Cookie Monster Cupcakes

Cookie Monster Cupcakes!!

I'm getting out of control this summer with my creative food making.  The way I see it, I've got just over a week until school starts (EEEEK!) and I've got to maximize my kitchen time!  So today's project was Cookie Monster Cupcakes.  As usual, the internet gave me the idea, I just ran with it and was so delighted that I thought I'd share.

I started with a shopping trip on a quest to find Candy Melts for the eyes.  They have these at the craft store Michael's.  The array of baking and candy making supplies  - found in the wedding department (?) - was dizzying and gave me inspiration.  I escaped with white Candy Melts (a product by Wilton) and a small tube of black icing.  Simply smearing a bit of the icing on the underside of a candy = googly eye!



As for the baking side of things, I've been lazy on the cake making lately - this is another box mix.  The Hy-vee ones are really pretty good.  I made a buttercream by ad-libbing, then made my homemade chocolate chip cookies, including some extra small ones (~1-1.25" diameter).  I let everything cool, then I assembled.






1.  Lightly frost the cooled cupcake with blue icing, then cut a slit where the cookie will go.  Insert cookie.  I eventually found an angle is best.

 2.  Pipe icing around the cookie and all over the top of the cupcake.  I tried all squiggles, all stars (as shown to the side), and all smeary stars.  The fact is, as long as the top looks a little messy, is blue, has googly eyes and has a cookie, it will clearly be the cookie monster.  See the last picture for a couple of the different icing efforts.

3.  Add googly eyes.  Eat.

I think tinting the icing green, using silver cupcake liners, and just putting on a black line for the mouth would make a great Oscar.  I've seen Elmo, too, but I don't think I'd bother with him for myself as he was after my time.  Overall, it was great fun, though definitely time consuming baking everything and piping all the detail.  Worth it at least once!