Monster Cupcakes - Everyday Annie

These aren’t the scariest Halloween treat, but they were so cute I just couldn’t resist making them for our pumpkin carving party this past weekend. Cupcakes disguised as colorful furballs with crazy eyes? I love it! The kid in me had a wonderful time putting these together, so I can only imagine how what a fun project these would be to make with kids helping. They may look complicated, but these are one of the easiest decorative cupcake designs I have tried. There is so much room for creativity – different colors and textures of the “hair”, different colored candies for the eyeballs, adding optional noses, maybe adding some antennae…the possibilities are endless.

These are some cute and tasty furballs.

Ingredients

Standard size cupcakes in colored liners (any flavor)
Equal number of mini cupcakes, liners removed (any flavor)
Vanilla (or other white) frosting (I used easy vanilla buttercream)
Icing colors
Piping bags fitted with desired decorative tips
Small round lollipops (such as Dum Dums)
Gummy peach or green apple slices
Small round candy-coated chocolates (such as M&Ms)

Directions

01
Start out by baking your desired flavor of standard size cupcake in colored paper liners. (I like the look of the monochromatic monster so I went for solid liners.)
02
Pipe or spoon a small blob of frosting on top of the cooled cupcakes.
03
Place a mini cupcake upside down on top of each standard cupcake, using the the frosting to help them adhere.
04
Fit piping bags with decorative tips that will achieve whatever sort of “hair” you want your monster to have. Divide your frosting into small bowls and tint with icing color to match the colored cupcake liners. Fill the piping bags.
05
Go to town covering the cupcake in frosting hair. (I used a Wilton #3 tip for the purple guys.)
Note: If you are using a buttercream type frosting, particularly homemade, the heat from your hand can melt the frosting slightly if you are holding the piping bag for a long time. If you notice this happening, just pop it into the fridge and let it firm up again before continuing. Work with another color in the meantime, if you are making more than one shade.
06
Repeat with the other cupcake colors. (Wilton tip #352 here.)
07
(Wilton #21 tip, I think.)
08
If you want the centers of the eyes of each monster to be the same color, match up your lollipops by flavor. (By the way, there are a lot of weird flavors of Dum Dums!)
09
Fit a gummy peach or apple slice around each lollipop. Pipe a small dab of frosting onto the front of each sucker. Place an M&M on each as a pupil, using the frosting to adhere. (Side note: I looked at two stores before I found the gummy peach slices, and never found the apple flavor. What is up with that?! I love gummy peach slices!)
10
Insert the lollipop sticks into the top of each cupcake so that they look like crazy awesome eyeballs.

Source

What’s New, Cupcake? by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson