Congratulations, Class of 2017!
Show your new grad just how proud you are by decorating confetti cupcakes with edible peanut butter cup graduation caps and little marshmallow diplomas!
CUPCAKES 1 pkg. (16.5 oz.) French vanilla cake mix 1 cup buttermilk 3 eggs 1/3 cup oil 1/4 cup confetti sprinkles
COOKIES 1/3 cup all-purpose flour Half of 16.5-oz. tube refrigerated sugar cookie dough 4 wooden toothpicks 1/2 cup each red, blue, green, yellow and orange candy melts 3 Tbs. each red, blue, green and orange decorating sugars
DECORATIONS 23 thin pretzel sticks 23 mini dark chocolate peanut butter cups 23 thin mints 23 red M&M’S Minis 1 roll red fruit leather 3 Tbs. cornstarch 12 Kraft Stackermallows marshmallows 3 cans (16 oz. each) vanilla frosting Food coloring 1/4 cup confetti sprinkles 1/2 cup canned dark chocolate frosting ● Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 muffin cups with cupcake liners. On low, beat cake mix with buttermilk, eggs and oil 30 seconds; on medium, beat 2 minutes. Stir in sprinkles. Divide among liners. Bake 16-17 minutes or until toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean. Cool. ● Cookies: Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Knead flour into cookie dough. On surface, roll out dough to scant 1/4" thickness. Using 1 3/4" or 2" number cookie cutters, cut out 6 sets of “2017;” transfer to baking sheet. Insert a toothpick into bottom edge of one each “2,”“0,” “1,” and “7” cookies. Bake 7-10 minutes or until golden. 1Line Transfer to rack; cool.
3 baking sheets with wax paper. Place number cookies on 2 baking sheets. Working with one color of candy melts at a time, transfer candy to resealable plastic food storage bag; microwave on High in 5-second intervals, kneading until smooth. Snip tiny hole in corner of bag. Working with one at a time, pipe outlines around cookies; fill inside of outline with candy, as shown. While still wet, sprinkle with 2For matching color of sugar.
streamers, pipe 1 1/2"long swirls of candy melts, as shown, on remaining 3Decorations: baking sheet.
For bases of mortarboards, insert 1 pretzel stick into center of wide end of each peanut butter cup. For tassels, pipe lines of red candy melts on top of mints, as shown; attach M&M’S. Refrigerate numbers, streamers and 4For mints until ready to assemble.
diplomas, cut fruit leather into 15 (3 1/2"x1/8") strips. Sprinkle surface with some of cornstarch. Roll 1 marshmallow into 2 1/4"x1 1/2 rectangle. Dust off excess cornstarch. Roll up marshmallow lengthwise to make 2 1/4" long scroll, as shown, adding a dot of water at seam to adhere. Wrap 1 strip of fruit leather around scroll; secure with dot of water if needed. Repeat with remaining marshmallows and fruit strips. ● Assembly: Tint vanilla frosting desired color or colors with food coloring. Transfer to pastry bag fitted with round tip if piping onto cupcakes. Pipe or spread over cupcakes. decorate with sprinkles. ● Carefully peel candy streamers from paper. Reserve 1 cupcake for numbers. Insert pretzel end of each peanut butter cup mortarboard base into center of each remaining cupcake. Transfer chocolate frosting to plastic sandwich bag; snip small hole in one corner from bag. Pipe dot of chocolate frosting on top of each peanut butter cup; attach mint. Insert toothpicks of "2017" cookie numbers into reserved cupcake (serve additional cookies on a platter); decorate remaining cupcakes with streamers and diplomas. Makes 24 cupcakes.