Happy Birthday, Noah!

Last week the son of two of my favorite residents turned one year old.  I was on my third year surgery rotation with Jonathan when Noah was born and made blue cupcakes to celebrate.  This year I needed to step it up a notch because Noah would actually be eating one of the celebratory cupcakes.

And eat it he did!  Every. last. crumb.  Except those that ended up on his shirt and pants.

I did a lot of Google image searching for decorating ideas.  Previously I had seen Sesame Street cupcakes, which seemed like a really cute idea, but I really wanted something that was 100% boy.  My mom suggested dirt cupcakes with gummy worms, which was the front runner until I thought of sports balls.  Baseballs were a given since Jonathan is such a big Tigers fan.  Footballs were the other obvious choice, but since they aren't round I went with basketballs (its almost basketball season, isn't it?).  I even found sports paper cupcake liners at Meijer to complete the look.

Baseball and Basketball Cupcake Decorating

Frosting color: Wilton Christmas Red gel

Frost cupcakes white.

Use piping bag and small round tip (Wilton 4) draw two half circles.

Make several Vs with the point on the already drawn line for the stitching.
Make Vs pointing in the opposite direction on the other half circle.
More acute angles fit better and look more realistic.

Frosting colors: Wilton Christmas Red, Lemon Yellow, and Black gel

Dye large portion of frosting yellow.

Separate a small portion and add a substantial amount of red dye.

Add red frosting to yellow until desired orange is created.

A large amount of black gel dye is required to make black and not grey.

Use small star tip (Wilton 21) to cover the cupcakes in orange frosting.  Leave a little gap where the black lines will go.

Use small round tip (Wilton 4) to draw on black lines.  The black frosting will bleed, so do this at the last minute.

Make a centered plus sign.

Add a half circle on either end of one of the straight lines.

These cupcakes are most enjoyed when eaten like this:

Thanks Jonathan and Libby for letting me be a part of Noah's celebration!