Thursday, November 17, 2011

Caitlin’s Birthday Cupcakes

Even though we decided against a birthday party this year, I wanted to make a special treat for Caitlin’s 2nd birthday. I have fond memories of the elaborate cakes my mom made for us as kids, and I really want the same for my little ones. I started a board on Pinterest with ideas. In the end I kept coming back to the Elmo and Cookie Monster cupcakes. (Click on the link there to see my inspirations!) Caitlin loves both characters so I decided to do a little bit of both.

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This was my first attempt at any sort of cake decorating. I made my own frosting and all. I won’t lie - it was a lot of work. I almost panicked when I realized that the marshmallows I’d planned to use for eyes were too big. Thankfully I had extra buttercream that I was able to make look like eyes.

Just after midnight I realized that in four trips to the store over two days we’d forgotten to pick up the cookies for Cookie Monster’s mouth. I learned that the “in” thing to do at our local 24-hour superstore is to ride the electric carts around the store. I could have done without knowing that, but I needed the cookies!

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For her birthday we met the Irishman at work for a birthday picnic. We ordered her favorite pizza – ham and black olives. (I’d been up WAY too late making cupcakes…packing a picnic lunch and getting two kids out the door on time was going to be pushing it!)

After she finished her “-eet-za” the Irishman brought out the cupcake so we could sing to her.

Her reaction was priceless.

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Thankfully she warmed up to the whole “birthday cupcake” idea and decided to taste the goodies. Up first? Elmo’s nose.

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After switching back to “eet-za”, the birthday girl decided we should give the whole candle thing another try.

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Again.

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And again.

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And again!

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She is such a little ham!

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The whole process was repeated again at home for the next three nights. I’m pretty sure Caitlin would tell you that is the best part of birthday cupcakes!

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Was it worth it? Yep. I’m already planning to make a cake at Christmas so we can sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. Do you think He would mind an Elmo cake?  ; )

2 comments:

Agate Lake Girl said...

The cupcakes are adorable! And so is Caitlin's poster pic with all her "likes". Too precious!

Michelle said...

Caitlin's expression in the first cupcake picture is priceless! :) i think you did an AMAZING job on the cupcakes! They look great and quite yummy!