Monster Cupcakes for Halloween

For Halloween, I made the 6.5 hour drive back to Rochester, my second home. My mom and I made these monster cupcakes for me to take with to share with my friends. They're simple, fun, and a blast to make.

I wasn't feeling too ambitious, so I did the classic box mix for the cake and buttercream for the frosting. Decorations used for the faces included licorice sticks, candy coated licorice, marshmallows, gummy fruit slices, and candy eyes.

Chocolate & orange colored white cake

Mixed to make a cool design

Swirled with a toothpick & baked

The inside

The icing and decorating station

We got pretty creative

Maybe too creative

Some more monsters

Graduation Cupcakes

Last night, my friends on Cornell Street had a final BBQ/get-together at their apartment. The majority of my friends have graduated. Many of them are staying around, but most are leaving. It's amazing how quickly these past four years have gone by, and I wish I had taken advantage of more opportunities to see some of my friends.

On to the cupcakes!

I had several ideas brewing for graduation. I thought about doing brown and orange to represent RIT's colors or tiger paws for the mascot. Those seemed too expected and boring, though. I found cap pops by Bakerella, the woman who invented cake pops. I altered a couple of things about her pops.

I made mini chocolate cupcakes and lightly iced them with peanut butter frosting. The frosting was made up on the spot, so I don't have an exact recipe for it. It was made out of butter, peanut butter, confectioner's sugar and vanilla extract.

The Reese's mini peanut butter cups were easy to find. I searched Wegmans for an alternative square topper, though. I found some cookies, but they weren't the right size. Then I noticed Hershey's bar chocolate was on sale (for s'more season). Two bricks seemed like they made a perfect square, and this was the cheapest option.

Sorry about the quality of the images. It was getting late, the lighting was bad, and I wanted to bring them over!

Lots of mini cupcakes!

Peanut Butter frosting

I ran out of chocolate for caps, so there were some without.

Egg cartons work surprisingly well for carrying mini cupcakes!

The extras for the roomie :)

Lots of caps

Happy Graduation!

Amy made a cake for Cornell :)

That's me!

Robert's Birthday

They look like Krabby Patties, but they're meant to be Bubba Burgers! These are cupcakes cut in half to create a top and bottom bun. The meat is chocolate cupcakes sliced up, the cheese and lettuce are just icing. There was meant to be red for ketchup, but there was a lack of red food coloring...
I cannot for the life of me remember what was on top for sesame seeds. I remember they didn't look as realistic in person, though.

I always browse the internet first before I start a cake. I also try to be as original as possible. I found many hamburger cakes. This inspired the hamburger cupcakes. The other reason I like to  make cupcakes so much is that people are way more inclined to have a cupcake than they are to have a slice of cake. Maybe it's a social thing. It could also be a "I'm watching my weight" thing. Mini cupcakes are even better. Those never last long. If you are making dessert for an event, consider mini cupcakes. Brownies work well too. I get the feeling that people who normally wouldn't allow themselves to have a piece of cake are willing to try a mini cupcake. It's just a taste!