Under the Sea
under the sea
Darlin' it's better down where it's wetter
Take it from me.
Up on the shore they work all day
Out in the sun they slave away
While we devoting full time to floating
Under the sea
Supplies
1 package white candy melts
one lavender candy melt
one pink candy melt
black candy coloring (or you could use a couple black candy melts in the white to tint grey)
Seashells candy mold
4 chewy granola bars
Ariel and Flounder Picks
Ariel Cupcake liners
candy fish
piping gel
blue icing coloring
2 cups white icing
pink and white fondant (just a small amount to make flowers)
brown sugar
Cupcakes ready to be decorated
Day 1
The first step in making these cupcakes was to make the candy shells and the rock that Ariel will sit on top of. I first started by melting 3/4 package of Ambrosia White Candy Bark in the
Wilton Chocolate Pro, this takes about 20-30 minutes. When that was done, I melted one lavender and one pink Wilton Candy Melt
(yes just one of each!) on separate sides of a microwave safe plate for 30 seconds on 50%. I used a lollipop stick to paint streaks into the
Wilton Seashells Candy Mold and then using a plastic spoon topped that with the white melted candy, making sure to tap the mold on the cabinet to let out any air bubbles. Put these in the refrigerator to set
(about 10 minutes) and then tap them onto the cabinet to unmold. They should be really easy to unmold, if they aren't, refrigerate them for a few minutes more. Since I am only making 12 Ariel Cupcakes and really only need 12 seashells,
(there are 12 Ariel Picks and 12 Flounder Picks in the Wilton Disney Princess Ariel Fun Pix) but I made extra just in case. The mold makes 11 shells, so I did this a couple times.
(Tip- if you happen to overfill the mold, don't worry, after the candy sets up you can easily break off the excess candy and use the warmth of your fingers to smooth out the shell)
While the candy shells are setting up, open up 4 chewy granola bars
(preferably without chocolate chips- they tend to melt and look ugly). Break up the granola bars into about 3 pieces each bar and shape into the rocks. I also made rocks using the same method for
St Patrick's Day Blarney Stone Cupcakes. These rocks are just a little larger than the ones for the Blarney Stones. Add enough
Wilton Black Candy Coloring to turn the white candy in the pot to a grey color. There are special oil based colors to color the candy melts. You could also use a few black candy melt disks to turn the white grey if you have those.
(Black Candy Melts are only available at Halloween time around here, so this fall I am going to have to get a few bags since I am always needing black or grey! ) Anyway, back to business...dip your granola rocks into the grey melting candy with a plastic spoon, remove, and place on waxed paper.
When you are finished with the rocks, put them in the refrigerator a few minutes to set before you turn off the pot of candy in case you need to go over any spots you missed or touched, it can easily be done with a spoon.
Now all of the shells and the rocks can sit at room temperature until they are needed...I'm done for the day!
Total time for Day 1- about 2 hours including melting, set up, and cleaning up time.
Day 2
I am super excited to get started on the cupcakes today!
The recipe I am using is
Yellow Cupcakes from the Martha Stewart Website. But first, I must line the cupcake tins with
Disney Princess Ariel Baking Cups.
(Tip- if you have a problem seeing the designs on your baking cups after they are baked, switch out the oil or butter in the recipe for unsweetened applesauce and you can see the pictures on the liner perfectly and even cut out some fat, yet still have a very moist cupcake!)
I didn't realize that the recipe only makes 12, so I will have to make 2 batches. I will be doing each batch differently since I only have enough eggs for one batch. UH-OH! No...that's okay, we can work around having no eggs!
For Batch One- I replaced the 1/2 cup butter for 1/2 cup applesauce and baked until toothpick came out clean, 22 minutes here!
For Batch 2- THE EGGLESS BATCH! I first replaced the 1/2 cup butter for 1/2 cup applesauce, then I changed the milk amount from 1/2 cup to the line right in between 1/3 and 1/2 cup. (I am not a mathematician, so I don't know what that would be called!) Finally, in place of each egg, I added 1 Tablespoon more of applesauce...so total in Batch 2 I used 1/2 cup PLUS 2 Tablespoons of applesauce. These also took 22 minutes to bake.
 |
| Left-Batch one with eggs; Right- Batch two with no eggs |
Batch 1- The cupcakes with the eggs had a larger dome and were a little more yellow due to the yolks. They were a breadier cupcake.
Batch 2- The cupcakes with no eggs, I preferred, they were a softer cupcake, but both batches pretty much tasted the same!
While the cupcakes cooled, I thought it would be cute to add some flowers to the rocks. I rolled out pink fondant to 1/8" and cut out with a small flower fondant cutter. I hand rolled the tiny white centers of the flower and glued together with Gum Paste Adhesive that I learned about in
Wilton Course 2- Lesson 1, you will also find directions in that post.
I carefully inserted one of the Ariel picks into each of the rocks and then used gum paste adhesive to adhere the flowers to the rocks and sat those aside to dry a few minutes. While they were drying, I colored 1-1/2 cups Wilton Decorators Icing and 2/3 of the container of Wilton Piping Gel, both blue. Save the remaining 1/2 cup white icing to go under the sand.
Next onto the assembly of the Ariel Cupcakes.
To start, I iced 2/3 of each cupcake blue and the remaining 1/3 white. I pressed brown sugar into the white icing with a spoon for the sand. (For half of the cupcakes, I had the sand in the front, the other half I had the sand in the back, not sure which I like best!) For stability, I used an additional toothpick poked into the bottom of the rock to secure the rock to the cupcake...be careful, I did crack one rock doing this! I placed Ariel on the cupcake and then applied the piping gel with a small baby spoon over all of the blue icing and around the rock. For the shells that I put on the cupcakes with the sand in the front, I cut a toothpick in half and sightly poked into the candy shell and then poked the shell into the cupcake. For the shells that I put on the cupcakes with sand in the back, I used the larger shells and they are just propped up against a toothpick.(You could do all this without additional toothpicks, the first one I didn't use toothpicks, but I wanted these to be very stable when I moved them so used toothpicks. For the upright seashell, I propped it against a tooth pick, I don't think they would stay well at all without a toothpick.)
Now it is Flounders Turn...
These went very quick. I just iced the cupcake blue with the blue icing and then went over it with the blue piping gel. Next, I place the Flounder pick and a couple candy fish in the water!
Total time for Day 2- about 2 hours from the time I started mixing the batter to the time I had everything cleaned up.
These were a lot of fun to make!
Last Years Little Mermaid Cupcakes
I also made Little Mermaid Cupcakes last year using
Disney Princess Ariel Icing Decorations. The Icing decorations didn't have an Ariel, just Flounder, a seashell, and a star. For the Ariel picks, I went to the
Disney Princess Website and then click on "Printables" and then "Stickers". They no longer have the stickers I used, but they have different Ariel stickers that are cute too! I didn't have sticker paper to print them, so I just printed them and cut them to where the front and back matched in size and glued them to a toothpick to make my own picks!
