The Penguin Cupcake Extravaganza

For Hannukah, my mother-in-law gave me the book Hello, Cupcake. While I gave it a cursory glance and deemed it "cute," the boys obsessed over it. The looked at every page. Alex read instructions and ingredient lists out loud to Adam. They played games based on cupcakes (how one plays cupcake games, I am still unsure of). At last, Alex decided on his dream cupcakes, the cupcakes to honor his 8th birthday. March of the Penguins (as appears - perfect - in Hello, Cupcake):



Once Alex chose his cupcakes, the obsessing didn't stop. Three weeks out, he was begging me to buy ingredients (after quizzing me extensively to determine I knew where to buy them at). A week out, he told me how he planned to eat his cupcakes (like an ice cream cone). Three days out, he was sure I had better get started. It was implicitly understood that he didn't want just penguins - it had to be exactly. like. the. book. He comes by his OCD naturally. Never have I been under so much pressure to create the perfect dessert.

These cupcakes turned out to be some of the most expensive - and difficult desserts I have ever made. To start with, there are about a billion ingredient. The penguins are made of half a doughnut and a doughnut hole with a marshmallow belly, chocolate chip eyes, cookie wings and a Starburst beak. The accompanying icebergs are topped with coconut and rock candy (requiring a special trip to the candy store at the mall). I have NEVER bought coconut before in my life. I'm not opposed to it, it's just never come up. And one cannot buy a bag of just yellow Starbursts, so I had to eat all the pink ones myself. Alex was disappointed that we didn't get enough yellow ones for every penguin to have feet, but I couldn't eat another bag again.

I started baking the cupcakes Saturday night after a full day of ski school. Right away my cupcakes started out sub-par. The recipe said it made 24, but my cupcakes turned out small, some of them barely making it out of the paper. And speaking of the paper, some of the papers developed weird creases that I thought would unhitch after baking, but didn't.

The real work began Sunday morning with the decorating. First, one must adhere the doughnut hole and mini-doughnut to the cupcake with frosting, then freeze the whole thing so that it doesn't come apart during the dipping. That part went fairly smoothly but the dipping proved difficult. While I held the cupcakes upside down for minutes, the frosting proved to be drippy and slippery. I adhered all the penguin parts, then spent the better part of an hour continually moving back fallen wings and beaks. The icebergs were refreshingly straightforward. The finished product:



My own sign and candle embellishments:





The last penguin pulling the catch of the day home (with a licorice rope and fish candy. Did I mention those?):



Icebergs:



But the good news is, however disappointed (and frustrated!) I was, Alex loved them. And judging by how quickly they disappeared, so did everyone else. Now I just need to hide the book before Adam starts planning his birthday.