classy vs. casual

Yes! Finally a post with some cupcakes, right? Today's cupcake menu featured the very classy and pretty Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes, as well as the casual and fun Ants at a Picnic Cupcakes.

Seeing as today was a half day of school, it was most definitely the perfect time for my fellow cupcake-maker-in-crime, Maureen, to show some cupcake-naiveties, Magali and Bhavana (see "noodles") exactly how we do what we do.

The Oreo Cheesecake had been made before and was well-beloved by all, thus prompting our decision to again make this extremely rich cupcake. This cream cheese heavy treat was made extra sweet with the addition of chopped oreos. Recipe found from Martha Stewart's Cupcake Cookbook.

However, we also wanted to do some decorating. After flipping through such cupcake books as "Hello, Cupcake!" and "What's New, Cupcake?", we ultimately decided on the ants from the latter cupcake book (mainly for their simplicity...the other option would have been these adorable apples, which may still be made later). We tried to think of a more compelling reason for our decision, and thought that we could also say that since Magali had a childhood obsession with ants and frequently observed their behaviors, that she insisted on us making the ant cupcakes as soon as she saw them (however, this reason was quickly discarded by Magali in order to avoid the possibility that she might appear to be strange). The ant cupcakes were made from devil's food cake mix, with the substitution of coffee for water in order to make them more moist, and topped with green-colored vanilla frosting. Chocolate covered peanuts and watermelon sour patch contributed to the ants at a picnic theme.

Ater three hours, the cupcakes were complete and ready to be enjoyed and photographed.
Click the jump for more pictures!

Mhmm...anything involving cookies and cream is guaranteed to be (and look) amazing.

The Oreo cookies on the bottom make them feel like a real cheesecake with a crust!

Using my new mechanism for frosting, so much more handy and fun than using a Ziploc.

Ants are so sneaky, thinking we wouldn't notice if someone took out beloved sour patch watermelon.

This one had to be included.

It was the first ant attempted and had a difficult experience in piping the legs...so now it just appears to be a fallen ant, crushed after being caught stealing a watermelon.