out-of-this-world cupcakes

Cyclops

The Daughter always gets gyped.  Her birthday inevitably falls on the first or second day of school, right after Labor Day.  We have been perennially poor planners, and as a result the parties have been few and far between.  This summer, we got our act together and gathered a few kids to go rock climbing and to sleepover. For her birthday cake, she wanted some Alien Invasion Cupcakes.

I, riddled with Terrible Mom guilt, would definitely execute that request.  With a little help from Hello Cupcake!, we were able to pull off some cute ones. (As an aside, have you ever thumbed through that cookbook? I never imagined one could do so much with Sunkist fruit gems.)

Who knew that just a few ingredients:

cupcakes, frosting, food coloring, doughnut holes, marshmallows, tic tacs, and Twizzlers

could produce such delightful creatures!

After applying a thin layer of frosting to the cake, I stacked a doughnut hole atop a halved marshmallow, applying a little frosting in between the two.  After adding frosting to the cracks,which smoothed out the surfaces, they were put into the freezer for 15 minutes.  Then, I dunked them upside down in frosting that had been heated up for 10 seconds (and was therefore a bit more runny. A one-cup pyrex is perfect for that job.)