Muppet Alphabet Muppets DTG

“It's time to play the music, it's time to light the lights...” I think I sang that to myself the whole time I was working on this entry.

I almost didn't make an entry this year, but in the end I couldn't resist the opportunity to combine my two favourite things: cake decorating and Muppets.

I figured that the Muppet Alphabet design would work well as cupcakes, so I started each figure by cutting out a disc of fondant to sit the letter on. I did the letters one at a time, dying my fondant as I went to make sure I got the colours right. I swear no two letters used the same colour twice – except black, which I painted on, mixed with vodka.

Basically I sat there with my laptop open and sketched each figure by eye (no tracing this year). I used BBQ skewers, toothpicks, an exacto knife, my #2 and #12 icing tips, and icing rings to draw and cut the pieces. The last figures I did were the brown ones. I had trouble making a good brown colour with my limited supply of dyes, so I ended up making some milk chocolate modeling chocolate which I then mixed into fondant to achieve the various shades needed.

I spent a little over a week on the letters, working while my kids were sleeping. It took me on average about an hour to do each letter – except for V, which took closer to an hour and three-quarters. I had trouble seeing the shapes on his buttons, so I ended up Googling him so I could make him as accurate as possible. His name is Vendaface, and his buttons are an ear, lips, two different eyes, and two different noses – and man, was it tricky to make them so small.

For the cupcakes I made a double batch of my favourite scratch chocolate cake, substituting cherry pie filling for half the butter. I iced them with a scratch almond buttercream and placed the discs on top.

It was a lot of work, but I'm really pleased with how they turned out. My kids loved eating them (even if the boys are too small to know who the Muppets are yet.) Thanks so much for hosting this contest and giving me an excuse to try out new techniques.