Mini Minnie and Mickey Cupcakes!

These are a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e! And I had so much fun making them. Part of me wanted to do a fun cupcake and I figured why not the King and Queen of adorableness! Minnie and Mickey!! This cupcake I actually had my friend over to help with it, even though we almost used 1/4th of a cup of baking soda instead of 1/4 teaspoon (we found the problem before we put it into the batter!! They would have been real puffy hahaha) and we used my chocolate cupcake recipe and vanilla buttercream but added food coloring and little edible decorations to make them look similar. I hope you have as much fun making these as I know you will eating these!!


Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream


Cake:

• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
• 2 eggs 
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk (it doesn't matter the fat content I used whole milk though)

Buttercream:

• 1 cup butter (2 sticks)
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Red food coloring
• 24 chocolate chips
• Box of mini oreos
• Fondant bows (I found these at my local walmart in the baking section)
• White candy balls (also in the baking section)

1. Begin with setting the oven to 350 degrees. In a separate bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Beat in eggs, milk, oil and vanilla on medium speed until all combined. 
2. Add the boiling water to the batter and scrape the bottom making sure all is combined (this will look watery, don't worry it will give you the moistest cupcake ever!!).
3. Fill your cupcake tins, you can do mini or if you want you can also do regular size, for mini's it will take anywhere from 10-15 minutes to bake, just keep an eye on them and take them out of the over when a toothpick comes out clean from the cupcake. For regular size 18-20 minutes.
4. Let them cool and while they cool start on the buttercream. Beat the butter for 5 minutes until the color is pale yellow and fluffy. 
5. Add 2 cups of the powdered sugar to the butter combine well then add 1 tablespoon of heavy cream. Repeat this until all the sugar and heavy cream is in the buttercream. Add the vanilla then put half the buttercream in one bowl and half in the other.
6. This part you half to just eyeball and pick what hue you like best, we started with 5 drops of food coloring and make a light pink. In the other part of the butter cream mix in 10 drops to make a vibrant red. 
7. For the piping bag we used a closed star wilton tip for Minnie and a circle wilton tip for Mickey. Once those are ready pipe all the Minnie cupcakes (squeeze in the center and circle up to make a twirl). For Mickey we just squeezed until it covered the whole cupcake not moving it at all. 
8. Once they are all frosted, start by putting 2 oreo's per cupcake for their ears. For Mickey we just put 2 chips on the front of him for his overall buttons and he is done!!
9. For Minnie put 2 oreo
   's just like Mickey but for her add a bow between her ears and sprinkle with the while candy circles.