Hey guys!

I am challenging you to make your very own owl cupcakes! Send in your version of these tasty treats by Sunday, October 11th at midnight for a chance to be featured on the website and in Jones social media!

You will need:

  • A cake mix of your choice
  • Cupcake tin & liners
  • Icing of your choice
  • Ziploc bag or piping bag
  • Scissors
  • Knife
  • Oreos
  • Chocolate chips

final cupcakes

Here are a few of the ones I ended up with, and they tasted great!

First, bake your cupcakes according to whatever mix you’re using. I used a Betty Crocker vanilla cake mix for mine. (Hint: replace the water with even amounts of milk, double the amount of oil with melted butter, and add an extra egg for a richer cupcake!)

Then, prepare your icing!

I did a simple American buttercream with one stick of butter, 4 cups of powdered sugar, about 5 tablespoons of milk, 5 tablespoons of cocoa powder, and a dash of vanilla. I first softened the butter and then mixed it alone for a minute until it was creamy. I then added my powdered sugar one cup at a time, checking the sweetness every time with a spoon. After those were combined, I added the milk, cocoa powder, and vanilla. I mixed these on high for 3 or 4 minutes to make sure the icing was light and fluffy!

If you don’t have the time or energy to make buttercream from scratch though, you can buy a can of frosting from the store. If you go this route, I recommend that you whip the canned icing for a few minutes to increase its volume and give you more to work with!

Next, let’s get our pipe on!

You don’t need any fancy baking tools to accomplish these owl boys. Just take a Ziploc bag, cut out a triangle from the corner of the bag, and fill it with icing! Voila! You now have a piping bag that will give you nice feathers on your cupcake.

When you go to pipe, try to make sure the bag doesn’t have a lot of air in it to prevent an explosion. Hold the bag at about a 45-degree angle just above the surface of your cupcake. Squeeze a small dollop (about the size of a penny) of icing on the cupcake, and slowly pull down and away from the cupcake while letting off pressure to get the feathered look. It might not look perfect, but with all of your other feathers it’ll look great. Do this row by row starting from the “bottom” of your owl and working your way up.

Next, we’ll use our Oreos and chocolate chips! Start by slicing through the Oreo (carefully!) to get icing on both sides of the cookie. Then, cut each cookie half into fourths. Take two of these pieces and put them near the “top” of your owl with the corners facing each other. Once they’re in place, take a milk chocolate chip for each piece and place them in the on the Oreo icing. Take a white chocolate chip with the point facing the “bottom” of the cupcake and place it between and below the Oreo pieces. And you’re done!

You can try this with whatever variations you’d like! You can use M&Ms for the eyes and beak, or use vanilla icing with golden Oreos for a snowy owl, or whatever else you can think of! Don’t be afraid to get in the kitchen and get creative!