Anyone who knows a little guy around the age of 5 has most likely gone through a pirate stage. I know we sure did. When Boy Mimi was much younger he would play outside for hours at a time with his big plastic pirate ship and pirate men.
Although Boy Mimi is way past the pirate phase now, our good friend Little E recently had a birthday that was all about pirates. To go with all the decorations, costumes, treasure chests, and the hunt for gold, he naturally needed some pirate themed treats to round out his party.
We used our favorite sugar cookie recipe for the pirate ship cookies and used royal icing to decorate them, and for the cupcakes we made Martha Stewart's chocolate cupcakes. Since most little pirates don't like fondant, we used buttercream frosting and used the back of a paper towel to smooth the surface and give the face some texture. The eye patch, eye, mouth and nose were done with extra royal icing from the cookies. For the tie on the bandanna, we used a small heart sprinkle with the pointy end pushed into the cake, and the white dots were small round candy confetti.
We used our favorite sugar cookie recipe for the pirate ship cookies and used royal icing to decorate them, and for the cupcakes we made Martha Stewart's chocolate cupcakes. Since most little pirates don't like fondant, we used buttercream frosting and used the back of a paper towel to smooth the surface and give the face some texture. The eye patch, eye, mouth and nose were done with extra royal icing from the cookies. For the tie on the bandanna, we used a small heart sprinkle with the pointy end pushed into the cake, and the white dots were small round candy confetti.
The flags on top of the pirate ships came from a cupcake liner set from Michael's. We used the liners for the cupcakes, and used melted chocolate to glue the decorative flags onto the top of the cookies. You could easily make you own by printing out small pirate flags and gluing them onto a toothpick before attaching them to the cookies.
We had such a good time contributing to Little E's pirate party and making some fun new desserts, and can't wait until the next party!
Martha Stewart One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes
adapted from Martha Stewart Cupcakes
makes 18
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cups unsweetened Dutch processed cocoa powder** I used Hershey's regular cocoa
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cups buttermilk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup warm water
Preheat oven to 350F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. With an electric mixer on medium speed whisk together flour, cocoa,sugar, baking soda,baking powder and salt. Reduce speed to low add eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla and water:beat until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Divided the batter evenly amount the lined cups, filling each about 2/3 full**I filled them only half full since I wanted a flat surface to decorate. Bake, rotating tins half way through baking. Bake about 20 minutes until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer tins to a rack to cool 10 minutes; turnout cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely. Frost as desired.
printable recipe
Buttercream Frosting
1 cup softened butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup milk
pinch of salt
4 cups of sifted powdered sugar
Color as desired
1. Cream the butter and slowly add powdered sugar and beat until fairly well incorporated, mixture will be crumbly.
2. Add milk and vanilla beat at medium-low speed until combined and then up your speed to med-high and beat until light and fluffy, 7 to 10 minutes.
printable recipe
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