Minions, assemble!

Last summer I was asked to make some cupcakes for my mother-in-law's birthday. I had found this cupcake idea through Pinterest, and I thought it would be a great idea to make them since there would be lots of kids at the party. What I didn't know was how time consuming these would end up being! Regardless of how much time they took, I think they turned out adorable and everyone loved them!

Here's how to make them:

Supplies:
12 cupcakes, any flavor (I did chocolate)
Frosting, any flavor (I did cream cheese)
1 package of Twinkies
Smarties candies

Chocolate sprinkles

Black icing

1. Bake your cupcakes according to the recipe. Once baked, set aside and let cool completely.

2. Take your Twinkies and cut them in half. Lay them down on a flat surface. Take your black frosting and pipe a dot on each smarties candy (this will make it stick to the Twinkie). Place on the Twinkie then pipe a "rim" around the smarties, then a "strap" around the head. Pipe two dots on the Smarties to make eyes. Pipe a smile or silly face for the mouth. 

3. This is the time consuming part: the "hair." I dumped my bottle of sprinkles out and searched for the longest ones; a lot of them are broken, so look for the ones that aren't. I took a toothpick and poked 3 holes on top of the minion's head, then placed the sprinkles inside the holes (you might be able to skip this step; I poked the holes beforehand because I thought the sprinkles might break if I tried to push them in by themselves).

4. Pipe the icing onto your cupcakes, then place the Minion on top. If they don't stand up great, you could use a toothpick as a "post" and have it in between the cupcake and minion (just be sure to tell your guests to watch out for these!). I didn't have any issues getting the minions to stand up.

*I made the mistake of frosting the cupcakes first, then making the minions. Don't do this; the frosting sat for so long, it created that "crust-like texture" on the outside (which I actually like, but wasn't ideal for getting the minions to stand up by themselves).

**For whatever reason, the Twinkies go stale FAST on the cupcakes. I guess I'm picky cause I wouldn't eat the stale twinkie; however, the kids didn't seem to notice and they still loved them. The cupcakes aren't affected whatsoever by the minions ;)

These were so much fun to make. Like I said before, I spent a good half of my day making these, but I love doing this kind of stuff so I didn't mind at all. These definitely would not work for a last-minute dessert idea--you need to plan accordingly for these.

I can say that these are the cutest cupcakes I've ever made--until next week, that is, when my friend Megan and I are having our '3rd Cupcake War' --its the tiebreaker, and I'm totally bringing my A-game. Stay tuned ;)