Virginia Feature: Halloween Elmo Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 2 Cups - All-Purpose Flour
• 2 Teaspoons - Baking Powder
• 1/4 Teaspoon - Salt
• 1.5 Sticks Grass-fed butter, Unsalted
• 1.5 Cups - Granulated Sugar
• 3 Eggs (free range organic)
• 1 Teaspoon - Vanilla Extract
• The Seeds of One Vanilla Bean
• 1/2 Cup - 2% Grass-fed Milk
• 3/4 Cup - Sour Cream (all natural) (Whole greek yogurt works great as a substitute)
• VANILLA BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
• 4.5 Cups - 10-X pure cane powdered sugar (this will make frosting perfectly creamy with no lumps)
• 1 Pinch Salt
• 2 sticks (1 cup/ 16 tablespoons) grass-fed butter, unsalted and at room temperature
• 1.5 teaspoons pure vanilla paste- this makes the frosting taste like vanilla ice cream. If you do not have vanilla paste, you can use equal parts vanilla extract instead

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. In one bowl whisk flour, baking powder, and salt
3. In a separate bowl, add the sugar and the seeds of the vanilla bean. With the back of a spoon, mash the vanilla bean seeds around the sides of the bowl to break up the beans and distribute throughout the sugar. Add butter to sugar and vanilla bean mixture, and cream together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy
4. To the butter and vanilla sugar mixture, add eggs, sour cream, milk, and vanilla extract
5. Add in flour mixture, then stir until incorporated
6. Line 2 muffin tins with paper liners, then fill each cup with one large cookie scoop of batter, a little over three quarters full
7. Bake for 18-20 minutes, rotating tins half way through to make sure they bake evenly. Once a toothpick comes out clean, they are done
8. Remove from oven, place on wire rack, and allow to cool completely before decorating
9. FROSTING:
10. With a hand mixer, blend room temperature butter. Slowly add in powdered sugar, salt and vanilla paste. Add in milk one tablespoon at a time until the frosting reaches the perfect consistency. Whip on high. Add in a few drops of red food coloring, and whip until fluffy. With a small spatula or spoon, add frosting into piping bag with small round tip
11. DECORATIONS:
12. Elmo’s eyes: 1 bag of marshmallows, 2 tablespoons melted chocolate, toothpick
13. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or wax paper (this makes for easy clean up with sticky marshmallows). With a sharp knife, slice 8 marshmallows in thirds and place in pairs on the parchment paper. In a separate heat-proof dish, melt chocolate in the microwave. Heat and stir in 30 second increments so that the chocolate does not burn. Dip toothpick in melted chocolate, and dot marshmallows to create Elmo’s pupils. Let dry 15 minutes or while cupcakes are cooling
14. Elmo’s nose: Orange peanut MnMs, large end at the bottom. My toddler loved separating the orange MnMs from the other colors in the bag
15. Elmo’s mouth: One side of an oreo cookie, cut in half
16. Elmo’s fir: A frosting piping bag, a piping tip with a small round opening. Red food coloring, butter cream frosting
17. Once cupcakes are completely cool, fill a piping bag with red frosting. Dot a little bit of frosting on the back of a halved Oreo, and stick on bare cupcake in place of Elmo’s mouth. Around Elmo’s mouth, pipe little lines of frosting onto the cupcake to give the illusion of Elmo’s fur. Once the fur is done, add the nose, large side touching the top of Elmo’s mouth. Finally, stick two marshmallow rounds side by side and place on the very top of the cupcake, touching the small end of Elmo’s nose. Voilà! Homemade Elmo cupcakes to celebrate Halloween!