Make Elmo Cupcakes for a Birthday Party

What young grandchild wouldn’t love Elmo cupcakes for their birthday? Today’s post is all about the decorating. How you source the cupcakes and icing is up to you. If you make them from scratch, more power to you. If you use a mix, I’m not judging. Either way, these Elmo Cupcakes will delight your birthday child.

The Quick Version Instructions

If you’re handy around the kitchen, these cupcakes are quite simple. Make the eyes and nose from half marshmallows. Make the eyeballs from a drop of melted chocolate. Use rolled-out marzipan, cut into smiles and covered in melted chocolate, to make the mouths. Make the fur from sweetened flake coconut. Done!

For another birthday party treat, make your own Lego-shaped gummy candy.

The Long Version Instructions

If you could use a little more guidance in making these cupcakes, here’s the long version.

Elmo Cupcakes

• 18 marshmallows, each halved crosswise with kitchen shears to make 36 circles
• About ½ cup (3 ounces) bittersweet chocolate chips
• Marzipan almond candy dough (Odense brand is my only choice at the supermarket)
• Orange gel-based icing color
• About 1 ½ cups sweetened flake coconut
• Red gel-based icing color
• Vanilla frosting, from scratch or 1 can (16 ounces) vanilla frosting
• 12 cupcakes, made from scratch or packaged mix

To make eyes:

Arrange 24 marshmallows, cut-sides down, on a cookie sheet. Microwave chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl about 30 seconds; stir and continue to heat in 30-second increments, until chocolate has melted. (Chocolate chips hold their shape, even when melted, so it’s important to stir each time after microwaving to determine that they’re melted.)

Spoon the melted chocolate into one corner of a heavy-duty plastic sandwich bag. Snip a small hole in that corner (about ¼-inch). Using the sandwich bag as a pastry bag, squeeze a drop of chocolate on each of the 24 marshmallows to form the eyeballs. Set aside remaining chocolate in bag.

To make mouths:

Make a pattern for the mouth from parchment paper. Slice off about a 1-inch long piece of the marzipan and knead with fingers until pliable. Roll out to ¼-inch thickness and cut out mouths with a paring knife or scissors, using your pattern as a guide. You may need more marzipan to make 12 mouths.

Lay the mouths on a cookie sheet. Using the chocolate bag, pipe some chocolate onto the marzipan mouth; use a small offset spatula to cover the entire surface. If the chocolate is too firm, microwave to soften.

To make noses:

Dissolve a little icing color in a little water in a small custard cup and roll each of the remaining 12 marshmallows in this colored water. Or use a finger to “paint” the marshmallows; set aside on baking sheet to dry.

To make fur:

Put coconut in a bowl, dip a toothpick in orange and red icing colors, and smear the coloring onto some of the coconut, stirring coconut to spread the color. Add additional color as needed.

To make the frosting:

Add red and orange icing color to the frosting, a little at a time, until desired color is reached.

To assemble:

Frost a cupcake. Affix two marshmallow eyes at one end of the cupcake (the eyes should sit beyond the edge of the cupcake). Add the nose and mouth, and sprinkle the exposed frosted areas with coconut fur. Repeat for remaining cupcakes.

Makes 12 cupcakes.

Notes:

• A note about food coloring: My grandchildren don’t like coconut so they scrape coconut and frosting off–other than the nose, they’re not consuming much food coloring. If you prefer not to use conventional food coloring, you could try natural versions, but I haven’t tested for this application.
• For birthday cupcakes, I always use The Best One Bowl Chocolate Cake recipe from the cookbook, Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts, by the queen of chocolate, Alice Medrich.

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