Cupcakes From Paradise!

These are tasty cupcakes (with molten candy middles!) put together to make a hawaii themed cake. Complete with a wave, a hula girl, palm trees, a lifeguard flotation device, a towel and flip flops, a plumeria flower border and even a monkey!

Materials:

Cupcakes:
1 cake mix (any flavor)
All of the ingredients required (on back of cake mix) (eggs, oil, water)
Cupcake pan
Cupcake baking cups
Mixer
Bite size Snickers or Milky way candies

Frosting:
4 cups (or more) Bag of powdered sugar
2 sticks (or more) of softened butter
water
Mixer
Piping gel
Rubber spatula
Blue, green, yellow food coloring
Wilton bag for piping frosting (bought at any craft or supermarket store)
Wilton tips #s: 2, 16, 98, and 35 (bought at any craft store)
Wilton coupler (bought at any craft store)

Decorations:
Rice Krispies cereal
Marshmallows
Pretzel Rods
Swedish Fish
Now and Laters
Toothpicks
Bite size chocolate candies
Tootsie rolls
Umbrella pick
Brown sugar
Jello mousse cups
Whipped cream

1. Make the cupcakes as directed on the back of the cake mix. Using cake mix is tasty and easy.

2. Line cupcake pan with cupcake baking cups

3. Fill each cup about 3/4 full

4. Put a bite size candy (snickers or milky way) into the center of each cupcake but dont push it in

4. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 mins or when toothpick when inserted into the
side of a cupcake comes out completely clean.

1. Mix about 4 cups powdered sugar, 2 sticks butter, and 1 tbsp water in the mixer. You may need more frosting, just use this same proportion. I didnt need any more than this

2. Setting up the bag may be confusing. Use the pictures with notes to help you. Put the bigger part of the coupler inside the bag and push it down to the tip of the bag. Then apply the wilton tip from outside of the bag. Lastly, screw on the other part of the coupler to hold the tip in place.

3. To fill bag, simply use a rubber spatula to put the frosting inside the bag. Squeeze the frosting down to the tip of the bag and twist the rest of the bag. DO NOT fill the bag more than half way!

1. Put the cupcakes next to eachother as shown in the picture.

2. Mix about 2 cups rice krispies cereal, 4 marshmallows, and 1 tbsp butter in a bowl, microwave for about 20 seconds. Ajust this proportion and the microwave time as needed.

3. Mix the rice krispies mixture. Take a little bit of the rice krispie mix and make a rectangular shape about height of the cupcakes. This will fit in the holes between each four cupcakes. Re-heat the mixture if it gets too hard to shape.

4. Cut off each cupcakes top so each cupcake is only as high as the cupcake baking cup.

5. Put the rice krispies pieces in between each four cupcakes as shown. This way the frosting won't seep through, and you have some extra tasty treats between the cupcakes!

1. You will need to mix about 3 cups rice krispies, 6 marshmallows, and 1 tbsp butter and heat for about 30 seconds. Adjust this as needed.

2. Shape into a wave, and put it on the cupcakes. Look at the picture for help.  

3. Make another rice krispie mixture

4. Shape it into the body of water behind the wave. Put it on the cupcakes. Look at pics for help

5. You can put the swedish fish candies on the wave to plan where you want to put them but take them off before applying frosting.

6. You can buy bigger cans of piping gel which is easier to use, or you can buy ready made blue piping gel, but i had these white piping gel tubes on hand so thats what i used. I used like 5 tubes. If you cant get it you can just use plain frosting but this is more gel textured and looks like actual water.

7. Cut the end of the piping gel tubes to take out the gel of the tubes. Put the gel into a separate bowl.

8. Add blue food coloring and mix.

9. Start adding the gel and spreading it on the wave.

10. To make a more wave looking effect, when there is almost no piping gel left in the bowl, add some white regular frosting and spread from the top of the wave. That makes the top of the wave whitish as it is in real life.

