Buzz Lightyear Cupcakes

I made these Buzz cupcakes a few months ago, but figured I would post it now since I know a lot of our little ones are obsessed with anything Buzz Lightyear.  And these cupcakes are pretty easy to decorate.  Anyone can really do it.  Obviously, I'm no pro - so if you have more skills than me, you can probably make these a little look much cleaner.

Age: 4+, but I'm sure Mom or Dad will do most of the work.
Time: After baking cupcakes, it took me about 20-30 minutes to decorate.
Mess/Cleanup:  I did most of the work on these cupcakes, while my son placed some on the "buttons" on.  I was much messier than him.  I managed to get frosting all on my hands.  But the cleanup was pretty simple.
What You Need:

• Un-iced cupcakes (I colored mine with gel food coloring to make them extra cool)
• Pepperidge Farms Milano Cookies
• White Frosting.  Personally I don't like the taste of frosting from the can, so I did make my own buttercream.  Making your own icing is VERY easy and only requires a few ingredients (butter, confectioners sugar, vanilla, and a little coffee creamer).  You could easily use store bought frosting.
• Food Coloring (Colors Needed: Purple, Green, 'Flesh').  I like the Wilton Gel Colors.  You can also buy Disney Wilton Colors.  They pre-package the colors you need.  There is a Toy Story theme, like this one.
• Black Edible Color Marker like this.  I bought mine at the grocery store.
• Blue Icing Gel
• RedHot Candies
• Sprinkles or Mini Candy Coated Chocolate Chips (need red, blue, and green)
• Sandwich baggies
• Scissors

Why I Like This Craft:
Making these Buzz cupcakes made me a rockstar in my son's eyes.  Enough said.

Step 1:
Mix your frosting colors.  You will need the majority of Green and Purple. For the piping, you may need to microwave your frosting for a FEW seconds.

• White - for the mouth and eyes.  You could also use white chocolate chips for the eyes.
• Purple - for Buzz's helmet thing and the center of each cupcake.
• Green - for the perimeter of each cupcake.
• Flesh - for the nose

Step 2:
Place each of your colors in a baggie.  Right before you use each color, snip a tiny corner off of the bag.  Keep the hole pretty small for the purple, white, and flesh colors.  This will allow us to easily pipe on the face features.

Step 3:
Lay out all of the cookies.  Using the purple, pipe on the helmet thing on each cookie.

Step 4:
Using the Food Writer, draw a swirly to make Buzz's chin.

Step 5:
Using the white frosting, make the eyes and mouth.

Step 6:
Using the flesh-colored frosting, draw the nose.

Step 7:
Using the blue gel, put a little dallop on each eye.

I know, some of these Buzz's look a little goofy.

Step 8:
Using the purple icing (snip the open corner again to make the hole in the baggie a little larger), make a swirly in the center of each cupcake.  Use the same technique you would use to serve yourself some soft-serve ice cream.

Step 9:
Using the green icing, edge the permiter of each cupcake.

Step 10:
Place the Buzz cookies in the center of each cupcake.

Step 11:
Arrange the sprinkles/candy-coated mini chocolate chips to make Buzz's control panel. 

• Blue, Green, Red 'buttons' on the left
• Big Red button (Red Hot candy) on the right

Enjoy your new rock star status!

-Rose @-}---