Husky Cupcakes

My son will turn 19 on Monday, so I decided to try to make cupcakes decorated like husky dogs, because he goes to Michigan Tech and they are the Huskies. My friend Christine came over to help me....we figured we'd make it work out or it would be epic Pinterest fail worthy.

Michigan Tech Mascot
Blizzard T. Husky

I saw these cupcakes first on the Michigan Tech Parents Facebook group, and I decided to give it a try, even though I'm not very skilled yet at cake decorating.   I can decorate cookies pretty well with royal icing, but have only tried to decorate cakes a few times.

Doing a little googling, I quickly determined I needed to get a Wilton grass tip....I ordered 2 so I could have 1 for gray and one for white fur.

I was pretty sure I wasn't going to want to pipe the blue eyes, but luckily I found some blue candy eyes for sale on Amazon.    I baked a dozen chocolate cupcakes using this Martha Stewart recipe, then I had to figure out what kind of icing to use.   I didn't want to use shortening, because I didn't care if my husky fur was a little off white.   Also, I wasn't sure on the consistency for the grass tip.  It seemed to work out better a little stiffer than medium consistency.   Here is how I ended up making the icing....

Buttercream Icing

1 1/2 cup unsalted butter (3 sticks),
6 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar
¼ teaspoon table salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
up to 4 tablespoons milk or half and half

Beat butter for a few minutes with a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed. Add powdered sugar a cup at a time and turn your mixer on the lowest speed, until the sugar has been incorporated with the butter. Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract, salt, and 2 tablespoons of milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add remaining milk 1 tablespoons at a time. 

I used mini marshmallows cut in half diagonally for the ears.   I tinted about a 1/4 cup icing pink for the tongue and another 1/4 cup black for the nose and piping, which I did with a Wilton #3 tip.   It might work a little better to make these 2 colors a little thinner for better piping.    I split the rest of the icing in half and tinted one part gray and left the other off white.  

I think they came out pretty good!  The grass tip is very forgiving....thank goodness.

A Pack of Huskies

Can't wait to celebrate his birthday on Monday when he gets home from deer hunting!  Happy birthday Eddie!