Friday, February 6

a non expert elmo cupcake tutorial

elmo cupcakes

I debated showing you these cupcakes. I am pretty sure they look like my two year decorated them! But I had fun and have never attempted anything like this before. Unfortunately, they didn't taste that great but I figured a class full of 1-2 year olds would not be snobs when it comes to the taste of their sugar (I was right). Regardless of what the back of the food color box says, you can not get white frosting red. A very shocking pink but not red, even with half a bottle. So I had to use pre-made red decorators frosting that was in a tube. I think it is supposed to be used sparingly like with a flower not the entire cake. This stuff tasted bad. If I had had my act together I could have gotten a better food color dye at the craft store.

I could not find a good tutorial actually explaining how to decorate an elmo onto cupcakes, just pictures on Flickr(here, here, here, here). Here is my first time, non-cake decorator attempt that you should take with a grain of salt:
  • Split oreos in half scrape out cream. Carefully cut each oreo side in half. Place the un-creamed side down (I did some with the un-cream side up but I didn't like them as much) onto the cupcake for elmo's mouth. Use a bit of frosting to help it stay put.
  • I then used the star tip and the leaf tip to get elmo's hair. After a few I got the hang of it and I think the star tip works the best if you drag it up higher. I thought the dragging the leaf tip up looked like hair at first but really it looks like it melted all over.
  • Place hair all around the oreo mouth. I put more hair around the oreo mouth than up where the eyes would go.
  • Use a writing/piping tip to place two big whites of eyes very close together.
  • Use a writing/piping tip to place a big orange nose right underneath the two eyes.
  • Finally, use black frosting to put in the pupils with a small writing/piping tip.
elmo cupcakes

elmo cupcakes

10 comments:

nicole said...

oooo so the photos are here too... i really like them! and yes that frosting stuff is bad - the gel coloring you can buy is so great though... it made me want to be a cake decorator just for all the different colors!

Unknown said...

Those are the CUTEST!! You really should be making Lily's cake. I hope you aren't disappointed now. SO cute!!

Amber said...

Wow. Now I totally know what I'm doing for Kate's 2nd birthday in June! She LOVES Elmo - and I think with maybe a little help from you, even I could do this! :)

Kristin Finch said...

Jenni these are so adorable!!! I am sure that Lilly just loved them!

The Chico McGregor's said...

Jenni - Kristin sent me this link to show off your adorable cupcakes. As someone who has taken all of the Wilton cake decorating classes - you have talent!! Very, very cute.

Allison said...

Simply AWESOME!!!!

Mrs. Behlke said...

Adorable cupcakes! Too bad Owen is allergic to red food dye... On another note, I knew you'd understand about my post about my purse! Not everyone "gets" craft obsession like we do... I sure enjoy both of your blogs though. I wish we lived closer together, you and Kristin and I could craft up a storm together! haha!

Laurel @ Ducks in a Row said...

They turned out cute and I've noticed that 2 year olds aren't as much of a perfectionist as mommys are! yeah

jenni said...

Thank you everybody! and yes I agree with you Laurel, perhaps mommys expect too much out of themselves.

Anonymous said...

cuteness!

i did the furry part with a red dyed dessicated coconut :)