Elmo: Sesame Street Cupcake Tutorial

Just over a week ago, I made Sesame Street Character Cupcakes (Elmo, Cookie Monster, Oscar and Big Bird) for my youngest nephew's 1st birthday party.  And they turned out amazingly well, if I do say so myself.  (No false modesty here!! Ha ha)

Wanna know how to make 'em?  Then you've come to the right place!

Welcome to my four part series - the Sesame Street Cupcake Tutorial.  I got my inspiration for these cupcakes from these two blogs, but I made several changes.  The biggest thing was that I didn't use fondant for anything.  I've never actually tried it, but I've heard that it doesn't taste great - and, call me crazy, but what good are cupcakes that don't taste great?!

Yeah, my thoughts exactly.  So, no fondant.  But never fear, equally impressive facial features were found that still taste good!

I should also give some credit to my two helpers, Emma and Sophia.  Emma helped me do the facial features for Elmo, Cookie Monster and Oscar, while Sophia was my tutorial photographer - thanks girls!

Today we'll begin with lovable Elmo!

To make Elmo, you will need....
cupcakes
icing coloured with Wilton's red no taste food colouring
2 white chocolate wafers (aka candy melts) per cupcake
Oreo cookies
chocolate icing for pupils
orange peanut M&M's

First step - bake awesome cupcakes using my awesome cake/cupcake recipe.  Ok, it's not actually mine, it's Hershey's, but it's the one I use.  And it's awesome.  Seriously, you need to use it. Best. chocolate. cake. recipe. ever.

Note: I used Wilton no taste food colourings for all these awesomely bright colours - I found them at Walmart and was very impressed with them - particularly that normally oh-so-difficult red.

Pipe red icing on the cupcake using a star tip.  

At first I was disappointed that my icing wasn't a bit more firm, but then decided that it actually looked shaggier and more "realistic" this way!

Now, for the fun part - decorating Elmo's face!  Break apart some Oreo cookies, remove the icing and split them in half.  One Oreo goes a long way - in case math isn't your strong suit, one Oreo makes 4 smiles!  Add two white chocolate wafers (sometimes also called candy melts) which are basically pieces of white chocolate that look like Elmo eyes.

Using a small round tip, pipe chocolate icing on Elmo's eyes - for the most realistic eyes, make sure to pipe the pupils in the centre and slightly cross-eyed.  Then place an orange peanut M&M in between the eyes.  If you have peanut allergies, other options would be orange jelly beans or other orange coloured candies.  And yes, I totally picked through our local grocery store's bulk bin section, only taking the orange ones!

And, voila!  Elmo!

Once you have all your supplies ready to go, Elmo is actually pretty easy.  Try it, you'll see!