Muppet Rainbow Connection Cupcakes!

When I saw a pin of adorable Rainbow Cupcakes on Pinterest I immediately knew I could recreate them and they just SCREAMED Muppet to me! lol! And its all in the decorating! I have made these twice and they are always a big hit! My stepdaughter had us add some TARDIS sprinkles to her birthday cupcakes as those Doctor Who was flying around her rainbows!

What you need:

• Vanilla Frosting
• Airhead Extremes Rainbow Sour tape
• Baked (and cooled) cupcakes

How you make the magic:

1. Split the frosting in half and color half of it blue (leaving the rest white)
2. Lightly frost all cupcakes blue
3. Pipe an "8" in white frosting on both the left and right sides of your cupake.  Fill in the circles so that your 8's now look like to mini, fluffy white clouds.
4. Cut each piece of the sour tape into thirds, take one of the pieces you have just cut and stick on end into the middle of one cloud... then bend into the cloud on the opposite side of your cupcake
5. Voila!! (I recommend putting completed cupcakes into the fridge to harden up after you've finished icing.)

"Someday we'll find it- the Rainbow Connection- 

the lovers, the dreamers, and me

All of us under its spell, it must be some kind of magic..."

-Kermit the Frog

Starring Rolls Butterfinger Cupcake Recipe!

The Butterfinger Cupcakes at Starring Rolls Cafe in Disney Hollywood Studios is a fan favorite.  Last year when I was on a baking kick I decided to take my chances and give a recipe I found online a try.  You can find the original recipe posted over on A Disney Mom’s Thoughts.  And I’ve added any updates/changes I made as I wrote out the recipe.

Starring Rolls  Cafe Butterfinger Cupcakes

Cupcake Ingredients

• 1 box Devil’s Food Cake mix, plus ingredients to make cake
• 1 batch butter cream frosting
• 1 can fudge frosting 
• 4 cups chocolate chips 
• 6 Tbsp canola oil 3 
• King Size Butterfingers (or a bag of miniatures)

Quick Buttercream Frosting Ingredients:

• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 to 2 tablespoons whipping cream

Directions:
1.  Prepare cupcakes as stated on the box. Let cupcakes cool completely.  This is a good time to make your frosting, since you will have approximately an hour of baking and cooling.  (You can also purchase frosting or use a favorite recipe, this is what I used for my cupcakes, however.)

2.  Using a sharp knife, cut a cone shape out on top of the cupcake. Make sure the cut goes about halfway into the cupcake. Remove the cake and fill the hole with fudge frosting. Add the cake you removed to the top of the cupcake, making sure that the pointy cone end is sticking up.

3. Ice your cupcakes. Let the frosting set for about 30 minutes. I used a piping bag for half of my cupcakes and a knife for the other half, as it seemed to get easier as time passed, but you can work with whatever you have on hand. 

4.  While the frosting is setting, use a food processor to crush up Butterfingers. (It may be easiest to use frozen Butterfingers.)  If you do not have a food processor, use a meat tenderizer on the flat side while Butterfingers are still in their packaging. This worked great for me as a way to improvise.

5.  Combine the chocolate chips and oil in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Heat on HIGH for 1 minute. Stir and continue to heat at 30 second intervals until completely melted. Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before using.

6. Dip the frosted cupcakes into the chocolate.  I used a spoon to hold the frosting into place to make sure it didn’t fall off the cupcake (I highly recommend this and you will see what I mean when you're working if it doesn't make sense right now). Immediately coat the cupcake with the crumbled Butterfinger bits.. Repeat until all cupcakes are dipped and covered.

7.  Refrigerate approximately 1 hour to allow the chocolate to set. Then enjoy! Nom!

New MXYZ from Disney Store!

Disney Store sent us some adorable new items from the MXYZ collection! The adorable Stitch, Minnie & Mickey, and Alice merch is fun and functional!

We especially love the water bottles which recently kept our coffee warm on an overnight road trip and our water icy at the pool in Georgia for over 6 hours each time! 

Finding Nemo Squirt Cupcake Recipe!

A few years ago, a friend sent me a link to the DisneyFamily.com Squirt cupcakes.   ou can follow the link to check out the AWESOME recipe posted on the Disney Family website, but I made some changes so I am going to post my modified directions here since I think my turtles may be just a liiiiitle cuter than the originals! You can also check out the crab cupcakes and other undersea themed goodies in the Mermaid Baby Shower post from a few months ago!

Ingredients:
Cupcakes
 Frosting
Blue Crystal Sprinkles
Large Gum Drops
Mini Chocolate Morsels
Spearmint Leaves Gummies
Skewers or toothpicks (I actually used chopsticks)

Keep in mind, you may want to purchase two bags of the large gum drops.  One bag only gave me enough red/orange drops to make shells for 10 turtle cupcakes.  Either that, or get creative with shell colors!

Directions:
1. Make your cupcakes and let them cool completely

2.  While you are waiting for your cupcakes to bake and cool I suggest a trial run of the little turtles! It may be easier to do this by looking at pictures than reading my descriptions but I like the way mine came out better than following the directions from the site and using their candy suggestions. 

Shell: Trim about 1/4 inch off the bottom of a red or orange gum drop and place in center of cupcake 

Head: Trim about 1/4 inch off the bottom of a green gum drop.  Squish the newly chopped sticky sides together so you can make your head a round ball.  It takes a little working and rolling around but once you do it once, you can do it easily. Then take your skewer (or toothpick or chopstick) and poke holes where you want to eyes to go on your head.  Put a little dot of frosting on the end of a mini morsel and insert into the eye hole you created.  For a more googly-eyed look, try attaching Wilton candy eyes! Set entire head near the shell on your cupcake. 

Legs: For each turtle’s 4 legs you will need only one spearmint leaf.  Slice your leaf into two, horizontally so that you now have 2 leaves.  Cut a half oval out of each leaf.  The ovals will be your back legs, place them in the anatomically correct place on your cupcake sugary side up.  Then the remaining pieces of your spearmint leaf will be his front legs.  Simply place them sugary side up so his flippers can meet the middle of the shell and still sit entirely on the cupcake.

3.  Frost your cupcakes.  You can use plain vanilla frosting, or even make it blue.  I decided to go with the sugary theme of the gum drops and use blue crystal sprinkles to make my sea of frosting.

4.  Add your little turtles to the top of the frosting.

5.  Serve and enjoy! If you have leftovers, store in a sealed container but let sit for 5 minutes before serving a second time (sometimes the gumdrops get a little hard from the fridge)!

:]