3 Summer Cupcakes

Today I\’m taking a break from horses and thought I might share with y\’all, some creative cupcake ideas we\’ve discovered here at Twin Corazones Ranch. Since there have been some cool summer mornings recently, it was a perfect time to turn on the oven and test out some creative new ideas. Here goes:

$\"\"$ What you\’ll need:

• Yogurt covered pretzels

• Cadbury Mini Eggs

• Gummi Worms

• Food Coloring

• Cupcakes & Icing

This cupcake design was inspired by my friend, Brandi, who is also a new mom of the adorable little Kyenna! Choose whatever cupcake recipe you like and once your cupcakes have been baked and allowed time to cool, choose a color for your frosting to coat each treat top. Next, use drops of food coloring to \”splatter\” the pretzels. (Hopefully it goes without saying that food coloring can stain, so be careful not to spray the coloring everywhere and protect your clothing!)

Once the food coloring has dried on the pretzels, it\’ s now time to assemble your butterflies! Adorn each cupcake top with half a gummy worm (I found that a whole length worm was too long…) Next, place 1 pretzel on each side of the worm – for the wings. And finally, add one Cadbury mini egg to the end of the worm for the \”head.\”

Voilà! A beautiful butterfly that is as tasty as she looks!

$\"\"$ What you\’ll need:

• Mini marshmallows

• Kraft Caramel squares

• Licorice

• Decorator\’s Drawing Icing

• Cupcakes & White Icing

Again, once your cupcakes have been baked and cooled, it\’s time to ice them with a plain white icing. Unwrap some caramels and microwave them only for a short time – typically, 10-20 seconds is enough. This will make the caramel a little more pliable so you can mold them with your fingertips. Fashion each caramel into a sheep\’s \”face,\” by establishing 2 ears and by making the nose a little wider than the top part of the head. Tip – They don\’t have to be perfect!

Then place a sheep\’s head onto each of your frosted cupcakes. Next, cut off 2 tiny bits of marshmallow and stick on to the caramel for sheep\’s \”eyes.\” Use decorator icing to dot the pupil. Use two tiny bits of licorice for the nostrils.

Finally, \”fluff out\” the rest of the cupcake with marshmallows. Enjoy!

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This recipe is sinfully delightful… and I mean it!

The recipe for the muffins is my fave banana bread recipe that I have posted before on A Homemade Present, which you can also find a visual of here. But for I Heart Banana Muffins, we put a little spin on the recipe by adding the mixture to a silicon heart muffin tray instead of a glass pan. We also sprayed the muffin tray with Pam to ensure the batter wouldn\’t stick when we popped the muffins out.

Here\’s the adorable heart tray, (we found this at our local grocery store in the baking aisle):

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What you\’ll need for the muffins:

Butter or Margarine                    1/2 cup
Granulated Sugar                       1 cup
Eggs                                             2
Very ripe, mashed bananas      3
All purpose flour                        1 3/4 cups
Baking soda                                 1 teaspoon
Baking powder                            1/2 teaspoon
Salt                                                a pinch
Chocolate chips                          3/4 cup

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Cream 1/2 cup margarine (I use Becel) and 1 cup sugar together.

Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and then add to your sugar mixture together, beat and mix together until smooth.

Peel and mash bananas with a fork in a small bowl.

Add mashed bananas to sugar / margarine / egg concoction.
In another bowl, mix your remaining dry ingredients together: 1 3/4 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, salt and chocolate chips.

Stir dry ingredients up.

Add banana / sugar / margarine mixture to dry ingredients.

Stir altogether to moisten.

Pour batter into your cupcake tray, making each cup approximately 2/3 full.

Bake for approximately 15-20 minutes and ensure the outside of each muffin has browned. Place a toothpick in the center of a couple to make certain it comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes.

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Now the Honey Butter is not my recipe – I discovered this killing topping on Pinterest and you can find it here.

What you\’ll need for the Honey Butter:

1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 c. powdered sugar
1/4 c. honey
1 tsp. ground cinnamon

Check out The Hen Basket site for directions – you won\’t be disappointed!!

Now here\’s my adorable grandmother positioning the heart muffins for me, so I could get a better picture. I had to post this!

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