Marshmallow snowmen cupcakes

These are great little festive cakes to really get the children excited about Christmas. Eye catching and really cute they are fantastic for Christmas fairs or parties or even just to entertain. The kids can get stuck into decorating these little snowmen as well,

To make just follow the basic cupcake recipe of your choice in the links below:

Vanilla cupcake recipe
http://forbakessake.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/simple-vanilla-cupcakes.html

Chocolate cupcake recipe
http://forbakessake.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/simple-chocolate-cupcakes.html

Once your cakes are baked leave them on a wire rack to cool down.  Once cooled they are ready for decoration. You will need:

• Icing of your choice, I find a marshmallow buttercream frosting works great (recipe at bottom of page) or simply marshmallow fluff which you can by from Asda and other leading supermarkets. You can also use a basic buttercream or cream cheese frosting as long as it is white in colour.
• 1 pack of white large marshmallows
• Black writing icing pen to pipe >>>
• Colour of your choice writing icing for buttons
• Orange fondant

How to decorate

• Pipe your frosting in a circular motion up into a peak. 
• make your snowman's nose with orange fondant icing and attach to each marshmallow by dabbing into the icing and glueing to the face.
• Place a single marshmallow on top of each cupcake and leave to set for 25 mins or so in the fridge.
• Once removed from the fridge you can begin to detail. Start by drawing the eyes, nose and arms with the black writing icing pen. then draw your snowman's buttons with a contrasting colour such as red, green ect...
• you can also use flavoured laced to make a scarf if you like. 
• Another great quirky idea would be to place a marshmallow inside the cupcake before baking so there is a soft fluffy centre surprise, kids will love it.

Marshmallow buttercream recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup room temperature butter
• 1 (7-ounce) jar marshmallow creme/fluff
• 2 cups confectioners sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 vanilla bean (optional)

Instructions

1. Cream the butter until it is light and fluffy. Add the marshmallow creme.
2. Whip for 2 minutes.
3. Add the confectioners sugar and continue to beat for 2 minutes. Add vanilla extract and vanilla bean.