DIY: Breakfast Cupcakes

I've made some cupcakes dedicated my absolute favorite meal of the day. Yup - Breakfast Cupcakes. Now you can eat breakfast as your dessert too!

Materials Needed:

I've broken up the materials list per cupcake, as I'm sure some people will just want to make these individually as well. Below is what you'll need for the prep.

Batch of pre-baked cupcakes
Frosting
White modeling chocolate (or Fondant)
Gel colors: brown, red, yellow

Directions:

Part 1 - The Prep

Step #1: Frost your cupcakes. Frosting color and flavor is totally up to you. All of my cupcakes were frosted with a vanilla buttercream. Make sure to set aside about 1/2 cup of frosting, as you'll need that later for a couple of the cupcakes.

Step #2: Prep your modeling chocolate. Modeling chocolate will be used for the bacon, the butter on the pancake, the oatmeal, and the coffee cup. First you're going to dye 3 small amounts of the white modeling chocolate. You'll need a bit of yellow, some brown, and some red. Set aside a piece of the un-dyed white modeling chocolate as well. Part 2 - The Breakfast Toppers

The Eggs:Eggs - Materials Needed:

White chocolate (melted)
Wax paper
Yellow M&M's®

As you'll see, the eggs are the only cupcakes I did not frost with the natural-colored vanilla buttercream on - I added a hint of yellow dye before frosting this batch to provide a colorful backdrop for the eggs. It's not a necessary step, but I'd recommend you do the same. To make your eggs, add your melted white chocolate to a pastry bag (or ziplock bag) and cut off the tip. Slowly squeeze a bit of your chocolate onto wax paper in the shape of a sunny side up egg. Before the chocolate sets, add a yellow M&M® to the egg. See that peak in the chocolate (where I lifted out my pastry bag)? It's best to add your "yolk" right to that spot and then lightly tap on it - that will smooth out the chocolate. Once assembled, pop your eggs into the fridge for a few minutes to let them before adding atop your cupcakes.

The Bacon:

Bacon - Materials Needed:

Brown and red dyed modeling chocolate (from Part 1)
Pinch of brown sugar
Optional: Edible Markers

For the bacon you're going to take your balls of red and brown modeling chocolate and combine them together. To create a marbleized effect, you'll want to twist the two different colors together a bit. Next, roll out the modeling chocolate and use a knife (or pastry tool) to cut out a thin rectangular strip. [Sorry there's no photos for this step (my hands were covered with modeling chocolate!)] Once you have the rectangular strip cut, sprinkle on some brown sugar to give it a bit of texture. You can also use an edible marker (I use the Americolor Gourmet Writers) to add on some darker highlights. Lastly you'll want to twist and mold your rectangle to give it a bacon shape. Once you have your desired shape, place it in the fridge to set for a few minutes before placing it atop your cupcake.

The Waffle:

Waffle - Materials Needed:

Miniature waffle cookies
Leftover frosting (from Part 1)
Optional: Pastry bag + tip
Pinch of powdered sugar

The waffle is probably the easiest cupcake topper. So easy, you don't even need to see the photos of how it's made. All you need are those miniature waffle-looking cookies (the Trader Joe's "Belgian Butter Waffle Cookies" are the best in terms of size). With your cookie, use a small pastry bag (or ziplock) to add a little dollop of your leftover frosting (the "whipped cream"), sprinkle on some powdered sugar, and voilà - a waffle for the top of your cupcake.

The Pancakes:

Pancake - Materials Needed:

Nilla Wafers®
Yellow dyed modeling chocolate (from Part 1)
Melted caramel (individually wrapped squares work best for melting)

The pancake is another easy one! Stack 2 Nilla Wafers® together (use some of your leftover frosting as the glue in between to keep them together). Then add a small square of your yellow-dyed modeling chocolate to the top (your butter). Place the stack on top of your frosted cupcake and drizzle some melted caramel on top for the syrup.

The Donut:

The Donut - Materials Needed:

Mini donut
Excess sugar (to sprinkle)

A mini donut - who even knew tiny versions of these classic donut hole shape were common?! Maybe I'm just out of the donut loop. Anywho, I knew that on top of decorating cupcakes, I wasn't also going to have the desire to learn how to bake some mini donuts...that's for another day. So a google search for mini donuts lead me to Doughnuttery in Chelsea Market (NYC) where they make the most adorable mini donuts. And they are delicious! If you really want to go for it and feel like making your own mini donuts, there are plenty of mini donut/doughnut recipes on the interweb. Either way, once you have your mini donut, all you need to do is place it on your frosted cupcake. I sprinkled some of the excess cinnamon sugar from the donut on the top for a final touch.The Oatmeal and The Coffee Mug:The Oatmeal and The Coffee Mug - Materials Needed:

White and brown modeling chocolate (from Part 1), brown modeling chocolate
Toasted oats
Small red candies

To make the oatmeal cup, first mold a bowl out of your white modeling chocolate. Then, add some oats and small red candies for the fruit to your bowl (I used some red chocolate covered sunflower seeds that I had in my pantry). As you can see, I also sprinkled a bit of brown sugar onto my frosting for an added touch. Not into the oatmeal? I made a coffee mug for the first go instead of the oatmeal...but was not totally sold. But, If coffee is your jam and essential to your batch of breakfast cupcakes, here's a little look at the coffee mug cupcake below. To make the coffee mug, mold some of your white modeling chocolate into a mug shape, then add a bit of your leftover brown-dyed modeling chocolate to the center for the coffee. What's so great about modeling chocolate is that it doesn't set as quickly as fondant (and it tastes much better!), so you can play around with it for a while before having to commit to the shape.

Now that's my kind of breakfast! Happy baking! Feel free to leave any questions pertaining to the DIY in the comments section below.

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