Rubber Ducky, You're the One. You Make Monday So Much Fun!

It's cupcake Monday, people!  Today is one of my co-workers' birthday, so in celebration (and to lift the somewhat blue mood around here) I made duck shaped cupcakes.  Who can resist smiling at a cute yellow ducky?

I can't take the credit for the design of this cupcake.  My friend V gave me the What's New Cupcake book for my birthday / Christmas and I've been dying to give it a whirl ever since.  The supplies needed are pretty basic: 24 yellow cupcakes, 2 cans plus 1 cup vanilla frosting (I think I used pillsbury), large marshmallows, doughnut holes, some kind of orange taffy (I used starburst - which C made me take into work because I was following the "one for me, one for you... one two for me, two for you" paradigm.  Have I mentioned my pants don't fit...?), brown mini m&ms, and a LOT of patience.

First - make your cupcakes.  I used a box mix because I was being lazy, but feel free to use any recipe you want.  I would recommend staying within the yellow/white cake family simply because it lets the bottom blend in with the yellow duck a bit more, but I'm sure you run in street gangs and do what you want.

Next you'll need to frost the tops of the cupcakes so that your marshmallows and doughnut holes have something to grab onto.  It doesn't have to be a super thick layer or pretty - trust me, the tedious icing part comes soon enough.

Don't mind the tomatoes in the background up there... I promise no tomatoes were hurt in the making of this cupcake.  Next, you'll need to attach the head and the butt (or just the butt in the case of the upside down ducks).  To make the tails, you cut marshmallows in half on the diagonal.  I used my kitchen scissors for this and it did a pretty good job.

At this point, if you need a break I'd recommend one because you're going to be elbow deep in icing for the next hour or so.  The tedious part has arrived - you see all those little gaps where the doughnut and the marshmallow meet the top of the cupcake?  Yeah... you need to spackle those with icing to smooth it out.  Then you create an army of frosted ducks in your freezer - something like this:

Freeze the cupcakes for about 15 minutes to make sure the doughnut and the marshmallow are locked into place on the top of the cupcake.  You're going to be dipping them into melted icing, so it needs to be able to stand up to some heat.  Once your army has chilled, melt some yellow colored icing in the microwave (about 15 seconds at a time).  Let the excess icing drip off and then leave out to dry.

Once all of your ducks are dipped, then you can create the beaks and feet.  I recommend microwaving and molding them in small batches.  They're a lot easier to work with when they're a little bit soft.  Attach the the beaks / feet with a small dab of icing - you might have to stand there for a minute or do a beak sticking dance to get them to stay, but they will eventually hold tight. 

Last but not least, apply the eyes to the rubber duckies with a small dab of white icing and viola!  Rubber Duckies!

 

 

My favorite are the ones with the butt in the air :-)

Overall I <3 these, but they took a really long time to make.  The best part was everyone's reaction at work.  It was awesome hearing the quaking, laughing, and joking coming from the kitchen.  I think we all needed a little bit of duck butt today :-)