Minion Cupcakes

The minions go everywhere with us; Wyatt keeps Stuart with him at all times. Ruslan has several minions as well and drags them around the house but isn’t as attached as Wyatt and Stuart.

There was no question what kind of cupcakes they wanted to take to school for their birthday – it had to be minion cupcakes. I think that they were adorable and of all the cupcakes I have made for school birthday celebrations – these were one of the easiest (see tips at the end). The preschoolers clamored around to see the cupcakes as soon as we walked in the room. They yelled, “Minions! Can we eat their eyes?” Most importantly these two preschoolers were very happy with the cupcakes.

 The class sang happy birthday and then I was suddenly in the quietest preschool classroom ever as they started to eat the cupcakes.

Minion Cupcake Tips:

A few years ago I stopped making cupcakes from scratch and switched over to boxed cake mix and pre-made frosting. Preschoolers and grade school kids don’t appreciate the difference.

1 – Start these the night before you need them. This will allow the minions to remain horizontal overnight so the faces don’t fall off when you stand them up on the cupcakes.

2 – These are perfect for an assembly line. Cut the “Twinkies” in half (I used the Tastykate version, Little Debbie also makes something similar). Lay them flat on a cookie sheet and work in batches.

3 – Use black food gel for the faces – draw a straight line across the top – this forms the straps for the goggles. Then draw a smiley face near the bottom. Repeat for a bunch of minions (the gel takes a long time to dry).

4 – Buy candy eyes – I purchased mine at my local craft store (in the baking section). These cupcakes are all over the internet, but most use smarties – only white smarties that you need to separate from the packages, stick two together and then draw the eyes/goggle outline on each one. I quickly realized that effort was going to take a lot of time and leave plenty of room for mistakes. Candy eyes make this process much more efficient.

5 – Press one or two candy eyes (some minions have one eye and others have two) on to the straight line of black food gel. A few seconds for each minion.

6 – Minion hair – this was the most time consuming part. I wanted to use black shoestring licorice but apparently that is impossible to find in any Pittsburgh store. Instead I used chocolate jimmies for the hair. The trick was finding the longer ones so they would stick out enough.

7 – Put the tray in the refrigerator over night for the gel to dry and the minions are ready.

8 – Whip some store bought white frosting with blue food gel, frost the cupcakes, and lightly press one of the minions on top of each one. Done.