Despicable Purple Minion in the Bakery Costume: The Faux Cupcakes

So the work continues on the Despicable Me Purple Minion costume for DragonCon 2013. My idea for the costume is to be a not-so-evil Purple Minion that works in the bakery. I'll have my big purple google-eyed minion head, an apron, and a cupcake bandolier (that was Quinn's idea).

I'll also have a Jam-gun that shoots the Jam-antidote (but not actually shoots jam - that would be messy). One of the cupcakes will go on the end of my Jam-gun. My dear hubby, Ken, is working on these wee little electronics that boggle my brain, but will make the Jam-gun light up and make noise. Crazy!

Let me preface this part with SAFETY FIRST! Work Outside if you can!!! Wear nitrile gloves. The components of this part of the project SMELL and emit FUMES. Don't get the stuff on your skin.

On to the Cupcakes!

I found this article on Instructables about making fake cupcakes. But I had my concerns about using spackle for the icing. The costume will probably get some knocking-aound, and I think of spackle as heavier, more fragile, and prone to crack.

The Wrappers

Serendipitously, I found these plastic gift-holder-cups being sold off at our local gaming shop in Burlington NC (:::waves "Hello" to HyperMind!:::). The "wrappers" are huge, but they so absolutely say "Cupcake wrapper!!!" The tags on the bottoms said they were from Michael's Craft Store.

The Cake

The first thing we did is filled the wrappers with "Great Stuff" foam. Basically, Great Stuff is foam in a can, you spray it thru the included tube, it expands, and then hardens. You use it to seal odd-shaped holes, or around plumbing.

We filled the cupcakes about 2/3 full, since from previous experience we knew there would be some expansion. We let them cure for a week or so - basically because I was too chicken to get to the "icing" without Ken helping me.

The Icing

We decided to use white silicone caulk for the icing. 
Our first attempt at icing was based on some mold-making info Ken had researched. Caulk has such a long dry-time, and we read that if you add cornstarch to the caulk, it would decrease dry-time. You can color the caulk with food coloring or acrylic paint. You can use paint thinner to thin the caulk.

Here is some more info for you on working with silicone from Make Magazine and from Instructables.

Ken carving the top of the cupcakes to reshape them a bit.

We gathered everything we thought we'd need to "ice" the foam cupcakes with silicone caulk outside on the back table. We had piping bags at the ready, with duct-tape-reinforced icing tips (NOT to be reused for food afterwards!!). We had cornstarch, acrylic paint for color, paint thinner for thinning the caulk, baggies to mix in, duct tape, a newspaper-covered cardboard surface. We wore nitrile gloves (two by two, hands of blue).

Cupcakes, ready to get iced!

Attempt #1, the FAIL

Working on the principle that less air = slower drying time, we were going to mix acrylic craft paint for color into the caulk in the baggie, then transfer it to the waiting icing bag with a star-tip already set up, and reinforced with duct tape.

We added some paint in with the caulk in the baggie. I started adding pink, but we bumped that up to red to get the right pink color.

And.... dang. The caulk started to harden and solidify IN the bag. We added some paint thinner to the baggie to try to thin the caulk some, and that did NOT work. We had a big pink squishy gob of bubblegum in a baggie, leaking paint thinner. There was NO WAY this stuff would go thru a piping tip. Fail.

Attempt #2: The Success

With the silicone caulk in the caulk-gun, we put a plastic star-tip on the nose of the caulk, and reinforced that with duct-tape. And just iced with white icing. It looks like whipped cream. DON'T lick it!

Take note: although the "drying time" with caulk is something like 12 hours, the "working time" is pretty quick!!! Ice one cupcake at a time, then decorate it, or the stuff will NOT stick.

The decorations on my cupcakes are plastic fruit I got off eBay. Some of the strawberries were cut in half. The "sprinkles"  are bits cut from some random craft foamie sheet.

One tube of caulk was enough for 3 giant cupcakes plus the fiasco-in-the-baggie. I need to hop out and get another tube of caulk for the rest of the cupcakes.