Pulling Double Duty

Cutesy Cupcakes

My friend May See's daughter, Lilly, has a birthday today. So she wanted to send cupcakes to school. Well, one of her other daughters, Penny, her birthday is in June. So she doesn't ever get to take cupcakes to school. So May See decided to send her some today too, kinda as an "unbirthday" celebration. I showed the girls my copy of Hello Cupcake!, and they picked out what they wanted. Lilly wanted owls and Penny wanted butterflies.

Lilly's Owls

The owls are made of out oreos, junior mints, a banana runt and chocolate butter cream. The book recommended not placing the eyes the same way so they would have "character", and they did turn out really cute because they were different. I loved using my leaf tip to create feathers.Since their horns and eyes hung off of the sides of the cupcakes I did have some trouble getting them all to fit in the cake box. I actually had to put the extras in another container. Although they were all standard sized cupcakes, I feel some of them would have been cuter had I used the mini oreos.

Penny's Butterflies

I loved the 3-D butterflies. The pattern used antennas but I knew they would never fit together in a box if they had them. I loved the color combination of teal, lavender, and lime. It's springy, but not necessarily too "girlie". As simple as it was, I think the sprinkle edgings adding another level of detail to the cupcakes. I used both the candy coating pieces from Michael's as well as the candy coating blocks available at the grocery store. Don't ask me why, but they individual candy pieces worked better with the chocolate flooding. They did not harden as fast on the wax paper so I could manipulate the design if I needed to. The candy from the block seemed to harden almost immediately and I was unable to use any sprinkles on the butterfly wings. I used Skittles under the wings to help them maintain their angles. My my criticism was I couldn't take a picture of the butterflies without getting the candy in the picture. But there's always room for improvement. More than anything, I just hope the girls are happy with their cupcakes, and they made them feel special!

If I had to pick a "favorite" of the two, I think it would be the owls. I just think they are not your normal "birthday cupcake". They have their own unique personality.