Kristi's Thoughts: How To Make Twilight Cupcakes

First of all, you must start with a deep love of all things Twilight, as well as a love for your friend on her birthday! ;-) Then you should google Twilight Cupcakes in Google search to see what those bakers who have gone before you have created. I got lots of great ideas online, and to think I originally wondered if my search would return anything. I should have known my fellow Twilight lovers wouldn't let me down. Then you should go all over town shopping for supplies. I really got into the supply shopping and went a tad overboard, but it was fun so that's what matters.

I used a Funfetti cake mix & icing, LA's favorite. Then there was the ready-to-use white fondant from Wal-Mart and the multi-pack of black, light & dark brown, and pink from Michael's. Fyi, Michael's has an AMAZING aisle full of baking/decorating supplies. I LOVED it! I grabbed some cornstarch because I read online it would help if the fondant was sticky when you tried to roll and knead it. It really came in handy. Then of course you need cookie cutters to cut out the fondant. Party America & Party City came in handy when it came to the fangs and Twilight magnets and bookmarks, which I hot glued to the cookie sticks so I could stick them in the cupcakes. Of course I also needed assorted decorating tips, glitter & sprinkles, decorator icing bags, and edible color markers. Somewhere in there I hit up Hobby Lobby too. My shopping became a bit obsessive.

Then, I just winged it. I looked at the online photos and the covers of my Twilight books and just kinda tried to imitate those. I spent about 4-5 hours on the Saturday afternoon before LA's birthday party busting out these cupcakes. I would recommend starting a day or two before so that you aren't rushing around like crazy. The fondant decorations can be made in advance and you won't be so frenzied. The vampire bite mark cupcakes above were obviously the easiest. It's just vanilla icing and red decorating icing made into teeth marks!

Rolling the fondant out wasn't the easiest thing ever with my wooden rolling pin. I think if I work with fondant in the future I will buy the specific fondant roller that is available at most stores. You decorate, you learn. I used the round cookie cutter to get the perfect cut-out shape for the fondant decorations where I copied the Twilight book covers.

Then, I just copied the books. It was actually lots of fun to do. I enjoyed the challenge of trying to get the details pretty closely to the original. They aren't perfect by any means, but you get the idea.

Tray one of Twilight cupcakes. The vampire bite marks and fangs are pretty self-explanatory. I did dark brown sprinkles on the cupcake with Jacob Black's (Taylor Lautner's) picture to symbolize him being a werewolf, with brown, wild hair. Bella Swan's (Kristen Stewart's) picture is in a multi-colored cupcake. The yellow sprinkles represent her being from sunny Arizona and the added in purple and pink represents her being a real, human girl. Edward Cullen's (Robert Pattinson's) photo is in a white, shimmery, glittery cupcake because of how Edward, and all vampires, look in the sunlight. And then there is the middle cupcake in the front row with flowers. This symbolizes the meadow in the Twilight saga where many important moments happen, especially between Edward & Bella.

More Twi-cakes. Again, Edward and Jacob's photos are placed in the respective glitter and brown cupcakes. However, this time Bella's photo is in a half vampire/half werewolf cupcake. Is she Team Edward or Team Jacob?! Then of course I had to have Team Edward and Team Jacob cupcakes and an I LOVE Edward cupcake...because I do. And, like I said, I just tried to copy the book covers. I also couldn't forget the 32nd candles for LA to blow out!