“Everyone Loves Cupcake” by Kelly DiPucchio and Eric Wight

Cupcake has a big personality and beloved by all the other food items she associates with.  She is full of charm and confidence and seems to have everything going for her.  However, Cupcake has a secret: she isn’t completely happy.  She feels the pressure of having to keep up a certain persona for everyone to like her.  It reaches the point where she just can’t take it anymore and lets everyone know.  Much to her surprise, she discovers that everyone loves her just as she is and being herself really is the best way to go.

I love the message in this book that what we should have confidence in is being ourselves and Cupcake is a great character to teach that.  I also love all the witty puns throughout the text and the adorably illustrated food items.  It really is a book that will make you smile and one that is definitely memorable.

Click here to purchase “Everyone Loves Cupcake”

“Everyone Loves Cupcake” inspired Cupcakes

Well, seeing as how the main character in this book is a memorable and wonderful cupcake you just know that I HAD to make some of my own.  When my great love of children’s literature and my great love of cupcakes combine it’s a blissful moment for me.

These cupcakes are incredibly fun to make and I just love how the little divas turned out.  They literally make me smile every time I look at them and I think they make a fun pairing with the book.  They are chocolate cupcakes (with a box mix to keep things simple) and a basic/traditional pink buttercream.  I took inspiration from the illustrations with every detail I used to decorate these cupcakes from here sparkling tiara to her black beauty mark.  Seriously so much fun!  I linked the supplies that I used below. I even have the template I created for her tiara to share with you.  Enjoy!

Supplies:

• box of chocolate cake mix
• milk and ingredients for the buttercream recipe below
• hot pink cupcake liners
• chocolate sprinkles
• hot pink sprinkles
• white pearl sprinkles
• white chocolate melts
• black chocolate melts
• candy eyes
• large heart sprinkles
• black gel

Process

Chocolate Cupcakes

I just baked the chocolate cupcakes (in hot pink cupcake liners) following the instructions on the chocolate cake mix.  The only change I made was to substitute milk for water, because I prefer that flavor more.

Pink Buttercream

Below is the butter cram recipe I used.  When I piped I tried to get a smallish pile right in the middle or a bit toward the back of the cupcake and was sure to leave a bit of room to put a face on the cupcakes later.

Frosting Decorations

I put hot pink and chocolate jimmie sprinkles similar to the ones in the illustrations on the buttercream, them prepared the tiaras.

Tiaras

I have the template I created this Everyone Loves Cupcake inspired tiara template for the tiaras, free to you for personal use.  To set-up for creating the tiaras, print it off and place it under a clear sheet of wax paper.

Next you prepare the candy melts and create the silver color for the tiaras.   I mixed 2 black candy melts with 30 white candy melts in a bowl then I followed the instructions on the bag to melt them in the microwave.  Next I put it in a piping bag with a small round tip.   The last step is a lot of fun, you just pipe the tiaras onto the wax paper using the tiara template below as a guide.

To create the “sparkle” effect of her tiara that I noticed in the illustrations I sprinkled the white pearl sprinkles on their piped tiaras when they were still wet.  When the candy melts have cooled the sprinkles will stick to the tiaras and they should peel of the wax paper with ease.  Be careful though as they are fragile and break easily.

After they are done you gently place them in the middle of the front of your frosting pile.

Face

For the eyes I used Wilton candy eyes and for the mouth I used jumbo heart sprinkles because in some of the illustrations Cupcake’s mouth forms a heart shape.  I adhered these to the cupcake with black gel then made her “beauty mark” with the same gel on her “cheek” when the face was done.

Thats it! I hope you have as much fun assembling these cupcakes as I did and I hope they bring you a lot of smiles. If you give this Beyond the Book activity a try I’d love to hear how it goes! Share it on Instagram using hashtag #beyondthebook (I’m on Instagram as @book.nerd.mommy) or even just comment here with your thoughts. It would make my day! Or to simply save for later pin the image below.