Saturday, July 31, 2010

Owl Cupcakes

My cupcakes made the Foodbuzz Top 9!


A few weeks ago was my middle sister's 21st birthday! One of the ways I helped her celebrate was to surprise her with homemade cookies & cream cupcakes in the shape of her favorite animal, the owl.


I stuffed them full of as many organic cream cookies as I could - on the bottom of the cupcake, in the batter, in the icing, and of course cookies for eyes. They were a big hit! The cupcake was dense, but not overly sweet and the icing was also not too sugary. We lounged around the pool while eating these cute treats without a care in the world.


The cupcake recipe is from Annie's Eats, but I used all organic ingredients and 2 boxes of Newman's organic cream cookies. And the frosting recipe is from The Pioneer Woman, also all organic ingredients, and I just added 6 tablespoons of crushed cookie from the leftover halves of the cookies that I crushed in my spice grinder. I bought a new 11-wire whisk for my Kitchenaid mixer and used it for the first time to make the frosting, but it immediately made butter. Oops. I was so shocked at the immediate transformation that I forgot to take photos of the frosting, but these cupcakes were easy and didn't take long to make. At least I found a faster way to make butter! I put the leftover frosting in a plastic bag with a piping tip attached and piped on the little feathers and eyes. The beak is a piece of saltless mini-pretzels. These cupcakes are a great treat, even without the extra steps to turn them into cute little owls.

Happy 21st Birthday, Kate!

Update: Visit my Flickr album to get step-by-step photos of making the cupcakes!

18 comments:

  1. Real cute - you are such a "hoot"!

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  2. Brie, you are too sweet! These are very cute :-)

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  3. Those are fantastic...so creative:)

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  4. These cupcakes are just too cute for words! Your sister is a lucky girl.

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  5. I love thoughtful baking, I bet your sister loved them :)

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  6. Too, too cute--or is that too, too HOOT?! Just adorable. What a sweet sis you are!

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  7. These are just so great!! How adorable!

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  8. Is there a trick to separating the cookies so perfectly? Love these! My 18 month old is looking over my shoulder and "hooting" like an owl. You've got 2 fans!

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  9. That is just too cute!! Congrats on the top 9!

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  10. @Jane haha, thanks. ;)

    @Patty thank you :)

    @Magic thanks, it took me a bit to find the "expression" i wanted to create, but i'm glad they came out well

    @Isabelle thanks, she treats me very well, so i wanted to show her we love her, too! :)

    @Lonely Radish she did! they were a big hit. :)

    @Claudia haha, thanks ;)

    @Theresa thank you!

    @Katty haha, thank you. :)

    @Ravienomnoms thank you!

    @Carli i used organic cream cookies and they are not "glued" like conventional cream cookies, so they were very easy to pull apart. they only cost $2.50 here, so it's even cheaper to buy the organic ones! i think the taste is much better, too. that is too cute your little one saw the cupcakes and recognized it as an owl. thanks for stopping by!

    @Chef Dennis thank you! i've been trying to get a slot for a while! ;)

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  11. Those are way too cute! And the fact that they're cookies & cream flavor makes them that much better!

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  12. I haven't been on Foodbuzz much lately and I missed your awesome Top 9 cupcakes! Congrats - they are adorable!!!

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  13. So you were the one with the winning owl cupcakes. They are so adorable. They make me smile every time. I love making food into art. Great job!

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  14. These are so cute Brie and congrats on the top 9!

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