Cupcakes are the new black.

Is it me or are cupcakes SUPER popular right now? My friend Caitlin bought me Hello, Cupcake! for Christmas last year. I also got the new Martha Stewart cupcake book and Hey There, Cupcake! last year... My co-workers kept bringing in cute cupcakes and decorated cakes for the break room, and after my friend/co-worker Sam told me about Bakerella.com, I was just so inspired. The cuteness of it all is too much to take, so I decided to blog about my own creations and attempts at others'. I'd like to post some things I've made in the past, but for now I'll start with my FIRST attempt at this Hello, Cupcake! book.

The panda cupcake.


First you get some cupcakes (I used a mix). Then you have to cut a bunch of Oreos (or generic-named cookie sandwiches) in half to use as the arms and legs. Oreos are HARD TO CUT! So this wasn't so much fun as frustrating. I tried microwaving them (the filling melts if it's in too long, otherwise, it doesn't do much). The cookies tend to crack of their own volition. What I ended up doing was twisting them open, cutting each cookie in half, then smushing the tops & bottoms back together again. Ai yai yai. Meanwhile,


Oh, my cupcakes are done! You have to make regular- and mini-sized ones. Aren't they cute? I just bought the mini-muffin tin yesterday at Party City for about $6.99. Nice! Well then you set about icing them all fancily.

First you put some vanilla frosting on a mini-marshmallow. It's like edible glue. You stick these onto the mini cupcakes.
Then you frost over it (which I thought would be hard and the marshmallow would fall off, but it was surprisingly cooperative!) and add all the whistles and bells (black icing through a snipped corner of a ziplock bag, mini chocolate chips, chocolate-covered sunflower seeds, chocolate cereal O's--the recipe called for Oreo O's but the closest I could find was some Keebler cookie cereal).

Ooooh cute! Then you use a food processor to cut up the Oreos but I have an easier method for those of you without food processors, passed down from my mom:

This also helps with the frustration. So you frost the bigger cupcakes and dip them into the bowl of now-crushed Oreos. Then you get this:
Then you simply put it all together. But this is what your kitchen table looks like before the easy part:

Aaaaaaaaaaah! Anyway. This is the BEST part:
I added the umbrella as a little flourish. It doesn't look as great as the ones in the book, but I think it's pretty darn cute.
Seriously it took me all day. I took a zillion pictures of it. I don't even want to eat the little guy!

I'm bringing them into work tomorrow in my Cupcake Courier, and I used each tray to hold a separate part:
I'll have to come in a few minutes earlier just to set them all up! I'll be sure to post what they look like all together ;)

I'm going to bed.