Minion cupcake tutorial

On July 3rd 2013 Universal released Despicable Me 2 which got me thinking about Gru's tiny yellow henchmen, the Minions. At around the same time I was asked by my close friend to help cater her two day family reunion, complete with a whole gaggle of children. I chose this opportunity to satisfy my creative urge to recreate the miniscule stars in some sort of edible medium, I chose cupcakes and marshmallows because everyone enjoys those things, with the added bonus that marshmallows are already a pretty close match to the shape of the minions.

Minion cupcake assembly

makes 24



Supplies
Cupcakes dyed blue and baked in blue wrappers
Blue buttercream
24 marshmallows
1 bag Wilton's yellow candy melts
1 pack Wilton  small candy eyes (or Smarties with black dots drawn on)
Black edible food pen
Tooth picks
Chocolate sprinkles (called jimmies)
Styrofoam block

(The recipe for the cupcakes and frosting are included at the bottom of the blog)

 



Step 1
Melt the bag of chocolate in a pyrex measuring cup, if you have one, in the microwave at 15 second intervals stirring after every interval until the chocolate is runny, add 2 tbs. of vegetable oil to the chocolate and stir, this lets the chocolate coat better.

 

If you don't have a microwaveable measuring cup, or a microwave, you'll have to do it on the stove with a double boiler. Take a small sauce pot with about a cup of water, set it to simmer, place a heat proof bowl, larger than the opening of the pot on top, add chocolate and oil keep stirring till the chocolate melts. (See Easter cake pop blog for pictures.)

Dip end of toothpick into chocolate and shove into bottom of marshmallow. stick toothpick into foam block so it stands upright, continue with all 24 marshmallows. put in fridge for 10-15 minutes to set.



Step 2
Take marshmallows out of fridge, re-melt chocolate back to coating consistency. Dip marshmallow in chocolate to coat, leave bottom of marshmallow exposed (this allows for easy removal of the toothpick later, if not the chocolate will crack), tap excess chocolate of of marshamallow.
At this point its easiest to add your eyes and hair, be careful they don't slide, and place back onto the Styrofoam board. Put in fridge for 20 minutes to set.
repeat with rest of marshmallows.



Step 3
using a black edible pen, draw a black outline around both eyes, the band for the goggles around the head, and the smile.



Step 4
Remove toothpick from marshmallow, they are now ready to place on top of cupcakes.



Step 5
flat frost 24 cupcakes with blue butter cream, and stick a Minion on top. Enjoy your creation!



Blue Cupcakes

makes at least 35 mini cupcakes

 

Supplies

Cake

mini muffin pan

mini cupcake liners in blue

4 Tbs. unsalted butter (1/2 stick) (at room temperature)

1 cup AP flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla

blue food coloring

 

Frosting

4 Tbs. unsalted butter (at room temperature)

2 cups powdered sugar

pinch of salt

1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

milk to thin frosting

blue food coloring

 

Cake:

Preheat oven to 350. line muffin pan with blue liners. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl until combined Cream butter and sugar together for 3-4 minutes until its pale and fluffy. Scrape down sides if necessary. Add eggs one at a time till completely mixed in. Slowly add flour mixture and scrape down sides. Add milk, vanilla, and enough food coloring to get the shade of blue you want. mix until just combined. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 of the way full and bake  until a toothpick can be inserted and removed cleanly, about 12 minutes. Remove from pan when cool enough to handle, wait until completely cool to frost.

 

Frosting: 

Add butter and food coloring to mixer, beat until creamy, add two cups of powdered sugar one at a time until mixed, add milk one table spoon at a time until desired consistency is reached. Pipe or spread on top of cooled cupcakes.

 

These Cupcakes wound up being a huge hit at the reunion. Make sure you check out our facebook page and the rest of our blog for more neat ideas. - Always, Fleur.





Topiary How To

A little while ago our company made decorations for a Nightmare Before Christmas inspired wedding. The bride was a huge fan of the movie, but didn't want her wedding to scream Tim Burton. She had already decided on a black, white and plum/dark purple color scheme, and she didn't have a very big budget so we decided to have her decorations serve dual purposes. That way she could decorate both her wedding and reception and get the most bang for her buck. One of the decorations she decided on were two topiary bushes that would flank the altar, that would then get moved to the reception site after the wedding was over. The great thing about these are that they can easily be manipulated to suit whatever color scheme or theme you're going for. The trick is figuring out how to make them, but never fear dear reader, I will tell you everything.

We found the cheapest place to get the Styrofoam balls was www.plasteelcorp.com, and the roses was www.efavormart.com

Supplies
Flower pot
Quik-rete
White paint
Plastic water catcher (they go under plant pots)
1.5 in Dowel (long enough to get the height you need, and thick enough to bear the weight of the Styrofoam balls)
Styrofoam Balls in three increasing sizes (we used 4in 10in 16in)
Enough flowers to cover the balls (buying 1bag, 84 flowers, for the top, 2 for the middle ball, and 3 for the bottom, will ensure you have enough to finish the project)
Staple gun 
Hot glue gun
Ribbon
Easter basket filler

Step 1
Bore a hole in each half of the two larger Styrofoam balls large enough to just let the dowel pass through

 



Step 2
Spray dowel white

Step 3
Get medium sized flower pot in appropriate color, or spray it to match theme, put dowel in and add enough mixed Quik-rete to fill up the pot enough to support dowel. MAKE SURE DOWEL IS STRAIGHT WHEN IT'S DRYING.





Step 4
Bore hole through flower pot drip tray and slide onto cured dowel.

Step 5
Start covering your Styrofoam with fake flowers, poking holes in the Styrofoam and them pushing the flower stems through and gluing them into place



 

 

 



Make sure you buy open flowers, because the "buds" don't cover nearly as well, also they stick out higher that the open blooms.

 

 

Step 6

We attached the balls by gluing ribbon on the inside of the bottom half of a ball and then gluing the ribbon ends to the dowel and then putting the top half on and gluing the two halves together. This however made the ball extremely unstable, and they would twist around the dowel, we wound up just stapling through some of the flower petals into the post, and that worked better.



Step 7 (optional)
Glue ribbon around the dowel in matching color, you don't have to do this, but horizontal stripes are very Tim Burtony.



Step 8
Add basket filler on top of the drip tray, and a nice ribbon or bow to the front of your topiary. It's finished!

 

 

 

Happy Creating! -Fleur

Make Sure to check out our Facebook page for other fun and exciting ideas!