Thursday, October 29, 2009

Barnyard Cupcake how to!


So, here are the instructions on how to make my barnyard cupcakes for all those parents making the last minute dash to make something cute for their child's birthday!

Let me start by saying that I believe sometimes a boxed cake mix is the answer. For this party, indeed it was! I do not like Betty Crocker mix. It never fails to come out waaay to dry. Duncan Hines never does this girl wrong. One of my favorites is the "Moist Deluxe Classic White Cake Mix". It's fantastic! It's so light and airy because your only using the egg whites instead of the entire egg. It's a fantastic base for cakes. That being said, I always feel the need to put in a more personal touch if I'm using a box cake. So, I always make homemade icing. Wilton's website has THE BEST recipes for different icicings. Their buttercream icing is always a winner for me. It colors well, it's not too heavy, and it's easy to make. Along with the boxed cake, I used this for both Carter's barnyard cupcakes and Paisley's Dora Cake.
Also, quick apology for the quality of the cupcakes and the picture. I made about 50 cupcakes and sent a lot home with people before I got to take pictures of the really good ones. The pictures I'm sharing are from the box of "imperfect" ones that were left after everyone left. And, for some reason my camera is being extra blurry and crazy. Enjoy!


Cow cupcake

Materials:
Pink meltaways
Black meltaways
Chocolate chips
Mini marshamallows
Cupcake
Buttercream icing

The night before the party I covered all the pink meltaway bottoms with smiley faces which are supposed to be the nose and mouth portion of the face. The smileys were made from melting black meltaways in a ziploc bag, snipping the end off of it, and piping the nose and mouth on. I also made the cow's horns with the same black meltaways. I piped the shape of the horn on wax paper, and then filled in the middle. Let air dry overnight.
Cover your cupcakes smoothly in buttercream. Place the pink meltaway (bottom up so you can see the face) close to the bottom of the cupake. Place 2 Chocolate chips in upside down as eyes. Also upside down needs to be the horns so you have the smooth side (the part that was in contact with the wax paper) up. Place the mini marshmallows between the horns.

Pig cupcakes:
Materials needed:
cupcake
Reserved buttercream icing tinted with red food coloring for pink color
Pink Meltaway
Black Meltaway
Large Pink (Strawberry) Marshamallows
Circlular sprinkles in white

The night before the party I covered all the pink meltaway bottoms with dots which are supposed to be the snout portion of the face. The nostrils were made from melting black meltaways in a ziploc bag, snipping the end off of it, and piping the nostrils on. Let air dry overnight.
Cover cupcakes smoothly in pink icing. Cut large pink marshamallows in quarters. Place across the top for ears. Place white sprinkes as eyes. Place the pink meltaway (bottom up so you can see the nostrils) close to the bottom of the cupake as a snout.

Chicken cupcakes:

Materials:
Buttercream
Mini Marshamallows
Very small portion of reserved buttercream and colored with Wilton's Icing Coloring (red & yellow)
Red licorice
Black Meltaways

Cover entire cupcake with buttercream. Instead of smoothing the icing on the top, spike it up with the back of your spatula to simulate feathers. Use your melted black meltaways in a ziploc bag to pipe eyes on the face. Cut your licorice to desired lengths for the chicken's comb and place on the top of the head. Put your reserved orange icing in a ziploc bag, snip the ends, and pipe a "V" under the eyes for the chicken's beak. For the chicken's wings snip a "v" shape into mini-marshamallows, but do not let the snips touch each other. Smoosh or pull the marshmallow a bit to make it a little more obvious and fluffed.


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