elmo!!!

i got asked to make elmo cupcakes (and suckers) by a friend for her daughters 2nd b-day. of course it fell during one of our busy weekends, but i am always up for the challenge :) since the party was on saturday and i had work, sara's soccer and beauty and the beast- they all had to be done on friday :) luckily i was able to start on the suckers ahead of time and was able to get most of those done before hand. and since tonya is such an awesome friend she came over on thursday while i was baking the cupcakes and again on friday to help me create all of the cupcakes....and boy am i glad she did! we made 30 "regular" elmo cupcakes and 30 "furry" elmo cupcakes.

i was able to show tonya how to do the regular ones and i started in on the furry ones. i had made 3 batches of red icing to get us started before hand too (and we used ever last bit!) and that barely made us to the last cupcake. i had had some ideas on what to use for the eyes and nose and stuff, but not having enough time to play with them before hand, we decided we didnt really like the way they looked.....so off tonya went to our little shoppette (which actually has a better selection of candy than our grocery store does!) to look for some ideas. and tonya being the awesome creative person she is, came back with some awesome ideas that i know i would have never have thought of!

we used marshmallows for the eyes and used chocolate covered sunflower seeds for his pupils. orange jelly beans for his nose (i had m&m's, but they just werent big enough...peanut m&m's would have worked better). and then half of a chocolate wafer for his big smile. they turned out great and i was pretty happy with them once we got all of the faces on. from what i hear, the party was great and everyone loved them, so as far as i am concerned we did a job well done :)

and i will say, with 60 cupcakes sitting on in my kitchen, i thought josh was going to die when he saw the "mess" and to give him some credit...it did look a little chaotic :) on the last cupcake i was able to talk tonya into doing a furry elmo, and i have to say, for her first one ever.....she did awesome!!! thanks again tonya for all of your help! i know i would not have been able to do it without you!