Piggy Cupcakes

Ingredients

1 dozen vanilla cupcakes, cooled

store bought white icing/frosting
pink food colouring
24 blue rainbow pearls (eyes)
12 white marshmallows (nose)
pink icing pen (nostrils)

12 pink marshmallows, halved (ears)

Method

1. Tint the icing with the tiniest amount of pink food colouring. Mix very, very well.
2. Spread a layer on each cupcake, making the surface smooth.
3. Place the eyes on the Piggy's using the rainbow pearls.
4. Place one white marshmallow for the nose.
5. Using the pink icing pen, make 2 dots on the nose marshmallow to make nostrils.
6. Take one pink marshmallow and cut through the centre. Pinch each end so they are pointy. Place on cupcake, cut side down as ears on the Piggy's face.

Notes & Tips

Make sure you give the Piggy a generous coating of icing so the marshmallows stick

If you wanted to make these cupcakes look more like Miss Piggy from the Muppets, you could add a set of eyelashes using a black icing pen and adding a bow (made from fondant) in between the ears

Sesame Street Character Cupcakes

I had some left over coloured frosting from the cookie decorating stall I ran at my church carol's festival last week. Colours left over were red, green, blue and yellow. Thought I'd use it to frost some cupcakes and was wondering to self how I could decorate them and Sesame Street characters came to mind. Since my bible study was also having a Xmas party a few days later (and there would lots of kiddies present) I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to whip up the cupcakes to use the left over frosting. Having never 'decorated' cupcakes before, I was pretty impressed with my creations. Big Bird took me the longest and I was having a lot of trouble piping his feathers because I didn't have the correct piping tip and the frosting was too runny. In the end I improvised and used a mini spatula to create some texture to the frosting.

Some things I would do differently if I were to make these again:

*use gel food colouring instead of liquid food colouring to colour the frosting/icing- it gives a more intense colour and you use less to get the same colour effect. Less liquid also means the icing is less runny. I found my icing hard to work/pipe with at times. To counteract this, I would add a bit more icing sugar and put it in the freezer for 10 mins to set. I would also put the decorated cupcake straight back into the fridge to prevent the icing from melting

* Have all the face bits pre-assembled and ready to go before you start decorating your cupcakes. This makes it easier to unleash your creativity ;)

Cookie Monster

Ingredients

1 dozen chocolate cupcakes, cooled
store bought white frosting/icing
blue food colouring
24 Nestle white chocolate melts & 24 brown mini M&Ms- for the eyes
12 mini chocolate chip cookies, halved (½ per monster with a few for breakage)- for the mouth
1 cup desiccated coconut (dyed blue)- for the fur

Method

1. Add food colouring to frosting until you get to the Cookie Monster colour. This may be a lot if you are using liquid food colouring or a little if using gel food colouring.
2. Fill a piping bag with a fluted nozzle and pipe on icing. Alternatively, use a spatula to spread the icing onto the cupcake
3. Roll iced cupcake onto coconut, shake off excess
4. Place 2 white chocolate melts on each cupcake
5. Wedge cookies into the “mouth”

Notes & Tips

• There is quite a bit of food colouring in these cupcakes for the blue icing. If this concerns you, use a natural food colouring.
• To make the blue desiccated coconut- pour ½ cup desiccated coconut into a ziplock bag. Put in a few drops of liquid food colouring (not gel) and shake the bag vigorously. Spread the coconut out on baking paper to air dry for 24 hours. 
• If after adding food colouring to the frosting makes it too runny, add some sifted icing sugar or put into the freezer for 10 minutes to help firm it up

Elmo

Ingredients

1 dozen chocolate cupcakes, cooled

red frosting (fur)

24 Nestle white chocolate melts + 24 brown mini M&Ms (eyes)
12 orange Cadbury Mini Drops (nose)

6 Oreo's, halved (mouth)

Method

1. Using a grass effect piping tip, squeeze icing over cupcake to create 'fur'
2. Assemble Elmo's face. For the nose, use an orange Cadbury Mini Drop. For the eyes, place a bit of frosting on the back of brown regular M&M’s and place them onto each white chocolate melt. For the mouth, use one side of an Oreo.

Notes & Tips

I found that cutting the Oreo directly in half was too large. So cut off less than half for each mouth. Use a serrated knife and saw it slowly back and forth. (You should be able to get 2 mouths from each Oreo half.)

Prep the eyes and Oreos first, before frosting the cupcakes with the Elmo fur. You don’t want the red fur to melt or get droopy while you’re doing the cutting. ALSO, after assembling each Elmo, place it in the fridge, to help set the frosting so it will stay furry looking and not melt together. HOWEVER, if you’re using better frosting than the store bought (from a tub) you may not have any issues if you adjust your frosting consistency.

Oscar the Grouch

Ingredients

1 dozen chocolate cupcakes, cooled

dark green frosting (fur)
24 Nestle white chocolate melts + 24 brown mini M&Ms (eyes)

6 Oreo's (mouth)

brown frosting/icing pen (eyebrows)

Method

1. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a grass/fur piping tip with green frosting. Cover the surface of the cupcake to create 'fur'.
2. Top each cupcake with a pair of eyes and an Oreo mouth
3. Use a small star tip (many varieties will work) or a chocolate icing pen to pipe a brown set of eyebrows over the eyes. Don’t worry about making these neat…I don’t think Oscar is really into eyebrow maintenance. It’s Oscar the Grouch!

