Cupcakeasaurus

I love a little girl who's just as willing to play dinosaurs as princesses. I am always kind of proud when my daughter puts her wee fists in the air and says "I'm a superhero!" while wearing plastic high heels and heart-shaped sunglasses (because that's a mask when you're 3).

I threw my share of feminist punches when I was young, but as I have gotten older I've come to realize how much I enjoy being able to be both a woman and sometimes kind of a badass. One does not diminish the other. So when it came time to say goodbye to a little friend who was moving away, I was faced with an interesting challenge - how to make an easy cake that would adequately reflect both her adventurous and girly sides? And the answer came to me through Pinterest (like many good answers do). A dinosaur cupcake cake. With pink toenails. And pearls. And eyelashes.:)

When I say easy, folks, I mean it. All right, not always, but this time, I swear. I made a box cake mix into 14 regular sized and 6 mini cupcakes, smooshed them together, and slapped some frosting on it. The instructions that follow are what I did, but really, you can just go with store-bought frosting and decorate it with Skittles and your kid, I swear, will love it every bit as much.

Materials

For cake:

• Box cake mix in favorite flavor. For children, you can never, ever go wrong with Funfetti.
• Eggs, oil and water for the mix
• 14 reular-sized cupcake liners
• 7 mini cupcake liners

For frosting:

• 4 cups powdered sugar* (the equivalent of 2 boxes or 1 plastic bag)
• 1 cup Crisco
• 1 cup butter, room temp**
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• Generous pinch of salt
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup whipping cream

For decorating:

• Green food coloring (I used Wilton Moss Green gel coloring)
• Pink food coloring (I used Wilton Rose Pink gel coloring, but a few drops of red food color would work)
• Sugar pearls (they totally have these at grocery stores now, but if you can't find them, just reserve about a 1/2 cup of plain frosting)
• Candy eyeballs or black frosting (I just buy the tubes at the grocery store on sale; I'm pretty sure they'll keep in the fridge until the end of time)
• Some sort of edible triangular-shaped candy. I found gummy sheets at the store; fruit roll-ups would work fine
• Ziploc or piping bags. If you use a Ziploc bag, make sure it's not pleated; freezer bags are strongest; cheap bags will burst when piping.
• Parchment paper or Viva paper towels (yes, brand matters here) 
• Fondant paddle*** 
• Offset spatula***

Method

• For the cupcakes: Mix and bake the cupcakes according to the directions on the box, using at least the number of cupcake liners specified (you may have extra).
• For the frosting: Cream butter and Crisco. Incorporate the sugar a little at a time (will be very stiff when you're done). Add 1/4 whipping cream slowly (or you'll be wearing it) and turn the speed up to medium-high for about a minute. Test the consistency; if it seems too stiff, add a little more cream and beat it again.
• Remove 1 cup frosting for accent colors, and dye the rest a satisfying shade of green.
• Dye a little over half the reserved frosting pink.
• Arrange your cupcakes like this:

(Totally ripped off from this site, which has a great tutorial)

• Fill a Ziploc or piping bag with green frosting. I find it easiest to put the bag in a big plastic cup, then fill it up. You'll need to snip about 1/2 inch off one of the corners of the ziploc bag; piping bags already have a hole.
• Cover the tops of the cupcakes and with frosting, putting extra in any cracks between cupcakes. Cover the whole collective surface with frosting.
• Spread frosting evenly over the entire shape using an offset spatula, back of a spoon, or butter knife. It will not be smooth yet, so don't panic.
• Walk away for 15 minutes to let the buttercream "crust." If it doesn't stick to your finger when you touch it lightly, it's ready.
• Lay a piece of parchment paper or a Viva paper towel on top of the frosting. Using a fondant paddle or your hand, carefully smooth the surface of the frosting by rubbing lightly over the paper towel or parchment, using a circular motion. Lift up the paper frequently to keep it from getting sticky.
• Once the frosting is smooth, you can add details with frosting and candy, like flowers, eyes, outlines, scales, etc.

This is what my dino looked like:

Conclusion

 All told, this cake took about an hour of hands-on time, which is light speed for cakes (for me, anyway). I encourage you to check out this tutorial, which is what I did, as well as the web site. If you like to bake cakes, and especially if you want to start doing "fancy" cakes, you should totally follow them on Pinterest. And if you aren't yet hooked on Pinterest, please do ask me how!

*Theoretically, sugar really shouldn't go "bad." Powdered sugar, though, does tend to take on funky smells as its very own, which translates into weird tasting frosting. So, don't stockpile the sugar, or if you do, put it in a couple of layers of foil or bags or something to keep it from tasting strangely like cumin.

**If you don't have the time or foresight to bring your butter to room temp, try 30 seconds in the microwave at 50% power. Unless your microwave is crazy awesome, in which case, 15 seconds might do it.

***These tools aren't necessary if all you have time to do is hit the market on the way home for a boxed cake mix and a tub of frosting, but if you're going to do this kind of thing often, they are inexpensive and totally worth the trip to Michael's. (Unless you're my husband, who hates the place. He might go in there if our daughter's life were at stake, but otherwise, I'd be on my own.)