Wednesday, January 11, 2012

elmo cupcakes - chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese whipped cream frosting


My last post was about the Elmo cookie favors that I made for my daughter's birthday party at daycare, so I also wanted to show you the Elmo cupcakes that I made to go with them!  I had made Elmo cupcakes a few years ago for my son's third birthday - I had used plastic Elmo rings as cupcake toppers, but this time I wanted to make everything edible!

I started by making chocolate cupcakes - mini cupcakes for the kids, and regular cupcakes for the teachers.


For the frosting, I wanted something light and airy, so I made a batch of cream cheese frosting, and then a batch of whipped cream, and then lightened the frosting by folding in the whipped cream.  Then I piped the frosting on with a large closed-star tip, to create a "whipped cream" effect.


The final touch was topping the cupcakes with Elmo toppers that I had made previously by piping them with royal icing on waxed paper - the same method I used for the Superman cupcakes for my son's birthday.


A few notes about using this technique:

* Give the royal icing at least 2 days to dry.

* Be very careful when peeling the dried royal icing off of the waxed paper, as they are very fragile and break easily.  I would almost describe it as "peeling the waxed paper off of the toppers" rather than peeling the toppers from the waxed paper.

* Place your royal icing toppers on top of your cupcakes the day you are serving your cupcakes.  If you leave them on overnight, the toppers may wilt and the colors may bleed onto your frosting (not very attractive when black royal icing bleeds onto white frosting!)




Happy Birthday, my Melodie!

*** Update: you can also find the Elmo cake that I made for her here!

15 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness. My daughter would go crazy for these, she is a bit of an Elmo groupie. SO adorable :)

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  2. So cute! I love Elmo and your Elmo's cupcakes and cookies :D

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  3. lovely!!!! i'm SO into elmo, and we celebrated his birthday last year with cupcakes in the office ;) http://hamburchbackblech.blogspot.com/2011/02/happy-elmo.html
    now i'm out of toppers (they are not available here in germany :() but yours are a great solution!!!
    sweet greets from hamburg, simone

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  4. These are so cute, and so are the amazing cookies! I bet the teachers were very surprised by your homemade treats, not all mums bake this well!

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  5. What was the recipe for your cream cheese and whipped cream frosting?

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    1. sure! for the cream cheese frosting, combine 1 block cream cheese with 1/2 stick butter, 3 cups confectioner's sugar, 2 tsp vanilla, and a pinch of salt. beat until fluffy. then in another bowl, whip 1 cup of heavy cream with 1/2 cup of confectioner's sugar until stiff peaks. then in batches, fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture until you reach the desired consistency (i didn't end up folding in all of the whipped cream). let me know how it turns out! :)

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  6. Can i PLEASE have the recipe for chocolate cupcakes? :)

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    1. @Anonymous - sure, i go back and forth between this recipe:
      http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/beattys-chocolate-cake-recipe/index.html

      and one in this book:
      http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307460444/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=iheartbaking-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0307460444

      let me know how they turn out for you! :)

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  7. Thank you for your recipes!! If I were to make your cream cheese/whipped cream icing the night before a birthday party, would it need to be refrigerated until the party?

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    1. @Anonymous - no problem! and yes you can refrigerate them, but be sure to take them about about 30 minutes before the party so that they can come to room temperature before serving!

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  8. Did you use a template for your elmo royal icing toppers?

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    1. @Anonymous - yes i did! i simply placed the waxed paper over a picture of elmo and used that as a template while piping.

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  9. Are you making the cupcake with frosting then refrigerate them before the day of party or you make the cake first and fill with frosting on the part day? I am new for baking and want to make it for my son's birthday. However, I don't know how to arrange for making it. Can you please help me? Thanks

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    1. @Anonymous - you can do it either way! if you have time to frost them the day of, then that is probably best, but it will also still taste fresh if you frost them the night before.

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