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.