Cookie Monster Cupcakes

In general, I am not a very artistic person. Musical, yes, but not artistic. I have been asked to bake cakes for children’s birthdays in all sorts of funky shapes and designs, and as much as I would like to answer, “Sure! No problem!”, I just don’t have that ability. I can surely make the cake taste delicious, but my creativity only goes so far. I truly admire people who can make these beautiful and creative themed cakes, but I, unfortunately, was not given that gift.

The reason for this “sob story” is so you get a sense of how proud I was of myself that I actually pulled off these cupcakes! A friend had asked me to make Sesame Street cupcakes for her daughter’s first birthday party, in particular cupcakes that looked like Elmo and Cookie Monster. We did some research on the train ride to work, and by the time our train pulled into the station, I felt confident I could do it.

And I did!

These cupcakes are actually really easy to make. All you need is some blue food coloring to color the frosting, some googly eyes, some chocolate chip cookies, and a pastry bag with a star tip. Easy peasy!

Ingredients:

12 cupcakes, unfrosted (I used the chocolate cupcake recipe from my blog…soooo delicious!)
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. milk
2 tbsp. blue food coloring (or enough to get the blue color you want)
12 small chocolate chip cookies (I used Famous Amos)
24 googly eyes (sold on Amazon or even in some grocery stores)
Pastry bag (again, you can get these on Amazon or in grocery stores)
Decorating tips (same…Amazon, grocery stores…)

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed for about 20 seconds, then gradually add the powdered sugar and continue to beat. Turn the mixer to low and add the vanilla, milk, and the food coloring. Beat on low until the food coloring had blended in, then turn the mixer to high and beat for a minute or so.

2. If you have never used the pastry bag before, you may need to cut the very tip of it off. This is so the decorating tip can stick out of it when you put the tip in the bag. For this cupcake, you need to use the fat star shaped tip (although even if you used the pastry bag without the tip, it would still look fine!). Place the tip into the bag so the tip sticks out the bottom (be sure you don’t cut the bag so much that the tip falls through). Squeeze the bag from the top down and pipe the frosting onto the cupcake in a circular motion so the whole cupcake is covered and has a mound on top. Continue with the rest of the cupcakes.

3. Now comes the best part, in my opinion. Put two googly eyes on the top of each cupcake, then shove a cookie halfway into the frosting underneath the eyes (where the mouth would be). This is to make it look like Cookie Monster is eating the cookie (in case you couldn’t figure that part out).

And there you have it…Cookie Monster Cupcakes!

You will need these…