A Despicable Birthday :)

Hello friends, family, and strangers who have managed to stumble upon my little blog. Today's post is going to be a bit lengthy... but the finished product will be 100000% worth it!
My friend's son's birthday party is tomorrow, and I lucked into making cupcakes for the celebration. After some discussion with the birthday boy, it was decided that I was making Minion cupcakes with buttercream frosting and marbled cake.
Now, if for some reason you've been living under a rock for the past 3 years and have never heard of Minions or the movie Despicable Me (or the sequel), then here's what they look like.
Aren't they adorable?

Anyway, I knew I had my work cut out for me, so I went to the research library of crafty, creative & DIY people.... Pinterest.

So I found a photo, that was lacking instructions. But after some thinking, I made a plan.













Here's how you make a birthday absolutely despicable. :)


Minion Cupcakes


Prep Time: 1 hour
Bake Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: ~2 hours
Oven Temp: 350°

Ingredients:

Cupcakes

• 1 box Betty Crocker Chocolate Cake Mix
• 1 box Betty Crocker Yellow Cake Mix
• Eggs
• Oil
• Water
• Blue Cupcake Liners

Minion Bodies:

• 1 box twinkies (to make 20 cupcakes)
• 1 package Wilton candy eyes
• 1 tube Wilton black sparkle gel
• 1 package chocolate twizzlers

Frosting

• 1 box Wilton Buttercream Frosting Mix (because I'm horrible at making frosting)
• Milk
• Butter
• Wilton Royal Blue Frosting Dye

Making the Minion Bodies

Ok. So I made the Minion bodies the night before, but that's not necessarily required.
To make the bodies, unwrap the twinkies and cut them in half. Using your black sparkle gel, 'glue' the candy eyes to the twinkies. I found that if you put a little extra, then it surrounded the eyes to look like goggles. After you get the eyes on, add the straps of the goggles down the sides of the twinkies. Use the sparkle gel to make some mouths on the mini minions.
To make the hair, cut the chocolate twizzlers into small pieces to make strands of hair. Using a toothpick, poke holes in the top of the twinkie where you want the hair to go. (I put 3 strands per minion.)
Once you have that all done, keep them in the fridge until it is time to assemble the cupcakes.

Cupcakes

Follow the directions on the box for making the cupcakes. If you are making marble cupcakes like me, then just alternate the different batters into the cupcake cups and swirl them around with a toothpick to make the marble effect. Bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely before decorating.

Frosting

If you are using the Wilton buttercream mix, follow the directions on the box. Use the royal blue frosting dye one toothpick drop at a time to get a deep blue color in the frosting. Keep chilled until ready to use.

Assembling the Minions

First off, if the tops of your cupcakes aren't mostly flat on top, then cut off the tops just enough for a
twinkie to sit comfortably on top of the cupcake.
Take a twinkie and set it (cut side down) on the top of the cupcake. Using a pastry bag, pipe frosting around the twinkie to attach it to the cupcake. There's not really an exact science to it, just make sure the twinkie is secured, and the overall product looks good.

That's it!
I know it is a little work, but admit, these little guys are cute. :)

Since I used 2 boxes of cake mix, I had some batter left over.
Instead of letting it go to waste, I decided to make a mini cake to take over with the cupcakes.
I made a minion out of paper, and backed it with tin foil so that it wouldn't get ruined by the frosting.

Then I used the rest of my blue buttercream, and black sparkle gel to decorate the cake.

Here's the finished product!

Thanks for hanging in with me for this long post!
Until next time...

An Experimental Birthday Gift :)

So, fun fact, I have a roommate.
She has put up with my obsession with baking cupcakes, and she even eats them too.
Her birthday was last Monday, but since she was in California, I decided to bake up a surprise for her to come home to.

I know that she likes 2 things for sure: Rainbows & Cupcakes.
So why not make a rainbow pull-apart cake?


Anywho, Here's what you need.

The Finished Product. :)

Rainbow Pull-Apart Cake

Oven Temp: 350°
Prep Time: ~45 minutes
Bake Time: 15 minutes per pan
Total Time: ~ 1.5 hours


Cake Ingredients

*Note* I didn't want to use Funfetti cake mix, because I wanted to control the amount of sprinkles I had.  Feel free to use Funfetti, because honestly, it is easier.

• 1 Box Betty Crocker Vanilla Cake Mix
• 1 Bottle of Sprinkles
• McCormick's Neon Food Coloring
• Toothpicks
• Cupcake Liners
• Cupcake Pan
• 1 C. Water
• 1/3 C. Oil
• 3 Eggs

Frosting Ingredients

*Note* I used a combination of Kool-Aid and food coloring to color my frosting. If you don't want flavors, food coloring does just fine. :)

• 3 cans Vanilla Frosting
• 5 packets of Kool-Aid
• Strawberry
• Peach-Mango
• Lemonade
• Lemon-Lime
• Tropical Punch
• (I left purple as plain frosting.)
• Plastic Baggies
• Plastic Spoons (if you don't want to wash a ton of spoons)
• Shredded Coconut

The unbaked cupcakes

Ok. So, the cake is pretty simple. Mix the water, oil and eggs, then add the cake mix. Combine until moistened. Then add the sprinkles, and combine well. Scoop into cupcake pan, filling only 2/3 full. Put a few drops of food coloring in each cupcake, and swirl around with a toothpick. 

Bake until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean, and cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting, separate 2 of the cans of frosting into 6 separate containers. (I used styrofoam cups)

Each cup represents a different cup/flavor. So, if you're doing flavors, add 1/2 tsp. of Kool- Aid to each respective cup. Combine well. Then, use food coloring to adjust the coloring to your liking. There's not really a science to it, except for normal color mixing rules (red+yellow = orange... etc.) Then put each colored frosting in a separate sandwich bag, (unless you have 7 pastry bags, and want to wash them all.)

Fast forward until the cupcakes are cooled...

Arrange the cupcakes in a rainbow- like shape. If you need to transport it, I recommend a piece of cardboard wrapped in tin foil. If you don't need to move it, a layer of tin foil on your counter does just fine.  This is what I did for the shape:

Once you have the cupcakes arranged, take the other can of frosting, and do a 'base coat' to glue all of the cupcakes together. Make sure that the cupcakes are covered evenly, and that there are no holes between any of the cupcakes.

Then, starting with the red frosting, cut a small piece off of the corner of the bag. Frost the red onto the cake, and then continue with the other colors.

Once this is done, add coconut to the cloud area to give it some texture, and there you go!