twinkie. This was a challenge... I had to get the icing at the right consistency to coat the shark.  Some of my sharks came off of the cupcake, some of the icing wasn't warmed enough, but then if I warmed it too long, it would separate.

The sharks mouths were made of a piece of fruit-by-the-foot that I cut into an oval shape. His fins & teeth are just icing. And his eyes are a mini chocolate chip.

As you can see in the above picture, my sharks were too top heavy. I don't think I cut enough off of the Twinkie, so they were hanging too much off of the cupcake & falling over. (Hence the propped up shark -with a toothpick.)

Here's  a shot of some cupcakes in the handy-dandy new holder that my Aunt Sue & Hap just recently sent me! It worked really well for transporting some of the 30 cupcakes that I took to the party.

Another shark shot-- this one isn't as smooth because I think the icing wasn't quite warm enough.

However, after all of the stress I was pleased with how they turned out & got a TON of compliments. Plus, the birthday boy LOVED them!

Not the day to count calories!

For my family on Halloween morning, I decided to try out a recipe that I have for Cinnamon Roll Bats...

I used Grands Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls, that I cut in half, then put the rounded sides together.

After baking per the package instructions, I promptly iced the rolls & added chocolate sprinkles. Reserving about a tablespoon of icing to adhere the candies.

The head of his bat is made of a half an oreo (without icing), the eyes are gummy lifesavers with mini-M&Ms, the fangs are of course, candy corn. And the ears are pieces of Oreo cut to roughly resemble bat ears.

I was excited to serve my Cinnamon Roll Bats on my super cute tray (that my sister had given me awhile back)....

YUM! They were a big hit! My only mistake was that I think I slightly overcooked the wings... The package instuctions gave me a range of minutes to bake (like 17-22 or something like that.) I set the oven in the middle of that range. Next time I will do it for the shortest reccommended time.  Enjoy!

Ghosts of Cupcake Past

Here are some of my past creations. I can't take all the credit however... I bought the book Hello Cupcake, and have used many of their recipes. I definitely recommend this book! It is a great resource that shows that you don't need all the fancy pastry bags & tips to create great cupcakes.

Caterpillar (for baby's first Birthday) and a slice of Kiwi fruit
Close-up on Kiwi slice. Used candy-coated licorice bits for the "seeds"

Cupcake Tower

Owls & Acorns

Corn-on-the-Cob with "butter & salt"!

Tennis balls & rackets

(note the casualty from transport!)

Next up- Garden Cupcakes

Popcorn mini-cupcakes (realized almost too late that I hadn't taken a photo. I had donated these to a bakesale & took the pic while they were out on the table to be sold!)

Sunflower cupcakes (with ladybugs!)

From above, the Owls, Acorns, Corn-on-the-Cob, Popcorn, Garden & Sunflower cupakes were all based on recipes from the Hello, Cupcake book. (See link above.) If you're curious on any of the cupcakes you've seen above, leave me a comment/question.

Thanks for looking!