Owl Pull-Apart Cupcake Cake

I absolutely love how this pull-apart cupcake cake turned out, and it wasn't hard to make at all (bonus).  There are lots of inspiration photos online, this is how I made mine and I think he's adorable. You could easily change the colors and candies that you decorate with tho if you want him to be different - use your imagination! I will say that I think the extra individual owls are a little scary looking, I might not make them in the future - or maybe decorate them another way LOL. 

Bake whatever flavor cupcakes you want, the owl as shown took 14. Make a batch of buttercream frosting (see below) - spoon out a small portion to leave white for 4 cupcakes making the eyes and feet, and tint another small portion orange for the 3 cupcakes in the center of his body. Add cocoa powder to the remaining frosting and frost the rest of the cupcakes. Arrange the cupcakes on a large tray like in the picture above:
top row - 2 white cupcakes
second row - 1 chocolate, 1 orange, 1 chocolate
third row - 1 chocolate, 2 orange, 1 chocolate
fourth row - 3 chocolate
bottom row - 2 white

Put the cupcakes tightly together, then blend all the edges adding more frosting as needed to fill in gaps around the cupcakes - making it look more like a whole cake instead of individual cupcakes.

To decorate as shown:

•  chocolate wafer cookies for the wings, base of eyes, half pieces for the eyebrows
• gummy life savors for the second part of eyes, topped with an M&M
• cut an orange gummy candy into triangles for the beak, and yellow gummy candy into strips for the feet. 
• sprinkle coconut and mini chocolate chips over the body. 

The remaining baked cupcakes can be turned into individual owls as shown by using half pieces of wafer cookies for wings and smaller pieces for the eyebrows, smaller triangles of orange gummy for the beaks, skip the feet. Or if you don't need that many owls you can always freeze the unfrosted cupcakes for later!

Buttercream Frosting:

-1 stick soft unsalted butter

-4 cups confectioners sugar

-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

-pinch of coarse salt

-milk or cream (a couple tablespoons, add a little at

a time until you get the right consistency)

cream the butter until smooth, add the

remaining ingredients and beat until smooth

and fluffy.

6/19/17: how to distress jeans
6/19/16: gnocchi with tomatoes and snap peas