11. Make sure all of the wave is covered in the blue, including the inside of the wave.

12. Add some blue frosting below the wave, unto the cupcakes.

13. Add Swedish fish candies wherever desired.

1. Mix about 3 cups of Jello Mousse Temptations with about an equal or smaller amount of whipped cream. Mix it up.

2. Apply it unto the cupcakes. Put a spoonful on each cupcake then spread. Add more as needed.

3. Apply brown sugar over that, starting from where the wave is. Leave only a corner with no brown sugar over it.

4. The brown sugar gets soaked up by the mousse so leave some to add before serving cupcakes.

This step took me a lot of experimenting. First I used Pirouline wafers but that didnt work. Using pretzel rods worked the best.

1. Take two green Now and Later candies and put into a bowl. Also take one tootsie roll, rip in half and put each half over one of the now and laters.

2. Heat in microwave for about 5-7 seconds.

3. Shape each Now and later/tootsie roll piece into a ball.

4. Divide each ball in half and stretch to the length of a toothpick.

5. Press a toothpick into each 'half ball'. So you will need four toothpicks. See pictures for help

6. Press two of the pieces together into the shape of a cross

7. Heat another tootsie roll for about 5 seconds.

8. Rip off a small piece of the tootsie roll and press into the middle of each of the crosses.

9. Press a pretzel rod into each of these tootsie roll centers.

10. Break off about half to one inch of one of the pretzel rods.

11. Stick the palm trees into the corner of the cupcakes that has no brown sugar.

For the monkey you will need to look at the pictures for help.

1. Heat up three tootsie rolls for about 6 seconds.

2. Using half a tootsie roll, make a small ball for the head

3. Roll about 2/3 of a tootsie roll into an oval shape for body

4. Put head on body.

5. Make legs, arms, and a long tail with theremaining whole tootsie roll.

6. Use the other 1/3 of tootsie roll to make snout and ears of monkey

7. The monkey will be finished a little later.

8. Place by the palm trees.

1. Heat up two Now and Laters of different colors for about 5 seconds in the microwave

2. Rip each one in half

3. Stretch each one out

4. Place the four pieces in alternating color pattern.

5. Flatten and roll each one using a clean pen as a 'rolling pin'

6. Cut the edges with a knife to make them straight.

7. Heat up another Now and Later for about 4 seconds

8. Rip it in fourths. You will only use two of the pieces so you can eat the the other two ;)

9. Shape the pieces into flattened ovals

10. Heat a tootsie roll for 5 seconds in the microwave.

11. Rip off a tiny piece of the tootsie roll. Rip it in half and form each one into a 'V'

12. Put each 'V' with tip touching top of each oval. This makes the flip flops

13. Put the towel and flip flops wherever you want on the brown sugar part.

14. Add an umbrella pick over the set up.

1. Make rocks and put them wherever desired. To make rocks heat tootsie rolls in microwave, or use bite sized candies. I used both.

2. Make logs and make a divider between the 'sand' and the 'dirt' or place wherever else you would like. To make logs use broken pieces of the pretzel rods

3. Put white frosting around the edges of the bag. Then add yellow food coloring to the mixer and make yellow frosting. Add it to the center of the bag.

4. Use tip #35

5. Squeeze the bag and slightly twist to make little plumeria flowers. Use these to decorate the border and anywhere else desired. You will need an extra one for the hula girls hair.

Use plain white frosting and tip #16 to make little shells by the water.
Also use this to squeeze out eyes, nose, and mouth for the monkey

1. You will need a doll pick bought from a craft store.

2. Put pick into a cupcake

3. Use tip 98 and green frosting to make skirt and bra

4. Use tip 2 and darker green frosting to make bra straps and headband and grass patches

5. Put Plumeria in her headband

1. Cut a marshmellow in half

2.Cut a hole in the marshmellow

3. Cut thin pieces of a Swedish fish and put four pieces around the ring.

Now you can take pics of your creation!

Tips

• Add brown sugar in the end to make it still look good
• Practice makes perfect
• If at first you dont succeed try try again
• if something doesnt work out try to experiment and try something else like i did with the palm trees!