So when Daniel was turning 11, he was very much into Minecraft. As were all of his friends! So, when his birthday came around I was determined to make a Minecraft cake. I couldn’t figure out a cake design that would say Minecraft to me, so I decided to do Minecraft cupcakes. Instead of traditional cupcakes, I would cut a sheet cake into squares to have the square theme throughout.
I normally go all out for my kids’ birthday cakes. And I really wanted to nail the minecraft theme for Daniel. So this is less about a recipe and more about how I pulled that off. You can certainly make these with the recipes below or with a simple box cake and can of frosting from your favorite grocery store. When using the cake mix and icing from the store, skip to the “For the decorating” section in the recipe below.
The first thing I did was to create a template to use that had that minecraft feel to it. Here’s what I made out of some cardboard and a handy craft knife. After making the cake and icing it with a green icing, I used this to spray designs on the iced cake in a Wilton spray color in a shade of green darker than my icing. It gave that minecraft feel to the cake.
Once the icing was set with the minecraft theme, I set forth to cut out minecraft faces from some black Wilton sugar sheets I picked up at my local craft store. The faces came out quickly and I placed them on the minecraft cupcakes.
Daniel thought they were perfect. That’s all I needed to know!
We had a great party at Laser Quest where the kids played air hockey, arcade games, and then 3 great rounds of laser tag! Mike and I had a blast playing laser quest with the kids. I recently came across some of our score sheets…my monicer was “Minecraft Mom” ha ha!
It was a great party and the minecraft cupcakes were a hit. Heck, six years later, Daniel and his friends still likes to get an upgrade and play a new version of the game every now and then.
For your little gamer, try making these minecraft cupcakes. Remember, it really does not matter whether you use a homemade recipe or box cake, just have fun and enjoy!
Minecraft Cupcakes for Daniel
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 2/1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup butter *
- 3 eggs *
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups milk *
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
For the icing:
- 1 stick cold butter cut into cubes
- 3 cups confectioners sugar
- 2-3 Tbsp milk.
- 1 tsp vanilla **
- pinch salt
For the decorating:
- green food coloring I use Wilton gel colors
- cardboard minecraft template
- green color spray I use Wilton
- black edible sugar sheets I use Wilton or you could use black fondant
Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease and flour, or use a baking spray, in a 13x9 cake pan.
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, and vanilla until fluffy.
- Add eggs one at a time, beating for about 20 seconds after each egg, to incorporate.
- Add about a fourth of the flour mixture into the mixing bowl and beat to incorporate.
- Add 1/2 cup of the milk to the mixing bowl and beat to incorporate.
- Continue to alternate adding the flour mixture and milk, scraping down sides, when needed, until mixed together.
- Add chocolate chips and stir with a spoon to mix in.
- Pour batter into the prepared 9x13 cake pan and bake in preheated oven for 30 - 35 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Allow to cool in pan before removing onto a cake carrier or platter of your choice before decorating.
For the icing:
- Beat together the butter, confectioners sugar, milk, vanilla, and salt on low speed just until combined.
- Scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure everything gets incorporated.
- Beat again on medium speed for 3 minutes until fluffy.
- You want a creamy consistency that holds peaks. If the icing is too wet, add some more confectioners sugar. Conversely, if it is too dry, add a little bit more milk.
For the decorating:
- Add the green food coloring to the icing and mix to combine.
- Ice the cake generously, just on the top, you may have left over icing.
- Using the cardboard template, hold it above the iced cake and use the Wilton spray color to create a design across the cake to achieve that Minecraft look.
- Cut the cake into 20 squares.
- Cut out 40 eyes and 20 mouths out of the black Wilton sugar sheets to create Minecraft faces and place onto each square.
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