Pinata Cupcakes

For Cinco de Mayo I wanted to make a festive dessert like I did last year (click here to see). I had seen the pinata cookies and the pinata cake pictures floating around pinterest and blogland so I decided I wanted to make pinata cupcakes. I made a short trip to my local Bed Bath and Beyond to pick up a cupcake corer and then to the grocery store for white cake mix, icing, sprinkles and mini M&Ms as the candy surprise!

**side note...the super cute and festive wrappers were given to me by my Aunt for my b-day last year...on the bottom it says eat more cake!!**

Making the pinata cupcakes is pretty simple. Make the cupcakes according to the box and let cool completely. Once cool, use your corer to take out the middle of each cupcake (but don't go all the way to the bottom more like 3/4 the way down). Fill the middle with mini M&Ms or whatever small candy you would like and then put the cored out piece back on. You might need to cut off some of the cored piece or smush it down really good. Top each cupcake with icing and sprinkles. Enjoy!

If you share these with say your friends/co-workers, don't tell them what's inside...let it be a little surprise :) Oh and because I did bring these to work my friend sent me this "some e-card"...

I think she found out my evil plan...ha ha. However, I eat just as many as everyone else :) That's why I have to share or I would eat all 24!! ha ha.

Spiderman Pinata!

I was asked to make a Spiderman look-a-like pinata for a Superhero birthday party! I have to say it turned out pretty good!!!!

I started with just a balloon blown up as much as possible with out getting a funky balloon shape and I think through out the paper mache process it loss some air, but it was still plenty big to put 3 bags of candy in and to end up weighing 7 pounds!

The red crepe paper I fringed a little smaller than the Elmo Pinata since Spiderman isn't supposed to be furry...ha ha. Once all the red was on, I traced/cut out the eyes on plain white paper and glued them on (all glue was in the form of a glue stick).

Then I went to work on the black streamers. To get the streamers thinner, I cut the roll into three strips. When putting the "web" on I would run my glue stick over where the black would start and then stretched and tried to arch the black strips to the next spot and cut/glue them down. As you can see there was a lot of cutting to make them somewhat rounded lines.

And there you have it...the many angles of Spiderman! Now I wonder how long he will last once the kids start hitting him?!?!

Elmo Pinata

 

Isn't Elmo cute?!?! This is my third pinata and I think it just might be my favorite one! :) I made this for Erica's son's 2nd birthday. I did this one a little different from the others. First, I tied the string it hangs on in between the first and second layers. Second, I did a third layer just to be safe since all the candy will be a smaller "container". Third, I wanted to make sure Elmo looked "shaggy" so I fringed the crepe paper.

Fringe equals FUR!

He looks so happy :) Hope it makes the birthday boy happy too

Hangin' Tough...NKOTB anyone?

Cupcake Pinata

My cousin and his wife also wanted a pinata for their son's birthday so I volunteered to make one. I mean I made this one and it turned out okay so why not try again (plus I also promised to make another one for a friend in April so I need practice...ha ha).

To make the base I used the smallest trash can I could find and paper mached over that (the only thing I wish is that it wasn't so straight). Once the base was dry, I made the top portion using a balloon just like last time. I also tried to make it a little weaker this time hoping that someone would be able to smash it. Next, I filled it with kid friendly snacks, Goldfish and Cheese-its.  I ran into a problem when I was trying to hang it...uh oh! The top wasn't strong enough so the knot kept tearing a bigger hole in the top and the weight of the pinata was also making part of the top cave in. I didn't know what to do, so I thought I would give mod podge a try and it worked like a charm...thank goodness!

Once I was sure the knot would hold the pinata, I started decorating it. I used dark blue crepe paper for the bottom and light blue for the top. I wanted the bottom to look more like a cupcake wrapper so I folded the tops of each layer of crepe paper down a little to make them stick out. And to add a finishing touch, I cut out two ones using my cricut machine and glued them together with the string between the two.

Ta-da! No one wanted to smash it, but I made them! We had a hard time smashing it with a plastic hammer, but eventually I stepped in and put a hole in it and my other cousin's two year old was able to bring it down!

p.s. If you're thinking it looks like a hot air balloon or a light bulb, you're not alone...you have to use your imagination to see it as a cupcake...kind of like when you look at the sky and try and see shapes or objects in the clouds.

Ice Cream Pinata

You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream!!

When you usually feel old on your birthday, what's better than a pinata to make you feel like a kid again?!?! I made this one for Nancy who had a big birthday this past Sunday. We decorated her cube at work and this was the main attraction. We had some doubts about whether the hanger would hold until she got there, but it DID!

I found the idea and tutorial over at Simply Modern Mom! It was very helpful as this was my first ever paper mache project...I know, I know I was a deprived child...ha ha...just kidding.

The best part about this whole ordeal was breaking it yesterday! It was one tough pinata!!

Has anyone else ever made a pinata?