Elmo Birthday Cupcakes & Goody Bag

My middle child turned two last week, so I thought it would be cute to have an Elmo-themed birthday party for our family to celebrate his special day. My girlfriend, Christy, gave me the idea to create these adorable cupcakes, which she had made the year before for her daughter. I didn’t go too crazy with this party, since I just had a baby 4 weeks ago and I’m operating on very little sleep! However, I pulled together some adorable goody bags for the few cousins who were at the party, thanks to the dollar bins at my local Target. Check it out below!

Elmo Cupcakes 

What you need:

1 box of cake mix, any flavor

Betty Crocker cake frosting in Red — the one that comes in the spray can

Orange jelly beans for the nose

Oreo cookies for the mouth

White chocolate melting disks for the eyes

Mini M&M’s in brown for the eyeballs

Small tube of Betty Crocker white decorating icing to glue the M&M eyeballs to the melting chocolate

Elmo cupcake liners and cupcake stand which can be found at Party City or Michaels

How to:

Bake the cupcakes in the Elmo liners according to the directions on the box. Allow to cool completely. Frost each cupcake with the red frosting. Use a decent amount so it looks like Elmo’s fur.

To create the face:

Using the decorating icing, glue an M&M to the white chocolate melting disk. You will need two for each cupcake. Place on the top of the cupcake. Place an orange jelly bean in the center, just under the eyes. To make the mouth, take apart the Oreo cookie sandwich and cut one of the halves in half. Place on the cupcake.

Goody Bags

I was lucky enough to find these adorable plastic shopping bags in the dollar bins at Target. I filled them with inexpensive finds like coloring books, crayons, candy and puzzles. I topped off each bag with colorful star-patterned tissue paper.

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