Sesame Street Cupcakes

Oh, Sesame Street, I love you. I’ve loved you since I was 2 years old and had a fascination with Big Bird (or Bigga Bird, as I called him). These cupcakes went along with the Elmo cake that I posted yesterday. They look daunting, but aren’t too bad to make! The design for these cupcakes was heavily inspired by Annie’s Eats — with a few modifications from me to make things a little more simple.

• I baked a batch of 24 funfetti cupcakes. I split them up into groups of 6 — six got red liners, six got green, six got blue, and six got yellow.
• Elmo: I used a small star tip to pipe a bed of frosting onto each Elmo cupcake (use AmeriColor’s Super Red!). I placed two candy eyeballs and one orange M&M on each cupcake for the eyes and nose. I cut small circles out of black fondant, then cut each circle in half to resemble a smile.
• Big Bird: I used a leaf tip to pipe yellow frosting onto each Big Bird cupcake. Don’t worry about it not being perfect — he’s feathered! He’s supposed to look a little disheveled. I placed two candy eyes on each cupcake and outlined them with light blue and light pink frosting (use a very small round tip). I cut two small and long triangles out of yellow fondant for the beak — and spread a small mount of red frosting on the bottom of each beak.
• Oscar the Grouch: I used a grass tip to pipe green frosting onto each Oscar cupcake. I placed two candy eyeballs on each, then piped a bit of chocolate frosting above the eyes (he has bushy, angry eyebrows after all!). I used the same method for Oscar’s mouth as I did for Elmo’s — except I made Oscar frown! If you want, you can also pipe a bit of pink frosting to resemble Oscar’s tongue.
• Cookie Monster:  I used a small star tip to pipe blue frosting onto each Cookie Monster cupcake. I placed two candy eyeballs on each. For his cookie-filled mouth, cut small Chips Ahoy cookies in half.