Hi everyone! I decided to change things up for my daughter's birthday and do cupcakes instead of a regular cake.

I am doing sesame street cupcakes and wanted to make them similar to this:
http://www.coolest-birthday-cakes.com/sesame-street-cupcakes.html#c4

I usually use a crusting buttercream for the frosting on my cakes, but I'm concerned that it will end up being hard little hairs for the characters. I made grass on a cake before with the crusting buttercream and I didn't like the texture of it being so hard.

So does anyone have any suggestions for me?


Also, since I have a feeling the cupcakes will take a while to decorate with all the details, I was going to bake the cupcakes ahead of time. The party is Saturday. I usually bake the cakes the weekend before, freeze them, and then decorate them on Friday for a Saturday party. Can I do the same with cupcakes?


Thanks everyone for the help! I appreciate it!

The cupcakes should be fine to freeze. I baked over 100 cupcakes for a party that ended up being delayed by a week due to snow. I didn't want to rebake them all so I put them in the freezer. They tasted delicious! No one would ever know they were in the freezer for a week.

Those cupcakes are going to be SO cute!! And yes, freezing does the same wonderful thing to cupcakes that it does to regular cake - it keeps the moisture in, as long as you wrap them well. Whenever I have cake batter left over, I make it into cupcakes and freeze them, so I always have cupcakes on hand. Sometimes there's enough for just three or four, but I bake them anyway, because they add up over time, and freezing them, even for several months, doesn't take away from the flavor and freshness.

Great, thanks!

What kind of frosting would be best to use so the hair on the characters doesn't get so hard?

We had a cupcake stand at our wedding, and my mother and her friend made them. Both my mother and her friend made the cupcakes ahead and froze them, and everyone was talking about how yummy they were! (We didn't have a groom's cake, just 2 different types of cupcake. That's why two people made them.)

Using powdered sugar in a buttercream recipe is what makes the buttercream crust. If you don't want it to crust, you need to use a recipe like italian meringue buttercream or swiss meringue buttercream as they use sugar which you melt with water and get a syrup and then add it to whisked egg whites.

That's my suggestion but I'm new to this as well, if you do go with my suggestion I would recommend doing a test run first.

If you don't want it to crust, I would recomment an italian meringue. It is a little harder to make but the frosting is smooth and easy to pipe. Dyann Bakes has a video that really helped me.

Before freezing them do you take the liners off? Thanks

No, there's no reason to. When they thaw out, the liners aren't affected and they keep the cupcakes from drying out.

If you are looking for a basic icing recipe, you could use the Wilton Buttercream recipe. It is considered a crusting icing, but in my opinion it still would work nicely for what you are planning on doing.