Clowning Around with Dirty Worms

Hold on to your spatulas my foodie friends... None of the materials for these cupcakes were made from scratch. Boo, hiss... I know, I know. The made-from-scratch baking took a backseat to decorating this time.

My girlfriend asked me to make some sweet treats for her son's 3rd birthday party. She said he loves balloons, bugs and animals... so this is what I came up with. Clowns and worms! Both cupcakes were a hit, but the children really seemed to love the clowns. Especially the sprinkley hats!

These did take a bit of time, but I loved every moment of it. The decorating became even more fun with a couple glasses of wine ;)

Clown Cupcakes

Materials needed:

24 yellow cupcakes (I used Duncan Hines)

2 tubs vanilla frosting (I used Duncan Hines)

1 large container of sprinkle dots

48 miniature chocolate chips

24 red peanut M&Ms

2 Twizzlers shoe string ropes

1 tube red CakeMate decorating icing

1 tube yellow CakeMate decorating icing

1 tube blue CakeMate decorating icing

24 sugar ice cream cones

1 CakeMate tip kit

Assembly:

*I made the 'cone hats' one day before I decorated the cupcakes. This gave the sprinkles and icing plenty of time to set.

Cones

-Cut the cones 2 inches from the bottom with a serrated knife.

*Once the cones were cut, I worked with each one individually.

-With a knife, cover each cone with icing. (I dyed one of the tubs of icing with red food coloring. That is optional.)

-Pour sprinkle dots onto a plate and roll each cone until completely covered.

-Set cones on a parchment lined cookie sheet to dry.

Cupcakes

*Again, I worked with each cupcake individually so that the icing would not start to dry.

-Spread vanilla icing on each cupcake.

-Place a decorated cone toward the 'back' of the face.

-Center 2 miniature chocolate chips for the eyes.

-Place the M&M nose under the eyes.

-With kitchen scissors, cut the Twizzler rope into 1 inch pieces. Untwist the strands. I then cut the 1 inch pieces in half and placed 4 on each side of the cone for the hair.

-Attach the smallest CakeMate tip to the red icing tube and draw the mouth.

-Attach the star shaped CakeMate tip to the yellow or blue tube to pipe the ruffle around the edge of the cupcake. (One tube will last for 12 cupcakes.)

Dirty Worm Cupcakes

Materials needed:

24 chocolate cupcakes (I used Duncan Hines)

1 tub chocolate icing (I used Duncan HInes)

1 tube CakeMate green icing

1 package Oreo cookies, filling removed and crushed

2 packages gummie worms, cut 12 worms in half

Assembly:

*Work with each cupcake individually to get the best result.

-Frost each cupcake.

-Place one whole worm into frosting. Take one of the 'half worms' and place it in the icing so that it looks like it is coming out of the ground.

-Pipe the 'grass' around the cupcake. (I only did this for half of them. I couldn't decide which I liked better :)

-Spoon the crushed cookies on top for the dirt.