Cupcake Cuteness

When I first saw these owl cupcakes on La Bella Cook, I knew they’d be the perfect dessert for Missy’s owl themed baby shower. And since I’d never really have any other excuse to make them I was going to run with it. I love to cook and bake, but decorating has never been my forte, so even for something this simple, I figured I’d better do a test run. I ended up with lots of broken cookies, but at the end of the day they weren’t too hard to make and turned out super cute. And our friends who were over for dinner appropriately oohed and ahhed, giving me the confidence I needed to know these would pass for the shower.

For the owls, you’ll need:
• Cupcakes (black bottom cupcake recipe below)
• Double stuffed Oreos (for the eyes and ears)
• Chocolate Frosting
• Banana Runts (for the nose)
• Junior Mints (for the eyes)
• Small tube of white frosting
See how to make them on La Bella Cook


So back to the baby shower. It turned out it was giraffe themed, so Hillary found these for me and without doing a test run I made them and crossed my fingers they’d survive the car ride to the baby shower. I lost a few ears on the trip over, but other than that they made it and they were actually easier to make than the owls (because it’s challenging for me to cut Oreos in half w/o breaking them). But Curtis did inform me he liked the owls much better, so we’ll pull the owls out again when it’s time for Rachel’s baby shower.

For the giraffes, you’ll need:
• Cupcakes
• White frosting (I used cream cheese frosting)
• Chocolate frosting
• Small tube of brown or black frosting
• Nutter Butters (for the head)
• Vanilla Wafer cookies (for the neck)
• Black licorice (for the mane)
• Candy Corn (for the ears)
• Reese’s Pieces
See how to make them at Kevin Menzie

And as long we’re on the cupcake theme, my friend Megan made beach themed cupcakes a couple of weeks ago for a baby shower she was hosting.

For beach cupcakes, you’ll need:
• Cupcakes
• Blue frosting (for the water)
• Nilla Wafers (for the sand)
• Small toothpick beach umbrellas (the kind you use for cocktails)
See how to make them at Megan My Day.

With all these cute cupcakes, I think I may invest in a cupcake tower!

Black bottom Cupcakes

Make regular chocolate cupcakes either from a box or using your favorite chocolate cake recipe. If you’re going to make them from scratch, I’d recommend Hillary’s Hershey’s chocolate cake recipe.

Fill the cupcake papers 2/3 full.

Cream Cheese Filling:
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/3 cup white sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
A handful of chocolate chips

Beat the cream cheese, egg, 1/3 cup sugar and 1/8 teaspoon salt until light and fluffy. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Put a spoonful of the cream cheese mixture on top of each chocolate cupcake.

Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.