BBQ Cupcakes!

Ok, so not actually what it sounds like.. thank goodness. That sounds rather awful. I found these awesome cupcakes on pinterest and just kind of winged it. They turned out super cool though! They’ll be even better next time… if there is a next time. They were a lot of work!

What you will need:

– Cupcake mix

– Icing

– Food dye

– Chocolate

– Wax paper

– Gummy bears

– Tooth Picks

– Frosting decorating tip-things (I’m not a baker. I don’t know what they’re called or how to use them)

– Plastic bags

– Patience

– About 2.5 hours

Step 1: Find something in your house that is approximately the same size as the top of a cupcake. Trace some circles on a piece of wax paper – add extra circles to allow for messy grill tops. I made 16 cupcakes and did 20 grill tops just to be safe. I was bound to mess up and/or break a couple.

Step 2: melt some chocolate (I wanted to find candy melts, but this was a last minute project and the grocery store doesn’t have them, so I just used semi-sweet chocolate chips. It worked, but the chocolate needs to be kept refrigerated once it’s formed, which makes these difficult to take to an outdoor BBQ in the middle of the summer. Bummer.) Put the melted chocolate in a plastic bag and snip the very tip of the corner off. TURN THE WAX PAPER OVER so the pencil outlines are on the bottom and you’re tracing the side without pencil lead on it. Trace the circles in melted chocolate from your bag and add some grill lines through the middle. Any extra chocolate left in the bag after doing the grill tops – make some chocolate hamburger patties with. Put them in the fridge if you used chocolate chips. They don’t harden well at room temperature.

Step 3: Make cupcakes! I don’t cook, I don’t bake. I made boxed cupcakes – 1/2 vanilla and 1/2 chocolate.

Step 4: While the cupcakes are baking and cooling, cut your gummy bears into thirds and put them onto the toothpicks like skewers. This is very time consuming. And makes your fingers hurt. A little trick I figured out is to get some canola oil and grease up the tooth picks before stabbing the bears. They will slide on much easier.

Step 5: Dye the frosting. I did 1/2 of the frosting red (pinkish) and the other 1/2 yellow. I added the frosting to a Ziploc bag, alternating colors – 1 scoop of red, 1 scoop yellow… etc. Snip the tip off the bag, a bit more than you did for the chocolate. If you know how to use frosting decorating tip-things.. use a frosting bag and do your thing. If you’re like me and you have no idea, just wing it and hold the tip onto the corner of the bag as you frost. I liked the look of the spiky tip and added some “flames” to some of the cupcakes.

Step 6: Add the grill tops!

Step 7: Add your skewers and burger patties!

There you have it! Adorable. Don’t use chocolate chips if you’re transporting these to someone else’s BBQ or if you want to be able to leave them out on the table for aesthetic appeal – they melt easily. Wish me luck, I’m about to take them on a 30 minute drive while it’s almost 90 degrees out.

Happy Memorial Day – party safe and wear sunscreen. But most of all, have fun and remember why we’re celebrating!