Notebook Experiments: Monster Cupcakes

I haven’t kept up on my Notebook Experiments from MomAdvice over the past two weeks….last week I was at BlogHer MEETING Amy from MomAdvice (yeah!) and the week before we were getting ready and having Brendan’s Half Birthday Party.  I’m going to go ahead and post my marvelous adventure in Monster Cupcake Making under Notebook Experiments because it WAS an experiment…and it IS Notebook worthy!! LOL

We decided when Brendan was born that we would celebrate half birthdays for him.  His birthday is Jan 20 and it sort of seems like a gyp to have to wait an entire year for both Christmas AND your birthday to come around.  Then Lilli came along and her birthday is December 26!!  So cake and special dinner on actual birthdays and parties 6 months later seems like a great idea.

This was Brendan’s 3.5 yr birthday…the first one he can actually remember and was able to really get excited about.  He has been saying for quite some time that he wants cupcakes for his birthday…so I let him pick out what kind he wanted.  My mom always made fabulous cakes for our birthdays and I want to do the same for my kids…but I’m really nervous about it.

Brendan spent literally DAYS looking through my cookbooks and trying to find what he wanted for his birthday and settled on some Monster Cupcakes he found in the Wilton Cupcake Fun book.

I decided to use these really cute Wilton Silly- Feet Silicone Baking Cupsand used a basic Wacky Cake recipe I got from my mom (see bottom of post for recipe).

I used the recipe for Buttercream frosting found in the Wilton book and got a decent sized batch of frosting.  To color my frosting I use a gel color instead of paste or liquid called Americolor Gel Food Coloring.  This is a little easier to color with and doesn’t have any kind of aftertaste that taints your frosting.

The directions in the book were fairly easy to follow.  I have only ever decorated with tips once before and it was a basket weave…so this was a giant first for me.  The biggest “trick” I learned on these cupcakes was using your finger, dipped in cornstarch, to “shape” the frosting.  To flatten the dots for eyes, etc you can pat them into shape.  With your finger dipped in cornstarch it doesn’t stick to the frosting.  I was concerned I was doing it wrong because I had these big white powdery splotches all over…but they absorb into the frosting after a few minutes and virtually disappear.

I only did 8 cupcakes like this as we were only expecting 8 kiddos…and it took me FOUR HOURS.  BUT…it was a lot of fun and totally worth it.

Wacky Cake (One Pan Cake)

3c. unbleached all-purpose flour

2c. sugar

6 tbsp. cocoa

2 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. vinegar

2 tsp. vanilla

10 tbsp. oil

2c. cold water

Sift together dry ingredients into a pan or bowl.  Scoop out 3 holes in the dry ingredients and liquids in one of each holes.  Pour cold water over entire thing.  Mix together and make sure sides of pan/bowl are scraped.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  **When I make cupcakes I bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.