the cupcakes

If you know anything about me, you know these cupcakes were not some fly-by-night, last- minute, thrown-together venture. Ohhh no. These cupcakes were the product of intensive research and development. Yes, all for a bunch of toddlers who wouldn't really care but these little details are important to me - what can I say.

I looked online for different Mickey cupcake ideas. There were dozens of ideas - some of which were difficult to duplicate given that I don't yet have experience with fondant. Anyway, I just knew there was something I could do with Oreos to resemble the iconic Mickey head and ears so I kept searching.

When I came to this cupcake recipe, I knew I was going in the right direction:

Oreo Cupcakes

Instead of using the actual from scratch cake recipe earlier, I ended up just using a chocolate cake mix that I doctored a bit. I tried to make the batter from scratch, I really did. But

when you can use a mix, add a bit, and it comes out even more moist then some more labor-intensive scratch versions....well, you know which I'll choose.

I was worried that a simple whipped cream icing (used in the original recipe) wouldn't quite hold up outside and I wanted to frost them well before the party that morning. After a bit more searching on good 'ol allRecipes.com, I found this delectable, extremely light, but more sturdy whipped frosting:

Sturdy Whipped Cream Frosting

It was amazing! The addition of the cream cheese was heavenly and worked so well for my situation. I just added crushed Oreos to the frosting and piped it onto the cupcakes with a star tip.

Using the idea of a half Oreo stuck on top, I purchased Mini Oreos to attach to the big Oreo. I found that I needed to take the Mini Oreos apart, scrape out the cream, and use royal icing to attach the Mini Oreo just between the edges of the larger Oreo to resemble ears. Royal icing is important because it dries candy-hard and worked best to 'glue' the cookies together. I also tinted the icing a darker color to make it not so noticeable.

With the addition of a few Mickey sprinkles I purchased and few exclamations of "these cupcakes are so cute I just can't stand it", Grant's special 4th birthday treat was complete.

I hope this little boy always loves Mickey Mouse - I'd love to obsess come up with some other Mickey ideas in the future.