How to make a Sesame Street smash cake and cupcakes

I see a lot of really adorable Sesame Street cupcakes online, but not a whole lot of clear instructions on how to decorate them. Maybe the steps would be obvious to an experienced baker, but not a total novice like me. I need a list of tools, candies, tricks… I want brand names and step-by-step instructions!

Enter Maria of Chef Mommy! Sesame Street characters are one of Maria’s specialties as a baker and decorator, and I’ve featured her work before in my round-up of the best Sesame Street cakes and cupcakes. She’s come up with a very specific set of instructions on how to make a Sesame Street smash cake and cupcakes, and it has all the answers you might need to decorate Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Oscar the Grouch cupcakes. She even has instructions on how to make a tiny Sesame Street smash cake using basic fondant techniques. So no more wondering which frosting tip to use where, or what brand of cookies to buy for Cookie Monster.

SMASH CAKE

– Bake a 2-layer cake. Use your favorite recipe. This cake was classic vanilla.
– The birthday boy’s mom asked for a small cake. The smallest cake pan I had was 5″ which I thought might still be bigger than she would like. So, I baked the cake in one 9″ cake pan and then used a 4″ ring cutter to get the two layers. I thought the cake was the perfect size.
– Dye frosting your favorite color. I used a very pale blue here so I didn’t need to add a lot of food coloring.
– Frost the cake with a crumb coat first and then another layer of frosting. Smooth out the frosting.
– To make the sign I used Wilton’s fondant that I dyed green and yellow.
– Apply the sign to the cake and press gently to have it adhere.
– The use a tiny round tip (this was a Wilton’s #3) to write the number and name on the sign.
– Finally add a decorative border at the base of the cake and on top to give it a finished look.

ELMO CUPCAKES

– Dye the frosting red. You will need A LOT of food coloring to get a true red frosting needed for Elmo.
– Apply frosting to the cupcake using a small star shaped tip.
– Add candy eyes – either store-bought or homemade.
– Add a nose. These are just orange colored peanut M&M’s. Buy the big bag of M&M’s b/c the single serving bags (that you find near the check out register) will only have 3-4 orange per bag.
– Add a mouth. This mouth is made from an Oreo cookie. I twisted the cookie apart, used a sharp knife to scrape off the white cream center and then cute it in half.

COOKIE MONSTER CUPCAKES

– Dye the frosting blue. You will not need a lot of food coloring to get the right shade. So start with just a little and add more as needed.
– Apply frosting to the cupcake using a small star shaped tip. I used the same tip that I used for Elmo.
– Add candy eyes.
– Add a cookie. These cookies are the Famous Amos mini cookies (cut in half).

OSCAR THE GROUCH CUPCAKES

– Dye the frosting green. I added just a tiny bit of brown food coloring here too to give green a bit more of an olive hue.
– Apply frosting to the cupcake using a grass shaped tip.
– Add candy eyes.
– Add a mouth. This mouth is made from an Oreo cookie also.
– Add a tongue. Just pipe a small amount of red frosting into the center of the mouth. I used leftover frosting from the Elmo cupcakes
– Add eyebrows around the top half of the eyeballs. Use brown frosting for this and a very small star shaped tip.

MORE TIPS

– Give yourself some time to make these rather than making everything at once. Bake the cake and cupcakes one day, then make the frosting and decorate the next day.
– I used coordinating greaseproof liners (red, blue and green) to match the cupcakes.
– When making several different frosting colors, it is helpful to use this plastic wrap technique to save pastry bags and make clean-up easier.

Re-posted with permission from Maria at Chef Mommy. Thank you Maria!