This weekend, our family helped my adorable nephew celebrate his 4th birthday with a Fireman Party. Nathan loves firemen even more than he loves "football mans"--and that's saying a lot.
My sister asked me to help her make some fireman cupcakes for the party that were not only cute, but quick and easy to make. After scouring at least 4 stores for fireman cupcake toppers, we knew we had to come up with something on our own. I'll tell you exactly how we made them--in 7 quick steps.
I think they turned out pretty cute. What do you think?
Aren't they cute on the table? I also love how my sister brought some of Nathan's firemen toys to help decorate.
Here's how we quickly put together the sizzlingly cute fireman cupcakes. (If you were here, I'd even lick my finger and make the "sizzle" sound while saying that. Feel free to make the sound yourself. C'mon--you know you want to.)
1. First, you must bake the cupcakes. And don't tell anybody--but I make my cupcakes from a box mix. Duncan Hines, to be exact. Because Pauline, my cake decorating teacher, told me Duncan Hines was the best. And I follow Pauline's advice implicitly. Well...her baking advice, anyway.
2. Next, make the icing. Or, the frosting. Which word do you use to describe that heavenly mixture of butter, sugar, and...that other stuff that we pretend is not really in there? Here's the buttercream icing recipe I always use. (Once you click the link, the recipe is halfway down.)
3. Divide the icing into 3 bowls, and make yellow, orange, and red icing. Warning: Red icing takes a LOT of red food coloring. (I use Wilton's gel food coloring.) Fun fact: Wilton's red gel food coloring looks like coagulated blood. So, please do not use it if vampires are nearby. I cannot be held responsible for what may happen.
4. Next, ice the cupcakes, mixing the colors a bit. Or, if you are OCD, you may just have to ice them 1 color. Go with whatever suits your personality disorder best.
5. Next comes the messy part: Fill the icing bag with all 3 colors--yellow, red, orange. Pretend the bag is a triangle, and fill each "corner" with a color. You'll want to push each color as far toward the bottom of the bag as possible, so that when you squeeze out the icing, you'll see a pretty swirl of all 3 colors. Play around with this a little. Don't worry about this part being perfect--you want the cupcakes to have varied colors.
6. And now the fun part! Using the star tip, squeeze little "flames" all over the top of each cupcake. If you're at all like me, it might take you a dozen or so cupcakes to get the hang of this. But, guess what? 4-year-olds don't care if their fireman cupcake looks a little dorky. Only their snotty over-achiever mamas will care--and really, they're just mad because they really want to EAT ONE, and ditch their uptight diets for good. Ruh-row, somebody's getting a little personal here. Back to the cupcake making, lady.
7. Now, what do you do when you scour 4 stores for cute little cupcake toppers, and you've waited too late to order anything online? You make your OWN toppers! Go to the craft store, and find some fireman stickers and toothpicks. I found these stickers at Walmart, for $1 per package. Score! We cut out each sticker--which was super easy because they were on a clear sheet, which cut easily and didn't have to be exact. Next, we peeled up the bottom of the sticker (which was still affixed to its clear backing), and stuck in a toothpick about 1/4". Ta-Da! A cupcake topper is created!We hadn't bought enough stickers to make toppers for every cupcake, so we just spread them around.
That's it! Sizzlingly cute cupcakes are done and ready to go!
The most difficult part of the whole project is mixing the icing colors, and...resisting squirting too much icing into your mouth once you're all done. But, don't do it. Your mouth will turn a terrible orange-y red color...not that I would know from experience or anything...I'm just guessing that's what color your mouth would turn.
What do you think? Aren't they little cutie pies?
What's your favorite cupcake you've ever made?
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