Can you tell me how to get, How to get to Sesame Street...

This past weekend I traveled north to my sister, Amanda's home in Connecticut for a special weekend.  I had the extreme privilege of becoming my niece, Addison's, Godmother.   Not only did we celebrate her baptism but her 1st birthday.  I don't travel home a lot so I was very excited to see everyone.  It was a weekend filled with celebration, laughter, games, and CUPCAKES!  I thought what better way to celebrate than with Sesame Street character cupcakes.  I loved Sesame Street as a little girl.  I watched the show, had the stuffed animals, read the books, you could say I was a little obsessed but what child under the age of 5 isn't?!  My favorite character was and still is Elmo.  He is also a favorite of my nephew Ethan, who owns several Elmo paraphernalia.  I was nervous about taking on this challenge but they turned out better than expected.  Below is my take on a few of the Sesame Street Characters.

To start, there were several people coming over so I made 4 dozen cupcakes.  I chose to make two flavors, Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting from one of my favorite blogs, Joy the Baker, and Dorie Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake.  The baking was the easy part, it was the decorating that made me nervous.  These were for my niece's 1st birthday, I couldn't mess them up!

Oscar the Grouch, Elmo, and Cookie Monster

MY FAVORITE RED VELVET CUPCAKES
Recipe from Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook
makes one dozen cupcakes (I doubled the recipe to make two dozen.)


Ingredients:

• 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 1/2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3 Tablespoons red food coloring
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

Directions:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about three minutes.  Turn mixer to high and add the egg.  Scrape down the bowl and beat until well incorporated.
2. In a separate bowl mix together cocoa, vanilla and red food coloring to make a thick paste.  Add to the batter, mixing thoroughly until completely combined.  You may need to stop the mixer to scrape the bottom of the bowl, making sure that all the batter gets color.
3. Turn mixer to low and slowly add half of the buttermilk.  Add half of the flour and mix until combined.  Scrape the bowl and repeat the process with the remaining milk and flour.  Beat on high until smooth.
4. Turn mixer to low and add baking soda and white vinegar.  Turn to high and beat a few more minutes.
5. Scoop batter into paper lined cupcake baking pans and bake at 325 F for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center cupcake comes out clean.
6. Let rest in the pan for 10 minutes, then place them of a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
double recipe to frost 2 dozen cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 2 1/3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• 3 Tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 4 ounces cream cheese, cold (I used room temperature)
• scant 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. Beat the powdered sugar, cinnamon, and butter together in the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment.  Mix on medium-slow speed until it comes together and is well mixed.
2. Add the cream cheese all at once and beat on medium to medium-high until incorporated.
3. Turn the mixer to medium-high and beat for 5 minutes, or until the frosting becomes light and fluffy.  Do not over-beat as the frosting can quickly become runny.

PERFECT PARTY CAKE
From Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking: From My Home to Yours”
makes two dozen cupcakes (I altered the recipe slightly and used a different buttercream recipe, which is listed below.)

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

• 2 ½ cups cake flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 ¼ cups whole milk or buttermilk
• 4 large egg whites
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
• 1 stick (8 tablespoons or 4 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ½ teaspoon pure lemon extract

For the Buttercream:

• 2 sticks unsalted butter – room temperature
• 1 cup shortening
• 1 tablespoon Vanilla extract
• 2 pounds confectioner’s sugar (powdered sugar, 10x)
• 4-6 tablespoons very cold milk

For Filling:

• 2/3 cup seedless raspberry preserves warmed gently over low heat on the stove
• About 1 ½ cups sweetened shredded coconut
• Decorating Bag

Directions:

To Make the Cake:

1. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
2. Whisk together the buttermilk and egg whites in a medium bowl.
3. Put the sugar and lemon zest in the mixing bowl and rub them together with your fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant.
4. Add the butter and working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.
5. Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.
6. Beat in half of the buttermilk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated.
7. Add the rest of the buttermilk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.
8. Finally, give the batter a good 2 minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.
9. Scoop batter into paper lined cupcake baking pans and bake at 325 F for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center cupcake comes out clean.
10. Let rest in the pan for 10 minutes, then place them of a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.

To Make the Buttercream:

1. Cream the butter and shortening in the bowl of an electric or stand mixer. 
2. Add the vanilla extract and combine well. Begin adding in the sugar and mixing thoroughly after each addition. 
3. After all of the sugar has been added and mixed thoroughly, begin adding the very cold milk, one tablespoon at a time, combining very well after each addition (mixer on medium-high to high speed) until you reach the desired consistency.

Filling Cupcakes:

1. Prepare a decorating bag with your jam filling and very small round decorating tip (ex: #230)
2. Insert tip in top center of the uniced cupcake and squeeze out a small amount of filling.

Decorating the Cupcakes:

Tools: 

• Decorating Tip #233
• Decorating Bags
• Wilton's Icing Colors in Red, Green, and Blue
• Ready-to-use Gel Icing in black for the eyeballs and Elmo's eyebrows
• White Candy Melts for the eyes
• Oreo Cookies cut in half with a serrated knife for Elmo and Oscar's mouthes
• Chips Ahoy Cookies cut in half with a serrated knife for Cookie Monster's mouth
• Orange Candy Slices cut in half for Elmo's nose

Directions:

1. I divided the buttercream into 3 bowls and the cream cheese icing into 3 bowls.  Then colored each of the 2 sets of icings green, red, and blue.
2. Fill the decorating bag fitted with the #233 tip and create hair on one cupcake at a time.  I only had one tip so I had to do 6 different bags, washing the tip before filling another bag.   Click here for a helpful tutorial on making hair.
3. Working quickly so the icing doesn't have time to harden, decorate the cupcake accordingly before moving onto the next one.

Addison enjoying her Cookie Monster cupcake

Ethan & Addison

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall it was a lot of work but I had a great time making them and eating them.  They were delicious!  I'm looking forward to trying something like this again.  Maybe Disney characters?!  We will see!


Notes: I made 16 of each character with 8 of them being red velvet cupcakes and 8 being perfect party cupcakes.  I also had leftover frosting so next time I may not quite double the recipe  but do 1 1/2 times the original recipe for the cream cheese frosting and cut the buttercream recipe by 1/3.  Be sure to not use plastic white bowls when coloring the icing.  I accidentally stained the inside of one of my sister's bowls and a spatula.  After scrubbing vigioursly it lightened to a shade of pink.  My hands were also a light shade of red for a couple of days. :)

Ideas taken from Time for Supper!, Lovely Sprinkles, and Kitchen Dough Dough.