Birthday Dreams - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Cupcakes

As some of you that follow me know that I love a charity called Birthday Dreams, they bring birthday's to homeless kids.  I love to bake cakes (or cupcakes for them) and I'm trying to get the word out about them.  If you don't live in the Washington area a cash donation would go a long way.  

I signed up for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle party for a 6 year old at one of the rescue missions close to home.  I went on the search and goggled some ideas. I found several different cakes but I thought cupcakes would be the easier way to go. I then went on the search for a TMNT cookie cutter. I found one Ebay that was perfect, I ordered the 2 inch and the 3.5 inch.  I ended up using the 2 inch, the ONLY bad part was when I tried to cute out the mask part it was too small and didn't pop out right so I made them my own and molded them to the way I wanted and made eye holes.

My first act was to make the TMNT characters. Now usually I use my Rolled Buttercream Fondant for making characters.  But I saw a Blog Hop post for Candy Clay on Pint Sized Baker. I must admit that I had my doubt's while making this candy clay.  When I first mixed it up it was oily and not holding up and few hours later it was still not like I thought it would be.  Thankfully OVER-NIGHT and it was ready to go! Phew!!

Ingredients:

1 bag (12oz) Candy Melts (In Color you need - I use Wilton Brand)

1/4 Cup Light Corn Syrup

Dump bag of candy melts into microwave safe bowl.  Melt in microwave, my takes 1 min 30 seconds to melt. BECAREFUL not to burn, YES I've done it before and posted my disaster mess.  Once melts are melted stir in corn syrup.  I will start to form a ball (it will be greasy). Wrap in plastic wrap, press down to make it flat.  Let the candy clay sit for a few hours, mine took until overnight. In the morning it was hard and ready to go.  I found a little bit of powdered sugar on my work service made it not stick also made it easy to roll out.  I am now IN LOVE with technique and will be using from now on.

Karyn from Pint Sized Baker had a suggestion of Oil Candy Color if you need a more vibrant color.  I find Candy Melts come in almost every color you could need, but the white with a color could always be done.

Next on my list to make was the cupcakes, chocolate was requested.  I found this Super Easy Chocolate Cupcake Recipe on All Recipes.

INGREDIENTS:

3/4 cup shortening 1 2/3 cups white sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 teaspoon instant coffee granules 1 pinch cayenne pepper

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1/4 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 cups water

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease two 12 cup muffin pans or line with 18 paper baking cups.
2.	In a medium bowl, beat the shortening and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in vanilla, instant coffee and cayenne pepper. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt; stir into the batter, alternating with the water, just until blended. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups, dividing evenly.
3.	Bake in the preheated oven until the tops spring back when lightly pressed, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in the pan set over a wire rack. When cool, arrange the cupcakes on a serving platter and frost as desired.

Last thing to do was to make the cupcakes come together.  After the cupcakes had cooled, I frosted them with my go to Sturdy Buttercream frosting.  Then I topped with my TMNT Characters.

Need:

Cupcakes

Frosting

TMNT Cookie Cutter (2 inch fit the best of cupcakes)

Candy Clay - Green

Candy Clay - Orange

Candy Clay - Blue

Candy Clay - Purple

After Candy Clay has set up (mine took overnight), roll it out a little powdered sugar helps the sticking.  I found after you unwrap the clay you have to mold it into a ball then roll it out for best use.  Take the face cookie cutter to cut out the faces, I made 24 of them one for each headache.  NOW I tried to use the mask cutter but it was so small that the mask wouldn't pop out right. So I made my own mask by rolling out a small rectangle.  I form one end to look like a mask flapping int he wind.  I took a pick and made eye holes.  I took the mouth cutter to make the mouth's on each face.  The Candy Clay held up so great better than any fondant I've used.  They went on top of the cupcakes perfectly!  Did I say how much I love this technique.

All Boxed up and ready to go:

Thanks for stopping by

Don't forget to see the parties I link up to HERE.