Mushroom Cupcakes

The piped out white chocolate spots that I flipped over on top of the cupcakes so the flat side was facing up

The shower was fiesta themed so I used colors that fit in with the rest of the decor

My friend Taryn showed me some adorable mushroom cupcakes from her nieces "Alice in Wonderland" themed birthday party and I completely fell in love. So when it was time for her to co-host a baby shower last week she asked me if I thought we could make some for the party. I love a challenge and I thought they would be great for the blog so I said of course. Although the ones she showed me were adorable she mentioned they didn't taste very good, so I first off wanted to make these super moist and use a fresh buttercream for the icing so that they would be cute and taste amazing. I thought about how to make the spots on top for a few days and finally settled on using the white Candy Melts that you find in the baking section of the craft store and melting them down to make smaller spots, this worked perfectly! The theme for the shower was fiesta so we wanted the colors to match the flowers and decorations so we decided on green, blue, and orange... but you can use whatever colors you want. Lastly we did two sizes- mini and regular to really push home the mushroom look, since no mushroom looks like the other :-) And we used chocolate and classic yellow cake so that everyone was happy. In the end these cupcakes turned out to be super cute and a huge success!

Ingredients:

Chocolate cupcakes:

• 1 box of Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/3 cup water
• 1/2 cup of vegetable oil

Yellow cupcakes:

• 1 box of Duncan Hines Classic Yellow cake mix
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/3 cup water
• 1/3 cup of vegetable oil

Buttercream Frosting:

• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp butter extract
• 4 cups sifted confectioners sugar
• 2 tbl heavy whipping cream
• food coloring of your choice
• 1 pkg of white Candy Melts for decorating

1. Cupcakes: Mix and bake your cupcakes following the directions on the back of the package. Let them cool completely on a wire rack.
2. Spots: Melt the package of white candy melts in a microwave safe bowl according to the directions on the back of the package. Scoop melted chocolate into a piping bag and pipe out different sized round chips on a baking sheet lined with parchment or wax paper. Let them cool completely. Place to the side.
3. Make your icing: Cream the butter and shortening until fluffy. Add vanilla and butter extract. Gradually add confectioners sugar, one cup at a time - beat well. Icing will be dry at this point, add the whipping cream until you get the texture you want. (should be nice and fluffy) Separate your icing into three bowls and color accordingly. You can make which ever colors you like or you can always just make one color.
4. Ice each cupcake. Take your cooled candy spots and gently pull them off the parchment and place tip side down onto the top of each cupcake, this way the flat side of the spots are facing up. place as many spots on your cupcakes as you like. These are best if they are server right away. ENJOY!