Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street? Well, I think we are there. Some of my favorite character cupcakes have been the Cookie Monster, Elmo, and Mrs. Cookie Monster. Then a friend of mine decided to do a Sesame Street themed party for her (adorable) son’s first birthday party.

She shared these amazing photos of the party set up. Not only did she have the Cookie Monster and Elmo Cupcakes that I am familiar with, but she came up with brilliant ideas for Big Bird and Oscar The Grouch. Look how many cupcakes she made!

I had to give the Big Bird and Oscar Cupcakes a try myself. They turned out so cute.

If you want to make from scratch cupcakes, these were pretty good.

Chocolate Cupcakes

Ingredients:

3 1/2 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 1/3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup almond flour
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cups brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350℉. Line cupcake tin with 16 liners.

2. Place chocolate in a bowl and pour in 6 Tbs boiling water. Stir until melted. Set aside to cool.

3. In a bowl sift flour, baking powder and baking soda. Stir in ground almonds.

4. In bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until very light and fluffy, 5 minutes. Add vanilla and eggs. Add chocolate and buttermilk.

5. Fold in flour. Divide mixture between liners.

6. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool on racks.

Recipe from Fiona Cairns’ Bake & Decorate Cookbook.

This is my favorite buttercream these days. Pipes like a dream.

Buttercream Icing

Ingredients:

6 cups confectioners’ sugar

1 lb butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla extract

2 to 4 Tbs whipping or heavy cream

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, cream together sugar and butter on low speed. Mix until well blended. Increase speed to medium and beat for another 3 minutes.

2. Add vanilla and cream and continue to beat on medium speed for 1 minute longer. Add more cream, as needed, to obtain desired consistency.

Makes enough to ice a dozen cupcakes

Oscar The Grouch Cupcakes

Ingredients for Oscar The Grouch:

Icing tinted green with a few drops of red
Candy Eyes (1/2 inch)
Icing tinted brown for unibrow
Black icing. I like the kind in the can that I used here.

Directions for Oscar The Grouch:

1. Fill piping bag with green icing. Using a grass tip, pipe fur all over cupcake.

2. Add Candy Eyes, a brown unibrow and a black mouth. I put some red hots on a few mouths as tongues.

Big Bird Cupcakes

Ingredients for Big Bird:

Icing tinted yellow
Circus Peanuts cut into a beak shape or Yellow Candy Corn, available at Easter time. (I couldn’t decide which look was cuter)
Red edible marker to color inside of mouth
Candy Eyes (1/2 inch) lined with blue edible marker

Directions to make Big Bird Cupcakes:

1. Ice cupcakes using a star tip. Affix eyes and beak of choice.

Here is a video that the birthday boy likes. One of my good friends from high school also has it bad for Mr. Mraz.

My favorite Oscar video is just a little bit different.

We need a bird specific tune, don’t we? Now, nothing against Big Bird, but this song is almost too good for the behemoth feathered, bipedal, endothermic vertebrate. (Sooo Good. Forgive me VLN, if you drop by here)
Vive La Noiz-Bird Song

Cheers!