I wanted to make some kind of fun dessert to bring to a Memorial Day BBQ. So I decided on some BBQ themed cupcakes since we were grilling out.
I started with some devil's food cupcakes. Those are my favorite. For the icing, I took white buttercream and colored half with yellow and half with red using Wilton icing colors. I put the yellow icing in half of an icing bag. Basically I tried to hold the bag horizontally and layer the yellow icing along the long side. Then I took the red icing and layered it on top. When holding the bag vertically, there was yellow along one side and red on the other. I used a large star tip and starting in the center of the cupcake top, I just swirled the icing on.
To make the "grill" part, I drew 12 circles onto a regular sheet of paper using a mason jar lid as a guide. Then I put a piece of parchment paper over the circle template. I melted half of a bag of Wilton BLACK candy melts in the microwave. I started with 1 minute and then added 10 seconds at a time until the candy melts were melted completely. I added a small teaspoon of crisco shortening to thin the chocolate out a little (do NOT add water to thin it). I poured the melted chocolate into an icing bag and snipped the tip of the bag. Using the circles on the template as a guide I made the grill shape, freehanding the lines inside. I think next time I would add a few more lines. I let these harden for about an hour on the counter. You could pop them in the refrigerator to speed up the process, if you wish. When hardened, I placed these UPSIDE DOWN on the frosted cupcakes. I thought the smooth side of the grill looked more appealing.
To make the "shish-ka-bobs," I took gummy bears and cut them into pieces. I used all the colors in the bag of gummies. I thought the red looked like meat; the green, yellow, and orange like bell peppers; and the white like onions. I carefully slid 4 or 5 of these pieces onto a toothpick.
Aren't the little hotdogs the cutest??? These were just the pink pieces out of a box of Mike and Ike candy. I put the "grill marks" onto them by using brown Wilton icing colors and drawing the lines with a toothpick. After carefully placing these on top of the "grills", the cupcakes were complete. They are super cute and I think everyone loved them!
