Pull Apart Touchdown Cupcakes Recipes

FOOTBALL PULL-APART CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES WITH MOCHA FROSTING

Steps:

• For the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 muffin tins with cupcake liners.
• Whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the oil, vanilla, eggs and 1 cup water until well blended. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and stir until just incorporated.
• Divide the batter among the cupcake liners and bake until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 5 minutes, then remove and cool completely on a wire rack.
• For the frosting: Dissolve the coffee in 1 tablespoon hot water in a small bowl; set aside.
• Beat the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until creamy. Gradually add the confectioners' sugar and beat until incorporated. Beat in the vanilla. Add 1/4 cup of the milk and beat to incorporate. Add more milk, a tablespoon at a time, until the frosting is a creamy piping consistency. Remove a rounded cup of the frosting and put it in a piping bag fitted with a plain 1/2-inch tip.
• Add the cocoa powder and dissolved coffee to the mixing bowl and beat until well mixed. Add a little more milk as necessary to return the frosting to a creamy texture.
• On a very large platter or a cutting board, arrange the cupcakes into the shape of a football. When you have a shape you like, spoon a very small amount of frosting onto the bottom of each cupcake and put them back onto the platter to help them stick to it slightly. Spoon the mocha frosting over the cupcakes, then use an offset spatula to smooth it over the top, allowing the frosting to cover the small gaps between the cupcakes. Use the white frosting to pipe the football's laces and the white markings on either end of the ball. Scatter the green candies around the platter, if using.

TRACK-AND-FIELD PULL-APART CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Place 1/2 cup of the buttercream in a piping bag fitted with a small round tip for white piping.
• Divide the remaining buttercream into 2 large bowls and remove 1/3 cup of buttercream from each large bowl and place in 2 smaller bowls. Stir 3 to 5 drops of yellow food coloring into one of the small bowls, and 3 to 5 drops of orange food coloring into the other small bowl, adding more coloring to each if needed to make the colors vibrant. Transfer the yellow and orange buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a fluted tip so that the colors are side-by-side in the bag. Refrigerate.
• Stir in 5 to 7 drops of green food coloring into one of the large bowls of buttercream, stirring and adding additional color if needed so the buttercream is grass green. Transfer the green buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a grass tip.
• Add 8 drops of red, 4 drops of brown and 4 drops of orange food coloring to the remaining large bowl of buttercream, stirring and adding additional color if needed so you have a shade of rusty brown. Transfer the brown buttercream to a piping bag fitted with a large flat tip (you can also use a large round tip).
• In the center of a large platter, arrange 6 cupcakes in 2 lines, making a rectangle. Place a cupcake on either end of the rectangle, so that it nestles in between the two lines. Arrange 14 cupcakes around the outside of the original 8 to create an oval. Place the remaining cupcake at the bottom left corner of the oval.
• Pipe the brown buttercream over the 14 cupcakes creating the oval plus the additional cupcake on the edge, creating the track (an oval with a square tail). Use a small offset to smooth the track and make it roughly 2 1/2 inches wide all the way around.
• Pipe the green buttercream in the center of the track so that it looks like grass. Place the platter of cupcakes in the refrigerator while making the hurdles and medalists.
• To make hurdles, use kitchen shears to cut each piece of gum in half lengthwise, and then again widthwise, so that you have 12 tiny strips of gum. Pull apart the strings of the pull-apart red licorice and cut twenty-four 1-inch pieces. Melt the white chocolate chips in 10-second intervals in the microwave, stirring between intervals, until smooth and melted. Dip one end of a piece of licorice string into the white chocolate and place on one end of a gum piece. Repeat with a second licorice string on the other end of the gum piece. Repeat this with the remaining 11 pieces of gum. Set the hurdles aside for the white chocolate to set, about 10 minutes.
• To make the medalists, pipe a V around the neck of 3 graham-cracker bears with the white buttercream. Use kitchen shears or a paring knife to cut 1/3 off the end of the gold, silver and bronze jelly beans. Dip the cut sides of the shorter piece of the jelly beans in the melted white chocolate and press them into the center of the V of each graham-cracker bear to make a medal. Set aside.
• Remove the cupcake platter from the refrigerator and carefully pipe a white border along the edges of the track, completing the outer oval as well as outlining the square. Pipe two lines down the center of the track and square, creating 3 lanes. Pipe starting lines and markers along the track.
• To make the podium, cut a quarter off of one marshmallow and cut another marshmallow in half. Place a whole marshmallow in the center of the piped field, place the slighter shorter marshmallow directly to the left, and the shortest marshmallow to the right. Hold the bear with the gold medal on the tallest marshmallow so it is standing upright and pipe a small mound of white buttercream behind the bear to keep it standing. Repeat with the bear with the silver medal to the left, and the bear with the bronze medal to the right.
• Gently place the hurdles staggered along the track in the individual lanes. Set the remaining 3 bears as runners along different spots on the track.
• To make the torch, stuff the sugar cone with the remaining half and quarter marshmallows. Gently push the cone into a corner of the field so that it stays upright. Pipe upright flames with the orange and yellow buttercream, covering the entire top of the cone.

