It was a monster mash...

A few weeks ago, a friend of a friend asked if I could do some cupcakes for his little boy's birthday party. Sure! Why the devil not. I had visions of baby blue frosting. Nooo... 

I don't have any children. I have a cat. I found myself totally out of touch with what is 'down with the kids'. Apparently, five year olds want scary monsters! My initial OCD led me down the 'arrrggghhhhh!' path, but this is the year of trying new things... so off I trot to the sweet shop. The only specialist bakery items I bought were the eyes, stars and polka dots. Everything else came from my favourite sweet shop in Bolton, Mr Simms. I walked in and announced, "I'm required to make monsters!'. 

I used the following to create my beasties:

• Vanilla cupcakes
• Vanilla frosting
• Green and blue sour sherbet (for some of the faces)
• Jelly snakes (hair)
• Red and blue cables cut on a slant (horns)
• Red and green astro-belts cut into small sections (tongues)
• Three different sized confectionary eyes
• White chocolate stars
• Dr Oetker polka dots
• Blue and green food colouring pastes
• Disposable piping bags
• Round piping nozzle
• 'Grass' piping nozzle
• White sugar paste cut into teeth
• Red gel pens to create 'blood'

They were surprisingly easy to make, but were time consuming because of the different frosting techniques used. They took about four hours from start to finish. I used the following techniques:

• 3 green spikes 
• 3 blue spikes
• 3 green swirls
• 3 blue swirls
• 3 green dipped
• 3 blue dipped
• 3 green piped
• 3 blue piped

I am informed that the birthday boy himself had two for breakfast before his party. I take no responsibility for hyperactive children...

I had a few spare cupcakes, so I decided to decorate them with just sherbet! Perfect for those who are not keen on monsters...

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