Happy birthday Mr X! Cookie monster cookies

As I mentioned in my last post, Mr X loves cookies. So I really wanted to incorporate cookies into his birthday cake. I came across some adorable cookie monster cupcakes using a google search. There are multiple sites featuring cookie monster cookies - by no means did I come up with something that cute and clever myself!


Ingredients:
Banana cupcakes, popular with Mr X (Recipe makes 16).
Cookies (Qty 8)
Cream cheese icing tinted with blue food dye.
White chocolate buttons (Qty of at least 32)
Dark chocolate, melted (Approx 6-8 squares)


Equipment:
Microwave safe bowl to melt the chocolate
Toothpicks


Method:

White chocolate button eyes 
Dip a toothpick in melted dark chocolate and add a small circles of dark chocolate to each white chocolate button. Try and make them all a similar size but don't be concerned if they all look a little different, I think it adds to the cookie monsters character. Leave to dry.

Icing
Slowly add blue food dye to the cream cheese icing until you achieve desired blue consistency. I made the icing the day before I needed it and left it in the fridge over night so it was nice and firm.


Bake cupcakes and cookies according to their instructions, and leave to cool to room temperature.

To assemble the cupcakes
Cover a cupcake with cream cheese frosting. You want it to be relatively smooth but not too smooth - you are creating a monster, after all. Add the eyes and the cookie - you may need to use a little more icing to hold the cookie in place. The icing will act as "glue". I popped them into the fridge to firm up. 

I know, there are a few steps involved if you make the cookies and cupcakes from scratch. I personally think it is worth baking them yourself, but that is entirely up to you. But once you get to the assembly stage, it all comes together quickly.