birdy cupcakes

I not only love eating cupcakes, but I really love how beautiful (and festive) you can make them. I have been experimenting a little bit lately with decorating them. I am definitely an amateur at this (and I would love a few tips on how to improve my cupcake decorating skills).

Anyways, our friends Jonathan and Courtney are having their second son, Cason, in December so we joined together with some other friends of ours to have a little surprise baby shower for them. Emily made a super cute diaper cake, and I made some little birdy cupcakes. Now please remember that this is the first time ever I have tried to make anything out of frosting.... yes I have frosted (and eaten) my fair share of Christmas cookies, but I haven't ever made shapes or animals. I saw the cupcakes I decided to attempt here. Ok, so I'm no Martha Stewart, but I gave it a try and ended up with these little blue birds:


In honor of fall, I made pumpkin cupcakes for these birdies. I mixed together a 15oz can of pumpkin pie filling, one box of yellow cake mix, a little bit of cinnamon and nutmeg, one egg, and one cup of water, and then baked the cupcakes for approximately 20 minutes at 350 degrees. I had some left over batter from the birdy cupcakes. so I baked some mini cupcakes (bake for 15 minutes) and decorated them with candy corn. I guess Fall is for baking in the Coates house :). Enjoy your Sunday!