La Belle Aventure: Bake Days #1 - Cookie Monster Cupcakes

****Picture Heavy Post****

Welcome to the first edition of Bake days, I have now begun to dedicate my sunday afternoons to being a domestic goddess in the kitchen (cooking, baking & cleaning) before starting a hectic week of university lectures/seminars.

So a couple of weeks ago, if you saw my instagram you would have sneak-peeked my first baking creation. I decided I wanted to bake some cupcakes but not your standard cupcake but a themed cupcake which I chose to be reminiscent of one of my favourite childhood tv show's 'Sesame street' , in particular the notorious "Cookie Monster" so I recreated the design of the cookie monster cupcakes.

Ingredients

Serves: 12

Vanilla Cupcake Mixture

2 large eggs
175g Margarine
175g Self Raising flour
175g caster sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla Paste or Vanilla Extract
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice (Optional)
1/2 juice of a Lemon (Optional)
Large cake paper cases

Buttercream Mixture

50g Margarine
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract or Vanilla Paste
Blue Gel food colour (Adjust depending on your preference)
Sifted Icing Sugar (Apologies, I didn't measure this as I added as and when it was required, I would use 50-60g if I did measure)

Coconut topping Mixture

Desiccated coconut ( Again sorry I didnt measure I probably used 250g of the packet

Blue Gel Food Colour (Be generous with the colouring as you need to ensure the coconut is fully coated so probably 1 1/2 tablespoons)

Cookie Monster Face

6 chocolate chip cookies for the mouth ( These will be halved)

Giant or normal sized white chocolate buttons for eyes

Designer writing icing or Milk/Dark Chocolate chips for pupils of eye

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 200 C / Gas Mark 6. Prepare your cake tin with 12 paper cases.

2. In a mixing bowl , mix the butter and caster sugar together until light & creamy in consistency.

3. Then one by one, beat an egg into the butter & sugar mixture (not too vigariously as you want the cakes to be light and airy) .

Optional: if you like you can put a dash of lemon juice in the mixture so the eggs are not so rysh once cooked.

If the mixture looks slightly curdled , don't worry as the flour will help to bind it together. But make sure you don't overmix.
4. Add the vanilla paste or vanilla extract to the egg, butter & sugar mixture.

5. Sift the flour little by little into the sugar, butter and egg mixture, but make sure you fold it with either a tablespoon or spatula instead of a mixing it with an ordinary wooden spoon , in order to ensure it keeps it light/airy consistency.( You can identify this by seeing if bubbles arise when you fold the mixture)

6. Once it is all mixed together and smooth in consistency without any lumps of flour, then fill approximately 1 tablespoon & 1/4 of cake mixture into the paper cases. Then bake in the oven for approximately 15 to 25 minutes until they are a light golden brown or once you press them and they spring back when you touch them in the middle.(Note: Keep an eye on them as they tend to cook quite quickly).

7. Once the cakes are cooked, take them out of the oven and transfer them to a cooling rack, so they are completely cook to enable you to put on your cookie monster faces.

8. Prepare your buttercream mixture by mixing together in a small bowl the margarine , vanilla paste/extract, blue food colouring and the sifted icing sugar until thick/smooth without lumps. If it is too runny, add more icing sugar and put to one side.

9. Then in another bowl mix together the dessicated coconut with the blue food colour and ensure the mixture is all blue without any pieces in white and put to one side.

10. Then prepare the cookie monster face by getting your cookies and cutting them in half with a knife ( A normal one is fine, doesn't have to be a sharp one) then set aside. Create the eyes of the cookie monster by getting your white chocolate buttons and adding pupils to them by putting a small 1cm drop of icing or chocolate chip (Stick it with buttercream/icing or edible glue) in middle.

11. Get your cooled cupcakes and create the faces by firstly spreading a layer of buttercream all over the top of the cakes, then add sprinkle generously the dyed coconut to create texture. Make a slit for the mouth and stick a half of cookie in the split for the mouth. Then add the two eyes which you previously set aside.