KJ Reed posted a picture of the cutest cupcakes ever on Twitter a couple of days ago. They were so darling, I shanghaied her into giving me step by step instructions so that my daughter and I could tackle a batch next weekend. I know, I know.
Me and my cupcakes. What can I say? They’re an addiction.
Wait until you see these. Resist? I think not.
I’ll go ahead and turn the show over to KJ. Let’s get decorating!
KJ: I first started with simple vanilla cupcakes that I baked earlier in the day and let cool. I’m lazy, so I just used the boxed stuff. 🙂 I mean, if I was going to put this much effort into the decoration, why would I need to bother baking the cupcakes from scratch?!
I first iced the cupcakes with a layer of white icing from a can. Then I took a large marshmallow and cut it in half, diagonally, so that each half formed a triangle. I used icing to secure the half marshmallow to the cake for the tail. And then I used a donut hole for the head. Once I was sure both head and tail were secure with icing, I stuck them in the freezer to harden. (About 15-20 minutes worked.) If you want some duck butts, just put the marshmallow in the middle of the cupcake and don’t add a head.
While that happened, I took one can of icing and dumped it into a glass measuring cup, then mixed in the yellow icing to the right color I wanted. I nuked it for about 40 seconds (stirring every 10-15 seconds) until it was the consistency of whipping cream. It should be slightly warm. Not hot. Definitely not boiling!
When the cupcakes were frozen, I took them out and held them by the paper bottom. Then I dipped them into the melted icing until it was covered and there were no spots that I could see through.
Set them aside until they harden. While they harden, take some orange starburst and roll them out thin. Mold some into beaks, others into feet. Then attach them with icing once the ducks are hardened and cooled. Using a little dollop of white icing to add brown mini-M&Ms for eyes, and you’re done!
Duck Cupcakes – Recipe/instructions from the book What’s New, Cupcake?
——————————————————–
——————————————————–
Thanks for the instructions, KJ! I’ll take over from here.
Two words: Duck Butt ->
This was my favorite. It tipped the cute scale into abso-freaking-lutely adorable territory.
To make this an even better tutorial, KJ videotaped herself preparing a batch of these little guys. I’ll embed the video below so you can get the gist if you’re a watch-and-go kind of baker. (I admit, I’m guilty of drive by decorating inspiration.)
Hailey writes about questionable applications of otherwise perfectly good magic, the transformative power of love, the family you choose for yourself, and blowing stuff up. Not necessarily all at once. That could get messy.
