“Stay Golden” Betty White Cupcakes

I have a not so hidden talent. I am really intuitive. So I wanted to see if I could capture the spirit of Betty White in cupcake form. By the time I finished the cupcakes, I felt her energy with me in the kitchen, I think she would approve! You can watch the video on how I made them HERE.

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients/Supplies:
any favorite cupcake recipe
gold cupcake liners
tiny red or hot pink heart sprinkles
hot pink edible glitter
Americolor gel paste: black, brown, green, red, yellow, white
gold luster dust + lemon extract, small paintbrush used for food only
cardstock for cupcake wrappers (optional)
piping bags, filled with white buttercream (see recipe below)
domed silicone mold for frosting heads

Find supplies I used to make these cupcakes HERE!

First: make buttercream frosting.
Ingredients:
13 oz marshmallow cream
1 lb softened butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6-8 cups powdered sugar

In stand mixer, whip up marshmallow cream, softened butter and vanilla extract until fluffy. Gradually add powdered sugar until frosting reaches stiff peaks.

Second: Color buttercream frosting for skin, eyes, eyebrows, hair.
Divide buttercream up between 4 bowls. For skin, you will need more frosting than any other. Mix little dabs of red, brown, green or yellow into white buttercream until you have reached a betty white skin color. Make sure to only add a little tiny dab of each color to get to the perfect Betty White skin color. For eyes, mix black into a small amount of frosting. Cut a small hole in a piping bag and place a tiny round tip at the end of piping bag. Fill with black frosting. For eyebrows, mix a small amount of brown into a small amount of frosting. Place a tiny round tip at the end of piping bag. For hair, mix a small amount of white into a small amount of frosting. Place a 1M open star tip at the end of piping bag.

Third: Make Betty’s “heads” out of frosting!
Using an ice cream scoop, scoop skin colored buttercream into dome shaped mold. Completely fill the mold and level frosting. Place the silicone mold on a baking sheet and freeze for about 1 hour.

Fourth: Once Betty’s heads have set, they will pop right out of the mold. Pipe a small amount of skin colored frosting to act as a “glue” on top of the cupcakes to hold Betty’s head on the cupcake. Place Betty’s head on top of the cupcake.

Fifth: Apply Betty’s makeup. Using the black colored frosting, pipe little “winky” eyes onto Betty’s face where her eyes would go. I made winky eyes because on a cupcake, they express the joy that Betty reflected from inside out. Using the brown frosting, pipe sculpted eyebrows above the winky eyes. Dab a small amount of hot pink glitter onto her “cheeks” as blush. Place a tiny heart sprinkle onto her face as lipstick.

Last: Style Betty’s hair. Using white frosting, swirl Betty’s hair on top of her head. Don’t think about it too much, just have fun because the open star tip does a lot of the work for you. Refrigerate the cupcakes until the hair hardens. Mix a little bit of lemon extract with gold luster dust & paint gold “highlights” in Betty’s hair.

Optional: Make a cupcake wrapper like pictured. I found a template for sizing here. I also made the “Stay golden” message by typing on my computer and cutting it out in small enough circles to fit on top of the cupcake wrapper. I figured even if my cupcakes ended up looking silly, if I had a “Stay Golden” message, you’d be able to tell that these might be Betty White!