Dora The Explorer Star Cupcakes (Sugar Cookie Royal Icing Toppers) for Charity

The week of Christmas I was signed up for a cake delivery for a special 9 year old homeless girl in a shelter close to home. Many of you know I bake for a charity that brings birthday's to homeless kids in shelters around Washington. I know when we get close to the holiday's the volunteers go down so I always make sure I pick up any during this season. If you ever have extra party supplies or toys please think of Birthday Dreams, we can all make a child's special day be just that special!

 

I found on Dora Explorer Stars on Sweet Sugar Belle that I felt would be perfect. I have NOT mastered the ability to do faces, so I skipped doing Dora herself and went for her stars. I must say I was pretty happy with how it turned out. NOTE to self for next time DON'T put so much frosting on that when you put on a big topper you can't close the lid on the cupcake holder .. lol. I have done Dora the Explorer Before using modeling chocolate.

 

I'm a bit obsessed with royal icing cookies right now. I've been using the cookies as the toppers for my cupcakes I make. It's like the best of all words a cupcake with tons of frosting and a cookie to eat also!! My youngest is obsessed with this technique, yup he's so my child all about the sugar (I have no clue where he would get this from ... as she whistles and looks away .... lol).

 

What you Need:

Star Cookie Cutter (I have a 4 set I used the 3rd Largest one)

Frosted Cupcakes

Royal Icing - Yellow, Green, Pink and Purple (see recipe below)

Candy Eyeballs (I use Hobby Lobby's)
Piping Bag of darker Royal Icing (for Mouth and Eyebrows) - Yellow, Green, Pink and Purple

I used the dipping method with my royal icing. I started to do the dipping method about 6 months ago to speed up my decorating time. You can pipe each cookie which is a little cleaner but I find the dipping method to be the best. You get your royal icing to the outline consistency and put into a pie dish (I find this is not too deep). Once you dip the top of the cookie you tap off the extra icing! BEFORE the icing starts to dry, add on your candy eyeballs. This way when the icing drys it will hold the eyes on. Nothing like an eyeball falling off if you lift the cookie up. You can add on with icing once dry, but I found this way there is no chance of fall off. Once dry you can add your details.

For the mouths and eyebrows, I took the royal icing I used for dipping and added some more color to make it darker. I added the mouths a crescent moon shape and the little lines above the eyes for the eyebrows.

 

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INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened 2 cups white sugar 4 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
2.	Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
3.	Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Julie Usher, she has a GREAT YouTube video on how to make, color and make consistency adjustments. 

Royal Icing what you need:

2 lbs Powdered Sugar

1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar

5 Large Egg Whites (or equivalent) 

Flavor to Taste

Gel Icing Color

Mix powder sugar and cream of tartar in your mixer, just to make sure it is incorporated in. Slowly add egg whites, then whip start of slow then go to very high speed. She says around 2 minutes, my friend had an older mixer so it took almost 10 minutes. You want stiff peaks that hold on and won't fall off the spoon. Add in your flavor, I would suggest you use a clear flavoring.  This would be the glue texture great for ginger bread houses etc.

Take 1 cup of royal icing in a smaller bowl then add your coloring, lightly mix so you don't get air into the the icing. I'm like her and like the gel coloring. 

For Top Coating - Add 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 tsp Water (This is if you don't want to outline and flood)

For Outlining - Add 1/2 to 3/4 tsp Water

For Flooding  - Add 2 to 3 tsp Water

WATCH her video on How to Top-Coat, Outline, and Flood Cookies. YES it is around 7 minutes BUT if you have never done this technique it's a MUST she explains it perfectly.