Miss Make: Super Bowl Cupcakes Decorating Tutorial

I'm not gonna lie. I was never very into sports.

This is probably due to three factors: 1] Neither of my parents are very into sports, 2] I was never very good at sports myself and 3] I grew up in a city with no major sports teams. The biggest thing in Toledo is our minor league baseball team, the Toledo Mud Hens.

I mean, their mascot is a little chicken that lives in the mud.

That being said, I have always liked sporting event parties. Consider three more factors: 1] They often involve lounging on couches or other squishy objects for hours on end, 2] It's ok to drink a lot and 3] Everyone is allowed to eat anything they want. It's like any dietary rule or shred of culinary sanity gets tossed out the window. The bigger the event, the more calorically suicidal the cuisine.

One dish at the Super Bowl party I went to last year was like someone had exploded together a burrito, a bag of bacon cheeseburgers and a block of velveeta cheese and somehow coerced the byproduct into a casserole dish. It was glorious, for at least the single bite I could choke down.

Anyway, this captive and willing food audience is a perfect excuse for me to make cupcakes and not have any left over. I made these Super Bowl cupcakes last year and they were a hit. They're relatively painless to make considering how cute they are.

You can just use a mix and canned frosting, or use your favorite cupcake recipe. The only non-grocery items you'll need are yellow Candy Melts and green sprinkles, which you can find at Joann's or Michaels or a specialty baking store.

Oh and p.s., I'm more into sports now. One season of being in a fantasy football league changed that. Don't knock it till you try it...

Super Bowl Cupcakes

Materials:

1 batch chocolate cupcakes

1 can white frosting or your favorite buttercream frosting recipe

green food coloring

green sprinkles

yellow Candy Melts

ziplock baggies

parchment paper or foil

First you'll make the goalposts. Melt about 1 cup of Candy Melts following the instructions on the package. Pour them into a ziplock bag and snip off one of the corners just about 1/8". Pipe the goalposts onto parchment or foil. Make the 'stems' extra long because you'll need to stick them down into the cupcake. Make more than you need, because some will break, or just be ugly.

Stick the goalposts in the fridge while you do the rest. Reserve 2 spoonfuls of white frosting in a ziplock back. Use food coloring to tint the rest green. [I used about 10 drops, maybe a few more.]

Frost the first cupcake...

...just like that. It doesn't have to look beautiful, it won't show.

Now put some of your green sprinkles in a small bowl.

Take the cupcake and gently press the frosting into the sprinkles, turning it a little to get all the edges.

Hey! An astroturf cupcake!

Now take the reserved white frosting in the ziplock and snip off a corner. Pipe some football field lines onto the grass. To do that, I did one big square 'u' shape and two lines crossing it. [Last year I also piped some colored frosting in the end zone that matched the teams' colors. This year the Patriots and the Giants have really similar colors, so that wasn't really going to work. But try it if you wanna.] You can microwave the ziplock bag for 3 seconds to make the frosting flow better.

Now take one of your goalposts and gently stick it down into the frosting right behind the end zone. [TIP: If you're taking these to a party, you might want to wait and do this last part once you get there. Bring the goalposts in a tupperware so they don't get crushed.]