Cupcake Fun

Today Daniel was out of school so I decided that we would have a little bit of cupcake fun. The kids watched Monsters Inc. a few days ago, and then while browsing through my Taste of Homes I found a really fun cupcake idea. Today we made monster cupcakes. We did three different monsters. The first one is called "eyes on you" Here is what you need:

• 1 can (16 ounces) vanilla frosting.
• Neon Green food coloring
• 6 chocolate or vanilla cupcakes backed in black liners.
  
• 1/4 cup purple sprinkles
• black licorice laces
• 50 mini marshmallows
• 1 tube (4.25 ounces) brown decorating frosting.
• 50 red mini m&m's or red hots

1. Tint the vanilla frosting neon green with the food coloring. Spread a generous mound of frosting on top of the cupcakes. While frosting is still wet, sprinkle the tops with the purple sprinkles.
2. Cut the black licorice laces into about 50 pieces about 3 to 5 inches long. Insert one end of the laces into the side of the marshmallows. Pipe a small of the brown decorating frosting on one end of the marshmallow and attach a red M&m to make an eyeball.
   
3. Insert the licorice laces, 8-10 per cupcake, as the wild eyes on top of each cupcake. Repeat with the remaining licorice, marshmallows and cupcakes.

The kids had a lot of fun making these. This was the easiest and most kid friendly of the three we made today. Monica did not care for the black licorice and if I do this again I might just buy the red since it is a bit more kid friendly.

The second kind we made was called "Green Eyed Monster" which the kids nicknamed "Spikey".

• 6 marshmallows
• 6 chocolate or vanilla cupcakes backed in black foil liners.
• 1 can of vanilla frosting
• Neon green food coloring
• 6 small chocolate-coated mints (jr. mints)

1. Trim a corner from one short end of each marshmallow. Attach the marshmallows, cut side down, on top of the cupcakes with a dot of frosting.
   
2. Spoon 2 tablespoons of vanilla frosting into a small resealable bag; set aside
3. Tint the remaining vanilla frosting neon green with the food coloring. Spoon the neon green frosting into a resealable 2-qt. freezer bag. Snip a very small corner (1/8th inch) from bag. Pipe dots of frosting along the outer edge of the cupcakes with a pipe-stop-pull action to create spikes on frosting. Continue piping all over the cupcakes to completely cover all but the flat side of the marshmallow.
4. Snip a very small corner from the bag with the vanilla frosting. Pipe a dot of vanilla frosting at the corner of each marshmallow and attach the chocolate coated mint.
   

This one was also fairly easy to make. I did cheat a little. Instead of using white frosting to hold the mint on I just used the brown that I had used with the last monster. I found that it worked fine. Also if you are like me, you don't need TONS of frosting, and so I got away with using one can for both projects. I had plenty to do all 12 of my cupcakes with just one can. The last one that we did was called "purple people eater" which was Daniel's favorite. This one does take a while, but it is worth it, as it is so cool looking.

• 6 chocolate or vanilla cupcakes baked in black liner
• 1 can vanilla frosting
• neon purple food coloring
• 9 large marshmallows
• 18 thin pretzel sticks
• black licorice laces
• 12 mini marshmallows
• 6 pink chews (laffy taffys)
• 18 brown mini M&Ms

1. Spread the tops of the cupcakes with a mound of vanilla frosting. Spoon 1 tablespoon of vanilla frosting into a small resealable bag. Tint the remaining frosting neon purple with the food coloring and place in a microwave safe bowl or cup
2. Line a cookie sheet with waxed paper. Cut the large marshmallows in half crosswise with scissors. Insert a pretzel stick into the side of each marshmallow to create the eyes. Cut the black licorice laces into eighteen 2-inch pieces. Cut the mini marshmallows in half on the diagonal to make the teeth. Soften the pink fruit chew in the microwave but NO MORE THAN 3 SECONDS. Roll out each fruit chew into 3-in. length. Cut into a long tongue with a rounded end. Press the back of a knife down the middle of the fruit chew to make the crease in the center on the tongue.
   
3. Place a wire rack over a cookie sheet lined with waxed paper. Heat the neon purple frosting int eh microwave, stirring every 10 seconds, until the frosting is the consistency of a light whipped cream, about 25 to 30 seconds total. Holding the frosted cupcake by the foil liners, dip the cupcakes just up the the liners. Allow the excess frosting to drip off before inverting cupcake. Transfer to wire rack to set. Repeat with remaining cupcakes. If the frosting becomes too thick, return to the microwave and heat for about 5 to 10 seconds stirring well before dipping.
   
4. Hold the marshmallow eyes by the pretzel end, dip the top half of the marshmallow into the frosting to make eyelids. Transfer the marshmallows to the waxed paper-lined cookie sheet. While the frosting is still wet, add the licorice laces along the dipped edge as the eyelids. Repeat with the remaining marshmallows. Snip a small corner of the bag with the vanilla frosting. Pipe a dot of the frosting on the marshmallow area and add the brown M&M as the pupil. Let the eyes set for about 30 minutes before assembling cupcakes.
   
5. Spoon some of the remaining purple frosting on top of the dipped cupcakes and allow the frosting to drip over the sides.
6. While the frosting is still wet, add three to four cut mini marshmallow pieces as the teeth along one edge of the cupcakes. Insert three marshmallow eyes at different heights. Transfer to a serving platter and add the fruit chew tongue under the teeth.

Well there you have it. That is how we made it. I did take a few short cuts here and there to make things easier on myself, but over all I think that they turned out pretty cute. At the end of our fun I gave each of the kids a cupcake and they just pilled on it whatever they wanted. They were so cute! Monica named her cupcake monster "slimey" because of the green on his tongue, and Daniel named his cupcake "eyezy" because he has eyes that can see in every direction. It was a lot of work, with a lot of clean up, but oh so much fun, and SO worth it!