Mini Watermelon Cupcakes

I was inspired to make watermelon cupcakes when I was at the grocery store a few weeks ago. Inspiration in the randomest of places. Gotta love it.

As with many things, they worked out in my head a bit better than reality, as is too often the case. I thought though, that by making miniature cupcakes, I could practice one technique I learned last week in my second Wilton Decorating Basics Cake Class at JoAnn's. The technique I wanted to use to frost the tops of each mini cupcake was using Wilton Tip 12 to create a flattened circle. My instructor likened this technique to creating a peppermint patty of frosting - flat, round, no bumps/waves, without a point. This means steady pressure, ending with a flick of the wrist (that I have yet to master) to eliminate a point on top.

What I didn't take into account was the very rounded/lopsided top many of the mini cupcakes had, as a result of overfilling the pan.

Therefore, it was fairly difficult to get an even surface to practice on. Oh well. Not like I didn't have fun making these,

Here's how I did it:

Mix a box cake mix together. Dye slightly more than half of it green and the rest pink. (Are watermelons pink or red? I would say more red, but nearly every creation of watermelon I see, pink is used.) Anyways, then bake your mini cupcakes. This would obviously work for regular size cupcakes, but I used minis with the intent of practicing my frosting technique.

Mix your colors of frosting. I used Wilton color gels Rose and Kelly Green to get the colors you see pictured. Then start frosting away, using whatever technique you wish.

This is the part that worked out better in my head: the arrangement of cupcakes. Some are a bit bigger, others not so much, so it wasn't quite as uniformed as I planned. Next time, maybe I'll try to be more deliberate in how much batter goes into each cup.

Once you have then lined up as you like, pipe a white line of frosting to make the white part of the rind. I used Wilton tip 12 again, but you could do this with a plastic bag, too. You may have to go over it again if the cupcakes aren't pushed together enough and the frosting slides too far down, as seen on the right hand side below.

Finally, add mini chocolate chips (or regular ones, depending on your cupcake size) to the pink/red ones, and voila!

As I was putting these into a tupperware, I realized, you could very easily make a huge half of a watermelon! Just filling the middle in with a few more red/pink would look way cute too!

Next time, I'm going to put chocolate chips in the pink batter just like watermelon seeds!

Sharing on these awesome blogs...

Tatertots & Jello Weekend Wrap Up