Did you know Sesame Street is celebrating their 50th Anniversary? Incredible! Who is your favorite character? I love Cookie Monster and Big Bird. May is National Foster Care month and they recently introduced their newest character Karli, a young muppet in foster care. With nearly 443,000 children in foster care this is such an important topic. I decided to make some Sesame Street cupcakes including the latest muppet friend Karli. 

I used a sandwich bag and got creative with my piping technique. Fold one corner of the sandwich bag in half and tape it, Then fill it with frosting  and then poke holes with a toothpick to create the look I used on our muppet friends. 

I used an orange peanut M & M for Elmo's nose and half an oreo for Cookie Monster, Elmo and Oscar's mouth. I used banana Laffy Taffy to create Big Bird's beak and a pink pearl candy for Karli's nose. 

​Enjoy!

Memorial Day weekend is coming up which means plenty of hot dogs and hamburgers to go around. Since May is also National Hamburger Month I thought it was only right to make some sweet versions of our BBQ favorites! 🍔🌭

To make the hamburger cupcakes you will need: 
-Box of yellow cake mix
-Box of chocolate cake mix
-White frosting
-Red, yellow and green food coloring
-Sesame seeds

Directions:
Follow the directions  on the back of the cake mix box.  Make both yellow and chocolate cupcakes. Once cool, cut the yellow cupcakes in half as these will be the hamburger buns. With the chocolate cupcakes cut off the top and this will be the hamburger patty. 

Divide the frosting into 3 separate bowls. With the food coloring, make 1 bowl yellow (cheese), 1 bowl green (lettuce) and the last bowl red(Ketchup). Then take each frosting color and put into a sandwich bag or you can use  piping bag. For the yellow and green make a medium size slit at the end of the sandwich bag and for the red make a small slit. 

Place the chocolate cupcake that you cut  as the Hamburger Patty on top of the bottom half of the yellow cupcake. First you will need to do the cheese. Pipe the yellow frosting into a square shape onto the "hamburger patty". Next with the green frosting do the lettuce by  piping a star like shape. Lastly with the red frosting pipe a zig zag pattern as the ketchup. 

Top the hamburger patty with the top of the yellow cupcake. In a small cup combine some warm water with a little bit of sugar. Brush on the top of the yellow cupcake(hamburger bun) the sugar mixture and sprinkle the sesame seeds.  This final detail really makes it look like a hamburger. 


For the Twinkie Hot Dogs you will need:

-Twinkies 
-Red and Yellow frosting 

To make the Hot Dog cheesecake filling:
-8 oz of softened cream cheese
-1 container of thawed Cool Whip
-1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
-1/2 cup of powdered sugar
-Red and orange food coloring

Cut a slit down the middle of the Twinkie half way and gently spread the Twinkie. Combine all of your cheesecake mixture and using the red and orange food coloring create your desired hot dog color. Then place the mixture into a pipette bag (or sandwich bag) and cut the tip. Pipe the mixture down the center of the Twinkie to make your hot dog. Lastly pipe zig zags of your red and yellow frosting to create the mustard and the ketchup. 
Enjoy!!