MAKE IT CUTE

Every girl wants to be a mermaid...and now you can at least eat like one. With the collection of pastel icing and over the top glitter sprinkles, no treat could be more perfect to kick off beach season. Bonus: These mermaid sweets manage to get even more magical on the inside!  

Ingredients:

+ 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
+ 1 cup packed of dark brown sugar
+ 1/2 cup packed of light brown sugar
+ 1/2 cup butter
+ 1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
+ 1 teaspoon baking powder
+ 2 eggs
+ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
+ 1/2 cup buttermilk
+ Teal and pink fondant
+ Light and dark blue buttercream frosting in decorating bags
+ Green, gold and pink luster dust

Instructions: 

Note: Make your mermaid tails prior to making the cupcakes.  

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and sea salt until well combined.

3. In a large bowl, use a hand mixer to beat butter and sugars until light and fluffy.

4. Add eggs and vanilla extract and beat well to combine.

5. On low speed, beat in the flour mixture until combined. Add buttermilk, and mix until just combined.

6. Scoop the batter into cupcake liners and bake for 20 to 22 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

7. Cool cupcakes completely before frosting.

8. Time to decorate! Roll out fondant and use the whale cookie cutter to cut out the shapes.

9. Use a curved fondant tool to create scales on each mermaid tail. Allow tails to set for 10 minutes.

10. Combine gold and pink luster dust and brush a little bit over all of the pink tails. Mix green and gold luster dust and lightly brush some over the green tails.

11. Scoop dark blue and light blue buttercream frosting into two separate decorating bags. Place both bags inside a larger decorating bag fitted with an open star tip. 

12. Wrap each cupcake with a blue cupcake wrapper and then frost the tops to look like waves.

13. Place a mermaid tail on top of each cupcake and voila!

We want to know how you take your cupcakes to the next level! Let us know in the comments below! 

Recipe credit: Rosanna Pansino.

by Leah V. | 7/4/2017