Tinkerbell Cupcakes

While I was planning The Spawn's birthday cake, The Diva looked at me and said: I want Tinkerbell for my birthday. Seven months later, I managed to deliver Tinkerbell.


What you need:
12 cupcakes (I made mine from a white cake mix)
1 can vanilla frosting
1 small tube black decorating icing
1 small tube red decorating icing
yellow food coloring (I recommend AmeriColor made especially for baking)
36 sticks Juicy Fruit gum
12 vanilla wafers
12 green fruit chews (I used Jolly Ranchers)
You'll also need a rolling pin (or a smooth glass works too), a sharp knife for cutting the wings and dress fringe as well as a piping bag and writing tip for adding the hair.

Cut 24 small wings from 12 pieces of the gum. I did this by folding each piece in half and cutting two at a time. If I did this again I would do them individually for a smoother cut. I discovered when I did the larger wings that single sticks of gum cut much smoother.

Cut 24 larger wings from the remaining 24 pieces of gum.

Microwave the green Jolly Rancher fruit chews for no more than 3 seconds each to soften. Flatten each fruit chew and roll out on a clean work surface. Cut little notches in the bottom of each fruit chew to make the dress fringe.

Add enough yellow food coloring to 1/4 cup of the vanilla frosting to tint it yellow. Spoon the yellow frosting into a resealable bag.

Add food coloring to the remaining vanilla frosting to tint it your color of choice. I baked my cupcakes in these super cute (and expensive!) flower shaped cupcake papers. Because the papers were purple, I choose to do the background frosting in purple but you can do it in any color you want (or no color at all).

Spread each cupcake with background frosting and make smooth.

Arrange the green fruit chew dress on the lower half of a cupcake.

Place 2 large wings and 2 small wings on the top third of cupcake.

Pipe a line of frosting on the bottom half of the BACK of the vanilla wafer. Attach the whole vanilla wafer on top for the fairy's head.

 Using the yellow frosting, pipe some hair and a bun with the yellow frosting as pictured. Because I am not very good with frosting, I kept it simple by drawing a semi-circle partway down the wafer (leaving just enough room to make the swirly dot for a bun at the top) and filled in with three or four lines for bangs. A few of the cupcakes actually wound up looking like they had mini suns perched on their head, but for the most part this technique worked.

Pipe the eyes with the black decorating icing.

Pipe a smile with red decorating icing. I actually had a vision of using some little cake decorating doo-dad for a mouth, but couldn't find anything that worked.

I had also thought to cut wafers for arms and legs, but really, the winds, head and dress were enough. The Diva knew instantly that mom had made her Tinkerbell cupcakes. She absolutely loved them!

Another note about these cupcakes, they do not store well so I wouldn't make them any longer than one day in advance. And really, it only took me about an hour to frost, shape and assemble the cupcakes, so it's very easy to do the day of the party - unless you're also in the middle of painting your kitchen, making a taco bar for 25 people, making a second cake and trying to clean your house. Then by all means, make them the day before. (By day three, the wafers had turned mushy, the gum was wilted and the fruit chew had melted. You've been warned.)