When I went to Houston back in January, it happened to be my friend's birthday. We decided to have a bowling birthday party! Mostly because I got her a cupcake decorating book last year and we wanted to try to make bowling pin cupcakes.
These things tend to be a bit time and labor intensive, so I highly recommend doing it with a friend! (Most importantly, I don't feel so bad licking the batter out of the bowl if a buddy's sharing it with me!)
First, make the cupcakes. You're going to need a pan of regular sized ones and a pan of mini ones as well. The book suggested putting the batter in a ziplock and then filling the cupcake tins. It did not suggest licking your fingers, but I heartily endorse that.
The baggy seemed a little unnecessary to be honest, but made it very fun and easy to gobble up the leftover batter!
(Note: Can you see the awesome yellow bruise over my eye? It was from soccer. I love a good battle scar!)
Once the cupcakes have cooled, frost the tops of the big ones with just enough icing to have the little ones stick. Then you'll frost the top of those and stick a donut hole on top!
Now ice up the sides to give it a little shape. This is actually a bit tricky. Don't worry about getting frosting on your hands, because (a) you washed them ahead of time and (b) you can lick 'em when you're done! Plus this step was tough and they looked ugly, so you need a good mouthful of frosting to feel better.
Now freeze 'em. (We left them overnight.) Once they're frozen, melt a whole bunch more white frosting. Start to realize that you're a little bit sick of it and wonder why you ate so much of it last night. Carefully dip the frozen cupcake into the melted icing.
Be impressed with how smooth it looks now! We popped them back in the freezer at this point. The final step is to cut up some fruit roll ups for the bands around the pins.
After all that hard work, making the bowling balls are easy. You just make a chocolate cupcake (or a whole batch if you want extras for people to eat!), frost it with chocolate icing, and put three white chocolate chips on top for the holes. (We tried to use icing instead of the chips, but chips would've been much easier.) And voila!
If I'm being completely honest, the pins were just too much icing for me to eat (I just ate a ball instead), but they were so cute that it was worth it to make them!
What's the cutest birthday cake you've made?