Celebrate Grilling Season with Grill Cupcakes!

Cupcakes Ingredients:

1 ¾ cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 cup cocoa
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
½ cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Frosting Ingredients:

1 cup butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar
4 tbsp whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla
red gel food colouring
orange gel food colouring
red and orange cupcake sprinkles
Gummy Bear candy
Box of toothpicks

Cupcake Recipe:

Preheat oven to 350F. Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners. Set aside.

Mix together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.

In another large bowl, stir together eggs, milk, oil and vanilla extract. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients bowl and stir together.

Beat on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes. Slowly add boiling water and continue to beat. The mixture will be a little runny.

Fill the cupcake liners with the batter about ¾ way full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Carefully transfer cupcakes to a wire baking rack to continue cool.

Frosting Recipe:

Beat the softened butter on its own until smooth, then add vanilla extract.

Add powder sugar with heavy cream  into the creamed butter until it becomes a smooth and thick texture.

If the frosting is too thick, then add more heavy cream, if  the frosting is too thin, add more powder sugar.

Take a spoonful of the frosting and hold the spoon upside down. If the frosting drops off the spoon add more powdered sugar, however if the frosting doesn’t fall off the spoon then it is ready.

Put 1/2 of the  frosting into a separate bowl… put several drops of orange gel food colouring  in that  bowl and  stir well to blend the colour.

In the second bowl add the half of the frosting… add several drops of red gel food colouring… Stir well to mix the colour.

Scoop the orange frosting into a pastry bag with a frosting tip. Scoop the red frosting into the same pastry bag.

Twist the open end of the pastry bag to push the orange/red frosting to the tip.  Using the filled pastry bag work the frosting in a circle on the top of each cupcake until they are fully frosted.

Royal Icing Recipe:

Beat egg whites in  a large bowl with mixer at high speed until foamy.

Gradually add sugar and lemon extract and beat until thickened.

Add black gel food colouring and stir to blend well.

Directions:

-Tape wax paper covering a cookie sheet .
-Using a small pastry bag filled with the black royal icing and a #2 tip.
-Using royal icing outline a BBQ grill.
-Go over the outline of the grill with the black royal icing to reinforce the icing grill.
-Allow to dry for 5-10 hours. -Cut the wax paper holding the completed BBQ grill into squares surrounding the image.
-Ensure the grills are dry, gently touch one of the images.
-If the images are dry peel them off the wax paper and place on the frosted cupcake.

Shish Kabobs:

-We used gummy bear candy, cut off the body side of the candy leaving  a plain square of a gummy candy.
-Cut those pieces in half.
-Slide each small square piece of gummy candy onto a toothpick. If the toothpick is too big for the royal icing grill, cut off the ends.
-Place the kabobs on the grill.