Tee Time Cupcakes

Do you want to impress without too much fuss?  This is definitely the cake or rather cupcakes for that.  This cake is pretty simple and is perfect for the Masters golf tournament coming up this Sunday.  I actually made this as a surprise for the hubs celebrating his 30th birthday and brought it to school for him and his co-residents.  (He wants this ice cream cake for his actual birthday, but I had to surprise him with SOMETHING for his 30th.)  There are five things you need to know about this:  1.  You don't need any cake decorating tips, just ziplock bags.  2.  You don't need to have any cake decorating skills.  Seriously!  3.  The biggest booger on this cake was sticking the white non-pareils on the gumballs.  I didn't even bother sticking the white-nonpareils to the gumball on the tee.  I just left it plain.  So if you don't want to bother with it, just skip that part of the directions in step four (and don't buy the white non-pareils).  5.  People will ooh and aah and think you are amazing.... : )  Just don't let them in on the secret of how easy it is. 

Tee Time Cupcakes

What you need:
24 vanilla cupcakes, 6 baked in white paper liners and 18 baked in green paper liners
1/2 cup ground vanilla wafers
2 cans (16 ounces each) vanilla frosting
Green food coloring
1/2 cup green decorating sugar or 1 (2.25 oz.) bottle of the green decorating sugar
1 yellow flat candy (Smarties or generic)
1 yellow licorice pastel (I used a white Good & Plenty.)
1 tablespoon white nonpareils
3 white gum balls
1 teaspoon light corn syrup
1 2-inch piece strawberry fruit leather (Fruit Roll-ups or Fruit by the Foot works best.)
1 thin pretzel stick
1 chocolate chip
Green felt (if you want to place the cupcakes on a green surface)

Directions:
1.  Place the cookie crumbs in a shallow bowl.  Spread the tops of the 6 cupcakes in white paper liners with vanilla frosting and smooth.  Roll the tops in the crumbs to cover.  Spoon 2 tablespoons vanilla frosting into a small ziplock bag, press out the excess air, and seal.  (You'll use this later.)  Tint the remaining frosting green with the food coloring. 

2.  Place the green decorating sugar in a small shallow bowl.  Spread the tops of 7 of the remaining cupcakes with green frosting and smooth.  Roll the tops in the sugar to cover.  Spread a thin layer of green frosting over the remaining 11 cupcakes.  Spoon the remaining green frosting into two ziplock bags, press out the excess air, and seal. 

3.  Arrange the cupcakes on a serving platter, grouping the crumb-topped cupcakes and the sugar-topped cupcakes together.  (See photo below.)  My cupcakes fit perfectly in an 11x14 inch cookie sheet that was covered with green felt. 

Add some extra wafer crumbs to the top of the sand trap cupcakes to make it look more sandy.  Snip a small (1/8-inch) corner from the bags with green frosting.  Pipe grass over the green-frosted cupcakes and around the perimeter of the sugar-topped cupcakes.  To create the grass, touch the tip of the bag to the surface, squeeze, and anchor the frosting.  Release the pressure before lifting.  Pull away to make a peak.  Don't worry if a few pieces of grass don't turn out.  At the end, you'll never notice. 

4.  For the tee, snip a small (1/8-inch) corner from the bag with the vanilla frosting and pipe a dot on one end of the yellow flat candy.  Attach the licorice pastel and insert into 1 of the cupcakes at the tee position.  Place the white nonpareils in a small shallow bowl.  Roll the gum balls in the corn syrup to coat and then roll them in the nonpareils to coat.  Pipe a dot of frosting on top of the tee and place 1 ball on top.  Place the others on other cupcakes. 

(I hope this pic gives you a better view of the tee.)

5.  For the flag, fold the fruit leather in half around one end of the pretzel stick.  Using clean scissors, cut into a triangular flag shape.  Pipe the number you want on the flag with the vanilla frosting.  Insert the pretzel stick in the center of the sugar-topped cupcake grouping.  For the hole, add the chocolate chip at the base of the pretzel, pointed end down. 

Recipe Source:  What's New, Cupcake? by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson

Linked to:  Full Plate Thursday, Tuesday's Tasty Tidbits, Sweet Tooth Friday, Saturday Swap, Sweets for a Saturday