Party cupcakes!
Wow ’em at your next party! Whimsical lemon cupcakes are topped with gorgeous fantasy butterflies magically made from potato chips!
1 pkg. (15.25 oz.) French vanilla cake mix 1 cup buttermilk 3 eggs 1/3 cup oil 2 tsp. grated lemon zest 1 cont. (5.68 oz.) Pringles potato chips 1 can each (1.5 oz.) pink, yellow, blue, orange and pearl food color spray, such as Wilton 1/4 cup white candy melts 1 cup + 1 can (16 oz.) vanilla frosting 1 cup white edible glitter Variety of colored pearls, gold dragées* and small pastelcolored sprinkles
Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 muffin cups with cupcake liners. On low speed, beat cake mix, buttermilk, eggs and oil until blended, 30 seconds; on medium, beat 2 minutes. Stir in zest. Divide among liners. Bake 15-17 minutes or until toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Transfer from pans to racks; cool completely.
For top right-side wings: Place 1 chip, curved downward, horizontally on work surface. Using small serrated knife and gentle sawing motion, diagonally score chip from 4 o’clock to 10 o’clock positions, as shown on left. Snap chip in half along scored mark. Repeat with 11 more chips. For top left-side wings: Place 1 chip, curved downward, horizontally on work surface. Using small serrated knife and gentle sawing motion, diagonally score chip from 8 o’clock to 2 o’clock positions, as shown above on right. Snap chip in half along scored mark. Repeat with 11 more chips.
For bottom rightside wings, repeat laying out potato chips as directed above, scoring on the diagonal from 5 o’clock to 11 o’clock positions, as shown on left. For bottom left-side wings, score and snap 12 chips from 7 o’clock to 1 o’clock positions, as shown on right.
Line 4 baking sheets with wax paper. On 1 baking sheet, arrange 1 top right wing with 1 top left wing, narrow ends down, making sure to orient them either both curving upward or both curving downward, as shown. Add 1 bottom right wing and 1 bottom left wing, again making sure bottom wings are oriented both upward or both downward, as shown. Repeat to make a total of 6 groupings of wings on each baking sheet. Coat all of wings on each sheet with a different color food spray (except for pearl) to cover. Let dry about 5 minutes. Coat chips with pearl food spray. Let dry about 5 minutes.
● For antennae, line another baking sheet with wax paper. Microwave candy melts in zip-top plastic food storage bag on High in 5-second intervals, massaging bag, until smooth. Snip tiny hole in one corner of bag. Pipe at least 24 (1 1/2" long) antennae shapes (make extra for breakage) on wax paper, as shown. Refrigerate until set, about 5 minutes.
Transfer 1 cup frosting to pastry bag fitted with small plain tip (such as Wilton # 2). Smoothly spread some of remaining frosting over 1 cupcake and roll in edible glitter to coat, as shown on left. Repeat with remaining cupcakes. Press 2 bottom wings and 2 top wings into each cupcake, as shown on right.
Pipe decorative frosting patterns and dots on wings as desired. Use tweezers to add pearls and sprinkles to dots of frosting. Pipe row of frosting dots between wings; top with 7 gold dragées. Gently peel antennae from wax paper; insert between top wings. Repeat to decorate remaining wings and cupcakes. Makes 24 cupcakes.
*Dragées for decoration only.