Cupcake Cakes

Thanks to Family Fun for these darling cupcake cake recipes.

 Night Owls

 Instructions

1. You'll need a full recipe of Buttercream frosting.  (Click here for recipe.) Spoon ½ cup into a ziplock bag (snip off a corner for piping), tint 1 cup with green food coloring, and reserve the rest.
2. From 2 cups finely chopped sweetened coconut, tint ½ cup blue, ½ cup purple, and reserve the rest.
3. Frost 10 cupcakes green and 8 white. Roll the edges of two of the white cupcakes in chocolate sprinkles.
4. Arrange the Mama Owl as shown at right. Use a serrated knife to halve 5 chocolate wafer cookies (we used Famous Chocolate Wafers) for the wings and trim the sides from another cookie for the brows. Make each eye from a whole cookie, piped-on frosting, a jelly ring and a Junior Mint. Sprinkle the white coconut over the chest and scatter with mini chocolate chips. Add pretzel-rod branches and trimmed circus peanuts for the beak and talons, as shown above.
5. Make each owlet's wings and beak with the same ingredients used for the Mama Owl. Add colored coconut and chocolate chips for the chest, smaller cookie pieces for the brows. Use jelly rings and brown M&M's for the eyes.

Pirate Treasure Map

(Perfect for Peyton's birthday Lindsay!)

1. For the map base and compass: You'll need a full recipe of frosting.  Spoon ¼ cup into a ziplock bag. Tint ¼ cup with yellow food coloring and place it in a ziplock bag, then tint 3 tablespoons aqua by mixing blue and green coloring. Reserve the rest. (You'll use the bagged frosting for decorative elements; snip a tiny corner from each bag before using.)
2. Place 2 cups ground vanilla wafers in a large bowl. Frost 11 cupcakes with the reserved frosting and gently dip them in the crumbs to coat them. Frost another cupcake aqua. Arrange the cupcakes on a serving platter, then garnish with the extra crumbs and chocolate coins, if you like.
3. Snip red licorice laces into ¾-inch pieces for the dotted map line. On a sugared surface, gently roll out 1 green and 5 red spice drops until fl at. Trim 4 of the red pieces into triangles for the map's X and the remaining red piece into a 1-inch square for the compass center. Snip the green spice-drop piece into a 1-inch square.
4. Press all the candy pieces into place on the cupcakes, adding 1 brown and 1 red M&M to the dotted path and the X as shown below. Use tubed chocolate decorator frosting to pipe compass markings on the aqua cupcake.
5. For the Bones: On a sheet of waxed paper, pipe vanilla frosting dots on the ends of licorice pastels (we used Good and Plenty) and let the dots harden slightly.
6. For the Volcano: Use a serrated knife to trim one end of a chocolate-covered graham cracker into a volcano peak. Pipe on yellow frosting lava lines and sprinkle with red decorating sugar.
7. For the Pirate flag: Use the knife to trim a zigzag edge on one end of a chocolate-covered graham cracker and pipe on a vanilla and chocolate frosting skull. Attach a pretzel stick pole with frosting.
8. For the Treasure chest: Pipe yellow frosting onto the flat side of a chocolate nugget. Sprinkle it with sugar pearls, then press on another chocolate nugget.
9. For the parrot: On a sugared surface, gently roll out a red spice drop until flat. Trim it into wings and a tail. Snip a small piece of an orange spice drop for the beak. Press the pieces onto a whole green spice drop as shown. Dot on two chocolate frosting eyes, then insert a pretzel stick perch.
10. For the palm tree: On a sugared surface, roll out 2 green spice drops until flat. Snip them into leaf shapes and press them onto a pretzel stick.
11. For the shovel: Roll out a purple spice drop. Snip it into a scoop shape and press it onto a pretzel stick. Attach a pretzel stick handle with frosting.

School of Fish 

1. Spoon 1/3 cup of the frosting into a ziplock bag and set it aside.
2. In a bowl, tint 1/2 cup of the frosting with yellow food coloring. Evenly divide the remaining frosting among three more bowls and tint one portion orange, one blue, and one green. Cover all but one of the bowls with plastic wrap.
3. Following the photo above, frost the first group of colored cupcake fi sh, then press four rows of identically colored M&M scales into each as shown (you'll need two 1-pound bags of M&M's altogether). Add 2 red M&M lips.
4. Snip a corner from the frosting bag, then pipe a frosting eye onto each fish and press a brown M&M on top. Repeat with the remaining cupcakes and frosting, then assemble them into a fish shape.
5. Use a toothpick to attach a candy fruit slice onto five or six of the cupcakes as shown.

Rad Robot

1. Spoon 1/3 cup of the frosting into a ziplock bag and set it aside.
2. In a bowl, tint 1/2 cup of the frosting with yellow food coloring. Evenly divide the remaining frosting among three more bowls and tint one portion orange, one blue, and one green. Cover all but one of the bowls with plastic wrap.
3. Following the photo above, frost the first group of colored cupcake fi sh, then press four rows of identically colored M&M scales into each as shown (you'll need two 1-pound bags of M&M's altogether). Add 2 red M&M lips.
4. Snip a corner from the frosting bag, then pipe a frosting eye onto each fish and press a brown M&M on top. Repeat with the remaining cupcakes and frosting, then assemble them into a fish shape.
5. Use a toothpick to attach a candy fruit slice onto five or six of the cupcakes as shown.