Pikmin Sprout Cupcakes

Pikmin Cupcakes Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting and a Pikmin top.

Among the E3 news this year was the tidbit that Pikmin was in development. I’ve never played a Pikmin game (although I’ve heard the multiplayer in Pikmin 2 is amazing), but Pikmin are so cute that I couldn’t resist creating an entry about them.

Go little Pikmin!

Before Pikmin start running around, they’re sprouts. Those colorful sprouts are what these cupcakes are based on.
Ingredients for cupcakes:

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup milk

This will make enough for two dozen cupcakes.
Ingredients for frosting and toppings:

3 cups powdered sugar
3/4 cocoa
1 stick butter
3 to 5 tablespoons warm water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup crushed mini chocolate cookies
Fruit roll-ups

This makes quite a bit of frosting, but it’s really good frosting.
Preheat oven to 350°F!
Whisk together the cocoa, flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Soften the butter and mix in the sugar. It’ll be pretty grainy as we’re using only a bit of butter.

Add the eggs and mix. Follow that up with the milk and vanilla.

Pour in the cocoa mixture and mix for about a minute.

Fill the muffin cups about 2/3 full and bake for about 15 minutes. They’re done when poked with a toothpick and it comes out clean.
Allow the cupcakes to cool.
While the cupcakes are cooling, place the mini chocolate cookies in a ziplock bag. Crush ’em up any way you please. A rolling pin is my weapon of choice. A food processor would work just dandy, too.

For the frosting, melt the butter and mix with the cocoa.

Add in the powdered sugar and three tablespoons of warm water. (If you’d like a less chocolaty frosting, you can use milk instead of water.)

To create the Pikmin top, slice a fruit roll-up in half, length-wise.

Upon opening the fruit roll-up box I discovered that even the plain boxes of fruit roll-ups had decorations printed on. All the fruit roll-ups were adorned with words such as “MO’ MONEY,” “King of Bling,” or had piggy banks on them. It made things a bit harder to work with, but the piggy banks were awfully cute.
Roll a mini chocolate cookie around one edge of the fruit roll-up. Squeeze the top to seal the roll-up.

The text on the fruit roll-up can be covered with delicious chocolate frosting
and cookie crumbs.

Cut a small slice at the top to hold the leaf.
If you want to get extra fancy, you can create chocolate leaves as seen in the XBox 360 Baby Shower Cake. All you need to do it melt the chocolate, paint the back of the leaf, and allow them to sit in the fridge until hardened. Peel off the leaf and violà! Chocolate leaves! Me, I wanted to go loaf by the pool, so I went outside and plucked some leaves off the bushes and used those. I have to take advantage of these summer days!
Place a leaf – chocolate or real – into the top of the fruit roll-ups and pinch the top to hold the leaf in place.