Big Bird

Ingredients

1 dozen vanilla cupcakes, cooled

yellow frosting (fur)

12 white marshmallows (beaks)

red icing pen (tongue)

small white chocolate melts & black icing  (eyes)

aqua & light pink icing pens (eyebrows)

Method

1. Cut marshmallows into beak shapes with a pair of scissors
2. Place a beak on each cupcake, using a small dollop of frosting to glue it on
3. Cover the marshmallows with yellow frosting. It doesn't need to be neat yet, just enough to cover them
4. Use a small offset spatula or a knife to smooth the frosting over the beak
5. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a "V" tip with yellow frosting. Make a ring of yellow feathers around the perimeter of the cupcake
6. Repeat this process, working from the outside in, until the surface of the cupcake has been completely covered by "feathers"
7. Add a set of eyes just above the beak. Pipe a thin line of aqua and light pink frosting over the eyeballs.
8. Using the red icing pen, pipe a small inverted triangle inside the beak to create the tongue.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Recipe from Australian Good Taste magazine, February 2011 issue, page 16

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1½ cups caster sugar
1 cup buttermilk
200g unsalted butter, melted & cooled
2 eggs, room temperature, lightly whisked
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 teaspoons red food colouring

2 x 250g pkt cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups pure icing sugar, sifted
120g butter, extra, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract, extra
Red sprinkles

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170°C. Line fifteen 80ml (⅓ cup) capacity muffin pans with paper cases. Sift flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Stir through the sugar. Whisk the buttermilk, butter, eggs, vinegar and vanilla in a large jug until combined. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture. Add the buttermilk mixture. Stir until just combined. Stir in the food colouring.
2. Divide the mixture among the lined pans (approx. 1½ tablespoons each). Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centres comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
3. Use an electric beater to beat the cream cheese, icing sugar, extra butter and extra vanilla until smooth
4. Pipe the icing over the cupcakes and top with the sprinkles.

Choc Orange Cupcakes

Recipe from White Wings

Makes 15 cupcakes

Ingredients

370g White Wings Moist Chocolate Cake mix
2 eggs (59g each), at room temperature
1 orange
½ teaspoon orange essence (optional)
60ml (¼ cup) vegetable oil
choc orange balls

Chocolate Frosting

1½ cups icing sugar
¼ cup cocoa powder
125g soft butter
2 tbsp milk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160°C conventional or 140°C fan-forced. Grease and line muffin/cupcake pans.
2. Finely grate the rind of 1 orange (approx. 2 teaspoons) then juice orange into a measuring cup.
3. Add water to the orange juice to make up to 250ml (1 cup) of liquid in total.
4. Place cake mix, eggs, orange zest, orange juice mix, orange essence and vegetable oil into a medium mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer beat on low speed for 30 seconds to combine. Increase speed to medium and mix for 3 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl occasionally. Spoon approx 2 tablespoons of cake mixture into cupcake cases and bake for 30 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, make chocolate frosting by using an electric mixer on low speed to beat together soft butter, milk, sifted icing sugar and sifted cocoa powder until well combined.
6. Increase speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, adding a few drops of milk if required.
7. When cupcakes are cool, ice each one with chocolate icing and decorate each cupcake with a choc orange ball. 

Notes & Tips

To retain freshness, store cupcakes in an airtight container. 

Lemon Diva Cupcakes

I finally had the chance today to make these Lemon Diva Cupcakes. The original recipe is from Julie Goodwin, winner of Masterchef season 1. I see why she won the cupcake challenge. These cupcakes are moist, fluffy and they do certainly pack a punch in terms of lemon flavour!

Makes 12

Ingredients

100g unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
finely grated zest of 3 lemons
2 eggs
1⅓ cups self raising flour
½ cup milk

Icing

125g unsalted butter, softened
2 cups icing sugar
1½ tbs lemon juice

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a 12 hole medium muffin pan (1/3 cup capacity) with paper cases. Using electric beaters, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla extract until light and creamy. Mix through the lemon zest.
2. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each egg. Gently fold through the flour and milk in two alternate batches. Divide the mixture evenly among the paper cases.
3. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown and springy when touched. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
4. To make the icing, use electric beaters to beat the butter until light and creamy. Add the icing sugar a little at a time, beating constantly. Add half the lemon juice and beat until well combined. Add the remaining lemon juice a little at a time. Using a 1cm fluted nozzle, pipe the icing onto the cooled cupcakes.

Passionfruit Cupcakes with White Chocolate and Passionfruit Ganache

 I made these cupcakes as part of a birthday surprise for a friend and a nice morning tea snack.

You'll need approx. 5 passionfruits for this recipe.

Ingredients

Passionfruit Cakes (Yields 8)
30g butter, softened
½ cup caster sugar, sifted
2 eggs
1 cup self-raising flour, sifted
¼ cup passionfruit pulp, strained

White Chocolate & Passionfruit Ganache
90mL thickened cream
180g white chocolate, broken into small pieces
1 tbs passionfruit pulp, strained
Sugar flowers, to decorate 

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C. Beat butter with electric mixer until soft and fluffy, add eggs and beat until pale. Stir in sifted sugar and flour and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Stir in passionfruit pulp. Spoon mixture into cupcake liners resting in muffin moulds until 2/3 full. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Turn cakes onto wire rack to cool. Top with ganache or other frosting and sugar flower. Allow to set.


To make ganache:
Warm cream and pulp in a saucepan over low heat, then stir in chocolate pieces until melted. Leave to cool, then refrigerate for at least 30mins - 1 hour. This allows the ganache to thicken, ready to be piped or spread over cupcakes.