Father's Day Grillin' Cupcakes

It's Tuesday, so time for cupcakes!  In honor of Father's Day, coming up this weekend, I searched high and low for a good idea for Dad. He doesn't golf, play basketball, or wear a tie... but we all love his grilling talents.

This is surprisingly easy with the right tools. First grab your favorite brownie mix, muffin papers and muffin tins.

 Mix brownies as directed on the box. Distribute this between 12 papered muffin tins. I baked mine for the least amount of time listed.

Let them cool completely. Then mix up a chocolate ganache for the top. I used  1/2 cup semi sweet morsels, and heated 1/4 cup of cream. Add the cream to your chocolate chips and let sit for a minute or so. Then stir till all the morsels are melted.

After spreading ganache on top of each cupcake, sprinkle your sanding sugar or nonpareils on top.

I tried using red sprinkles, but they didn't show up like I wanted. I had left over Halloween orange and black nonpareils. Those worked the best for a "fire" look.

Then for the grill, I used Wilton's Black Decorating Gel. It already had a fine tip and went on easily. You could also mix your own black frosting (a chocolate base works best with added coloring) and add piping gel to it for fluid lines.

Then bust out the candy for some BBQ fun!

I grabbed a bunch of things and used trial and error to find the best food items. I suggest:

Kebabs - Mike & Ikes
Hamburgers - Tootsie Rolls
Sausages - Mike & Ikes
Corn on the Cob - Colored Marshmallow Fondant

I never used the Starburst Candy, but it would also work well for the kebabs. My children ended up stealing it all! I used marshmallow fondant for the corn because I couldn't get my Starburst pliable enough for molding.  I also had some of the fondant left over. I will be using it for our Father's Day cake on Sunday. I should have directions for making this up shortly.

The kebabs will take a toothpick and several different colored candy cut up.

Sausages just need a little black gel food coloring applied with a toothpick for grill marks. Place the candy on the cupcake first to prevent smearing.

Hamburgers are easy, too. Just cut the tootsie roll into thirds and apply a similar black grill mark.

My favorite are the grilled corn on the cob. I colored two small balls of marshmallow fondant. I used Wilton's Kelly Green & Buttercup Yellow to make the husk and corn cob. Roll out a little sausage of yellow, taper it on one end.

Add a strip of green fondant, tapered at the ends. Wrap two of these around the yellow cob and then use a toothpick to give the cob some texture.

And add the grill marks to the corn, also.

Now you have a BBQ cupcake  assortment sure to please Dad's love for grilling and his sweet tooth! Enjoy.

For more cupcake fun, be sure to check out Hoosier Homemade's Cupcake Tuesday Linky.