Inspired by two upcoming events — Halloween and my nephew’s first birthday — I decided to try my hand at making some of the animal cupcakes in the adorable book, Hello, Cupcake! I decided to choose a recipe and decorating scheme that seemed only moderately labor intensive, but still fun.

Decorating cupcakes, for me, is something outside of my normal skill set.  I can bake just about any yeast bread known to man, but put some frosting in my hands and I kind of freak out.  So this exercise, is definitely a challenge for me.

I adapted the recipe here slightly.  I found a couple of steps from the book to not be beneficial for me.  I also changed up the candies in the ingredient list, simply because I couldn’t find their recommendation.  I think such experimentation is in the spirit of the book.

Isn't this a cute halloween cupcake?

One of the nice things about the recipes in Hello, Cupcake! is that they use box cake mixes, but change it up a bit to make a sturdier cupcake.  I personally love this idea, because it’s less work, but the buttermilk enhances the flavor of the cake mix nicely.  They taste less like they came from a box.

As always with my recipes, I am writing out my adaptation from the recipe I used.  It varies slightly from what you’d find in the book itself.

Cupcake Recipe Ingredients:

1 box devil’s food chocolate cake mix
4 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
The amount of oil called for by the cake box (mine called for 1/2 cup)

In medium mixing bowl, combine cake mix, buttermilk, and oil. Then add eggs, one at a time, until thoroughly combined. Preheat oven to 350. Fill cupcake liners.

As a side note, I like to fill a pastry bag with the cake mix and pipe it into the cupcake liners. I find that I can control the portions better, and that they bake up with an even, consistent top of the cupcake. It’s nice and flat with a slight dome.

For the Cupcake Decorations:

1 bag of Oreos
1 small box of Junior Mints
1 box of Starbursts
1 recipe of chocolate frosting (link goes to my preferred recipe)

While the cupcakes bake, separate the Oreos so that you have two sides with cream for each cupcake baked, and one cream-free side for each cupcake. I found that removing the specks as described in the book wasn’t effective for me, so I just used a knife and spread the cream filling of the Oreo around to make it look a little more homemade.   Also, if you can’t twist off all the frosting, you can just use a butter knife to scrape it off the cookie and then blend it onto the half with the cream.  I actually prefer my results to the polished and perfect results in the book.

Twist the Oreos apart to create the "eyes" of the cupcakes, then spread the cream filling around

Also, the book recommends microwaving a few cookies to make it easier to leave the cream only on one side. I tried this, and didn’t find it any easier for me. Then again, I like to eat my Oreo cookies all separate, so I’ve had years of practice.

It took me about 15-20 minutes to do all of the Oreo eyes, which is about how long it took for me to bake the cupcakes.  I always use my convection setting, so my time is a little reduced.

While the cupcakes cook, you can assemble the eyes, and prep the beaks.  To assemble the eyes, just take a little bit of frosting (in my case, I used a little vanilla from a can that I had leftover from another project), and put it on the bottom of a Junior Mint.  Then, press the mint onto the cream-filled side of each Oreo cookie.  Set aside.

Making the eyes for our owl halloween cupcakes

Before I frost the cupcakes, I like to make sure that all of them are cool.  So this would be a good time to go ahead and make your chocolate frosting.  It is perfectly acceptable to use frosting from a can.  I prefer the taste of homemade frosting, and for me, the little bit of extra work is worth it.  But in a pinch, or if you prefer canned frosting, any chocolate flavor will do.

Go ahead and frost the cupcakes with the chocolate frosting, then begin prepping the owl ears with the cream-free parts of the Oreo cookies.

To do this, you’ll need a serrated knife and a cutting board.  Simply place the cookie half on the cutting board, and saw the cookie in half.  Don’t try just pressing down to slice the cookie.  It’s too firm and will just crack into pieces.  Repeat this until you have two halves for each cupcake.

Making the "ears" of our owl cupcakes

This is also a good time to unwrap the yellow and/or orange Starburst candies and cut out little triangular wedges to make the beaks.  The book recommends using the bananas from Runts, which I would have done had I been able to find them in my local store.  Since they were not available, I found an alternative.  I also think that candy corns would make cute little beaks, too.

Now begins the fun.  Using just another small bit of frosting, press the ears into the cupcake.  The round edges of the cookies should be on the inside, toward the center, of the cupcake.

Press the owl ears into the top center of the cupcake

Then, place a little frosting on the back of the owl eyes that you created earlier.  Press them into the cupcake, overlapping the ears slightly.  For fun, you can choose to place them in different ways, to give each owl a little bit of individual personality.  Then push in a piece of beak.

Press the eyes and the nose into the cupcake

The final step is to frost the owl ears with chocolate frosting.  While Hello, Cupcake! has instructions for making it more like feathers and fur, I didn’t really want to mess with that this time.  So I chose to use a small star tip and just cover them that way.  It still gets the job done and the result is fairly cute, indeed.

Your owl Halloween cupcakes are ready!