LITTLE LAMB PULL-APART CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Combine the butter, sugar and salt using an electric mixer on low speed until mostly incorporated. Add the milk and almond extract, increase the speed to medium-high and mix until light and fluffy. Take 3/4 cup of the frosting and reserve. Take 1 cup of the frosting and add 8 to 10 drops of green food coloring to make a grassy color and reserve. Fill a pastry bag or resealable plastic baggie with the remaining frosting and snip a 1-inch corner off the bag.
• To make the body: Place 5 of the cupcakes in a line. Nestle 4 cupcakes above the line and 4 more cupcakes below the line, making them touch so you have a rough oval shape. Top each cupcake with a swirl of white frosting from the piping bag. Then pipe smaller peaks to fill all of the spaces between the cupcakes.
• To make the head: Put 3 cupcakes together in an upside-down triangle. Spread with 1/2 cup of the reserved white frosting so that all of the cupcakes are connected.
• To make the ears: Cut 1 cupcake in half, paper and all. Set each half, cut-side in, on either side of the bottom of the triangle. Spread 1/2 tablespoon of white frosting on top. Cut 1 licorice wheel in half and place, cut-side in, on each half cupcake. Now, pipe little swirls all over the top third of the head and around the outsides of the licorice ears. Nestle the head into the shoulder.
• To make the face: Peel off a 3-inch strip of licorice. Pull apart into 2 strands and cut into 1-inch lengths. Place 2 of them on the head for eyes. Make a Y shape with 3 pieces and place so the bottom point is centered at the bottom edge of the face. Discard (or eat) the fourth piece.
• To make the legs: Put 2 cupcakes into the first and third gaps on the bottom row of the body. Spread some frosting on each cupcake. Top each leg with a whole licorice wheel. Cut another wheel in half place one half under each wheel for the hooves.
• To make the grass: Line the remaining 5 cupcakes horizontally under the legs. Spread half of the green frosting in an even layer along the cupcakes, covering and connecting them. Next, fill the reservoir of a garlic press with some of the remaining the green frosting. The frosting is easiest to work with at cool room temperature. Press, attaching the frosting to each cupcake, while pulling upward to create grass. Repeat using the rest of the frosting until all of the cupcakes are covered.

STRAWBERRY PATCH PULL-APART CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Frost the cupcakes with the buttercream using a mini offset spatula.
• Scatter half the ground wafer cookies on a platter or serving tray large enough to hold the 24 cupcakes. Arrange the cupcakes in four rows of six. Scatter more "dirt" over the cupcakes and around the edges of the tray.
• Arrange the strawberries randomly on the cupcakes. Arrange the candy flowers randomly.
• Poke holes in a cardboard egg carton. Pinch off pea-size or smaller bits of green fondant and roll them on your work surface to look like blades of grass, leaving one end thick and the other thin and pointy. Press 2 to 5 blades together and stick them on the end of a toothpick. Let dry, upright, in the egg carton. Roll the remaining green fondant between your hands to create 10 thin 2- to 3-inchlong squiggly vines. Wrap them around pencils and set them aside to dry. Place them under the strawberries and randomly in the patch.
• Top one cupcake with one of your favorite fondant creatures, such as a butterfly, caterpillar or ladybug.