Cupcake Owl Cake

Ingredients:
Cake mix or recipe for 18 (or more) cupcakes
16 oz container of white frosting plus an additional half-cup
Green, blue and purple food coloring
Shredded coconut
Chocolate wafer cookies or full-size peppermint patties
Jelly rings
Junior Mints
Chocolate chips (miniature)
A few circus peanuts or cashews
M&Ms;
Pretzel rods

There really aren’t any special occasions where an owl cake would be appropriate. The owl cake just doesn’t seem to fit in when it comes to Christmas, Easter, Independence Day, the Fourth of July and similar holidays. But, if you know someone who loves owls, collects owls, he or she will adore the owl cake. It’s easy to put together and looks cute as can be on a birthday or other occasion for an owl-lover.

Bake 18 cupcakes – or more – to make an owl cake and a few baby owls. Follow the instructions on the boxed mix or recipe to bake the cupcakes, then allow them to cool completely.

Take one cup of the vanilla frosting and use food coloring to tint it green. Place a half-cup of the frosting in a zipper-lock bag and cut a tiny piece of a bottom corner off of it so that you can pipe the frosting.

Dye a half-cup of shredded coconut purple and a half-cup blue. You’ll also need a cup of white, shredded coconut.

Frost 10 of the cupcakes green and 8 of them white. Set the chosen platter in front of you and arrange the cupcakes from the feet of the owl up to the head. So, to start, place two cupcakes at the edge of the platter. Make a row of three green cupcakes above that one. Next, make a row of four greens, then three more green ones. Now place two white ones on top.

To decorate the owl start with the two top, white cupcakes. These will be the eyes of the owl. Place a round, chocolate cookie or peppermint patty on each one. Pipe some white frosting on top of the cookies then set a green fruit ring on each eye. Push a junior mint into the center of each fruit ring. Finish by cutting a cookie or peppermint patty in half and placing them vertically above the fruit rings.

Align half-cookies, or half-peppermint patties, down the sides of the owl, staying next to the right and left edges, to make the wings. Make a slanted, horizontal row of three halves, then a row of two halves in front of that row. Do this to both sides.

Sprinkle white coconut on the “chest” of the owl. Sprinkle it with chocolate chips. Arrange pretzel rods on the two lower, white cupcakes to create the look for the tree branches on which the owl is standing. For effect, lay more pretzel rods on the tray, around the feet of the owl.

Place a peanut or cashew between the eye cupcakes, below where the cupcakes meet, then arrange six more as talons. Place them so that they curl over one of the pretzel rods.

Make baby owls by using single cupcakes. Use fruit rings and junior mints for their eyes, halved cookies or patties for the wings, colored coconut and mini chocolate chips for the chests, and a nut for the beak.

The owl cakes are simply adorable, and although they’re a little time-consuming to prepare, there’s nothing hard about it. Someone you know will be thrilled when they see that owl cake – and her babies – on the celebration table!

Reference:

• See the owl cake here: familyfun.go.com/magazine/familyfun-magazine-archive/familyfun-march-2011/night-owls-