It's a me, Mario!

So, the other day I got a message from a friend who asked me if I could do Mario cupcakes for her son's Birthday Party. As I read the message my brain began to think on all the possibilities of how I could make these cupcakes. I knew that I needed several different things for the cupcakes, so I decided on making Marios, Luigis, Toadstools, and Stars. I decided it would be best to start with Mario.

I looked up a few pictures of Mario to get an idea of how I was going to make his face. First I started with his nose. It's extremely big and round so I automatically thought of a marshmallow. Then I moved on to his hat. "What in the world could I make his hat out of???" I asked myself. Then it dawned on me...What about a cookie!? Ideally, I would have used Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers to shape the hat. But of course, I went to all the stores here in town and couldn't find the type of cookie I was looking for. So then I decided I would bake my own. This way they could be the exact thickness and size I needed anyway.

After getting those two things (the nose and the hat) down everything else just came into place. I then started mixing colors with icing for his skin, mouth, and hat. I made his ears, mustache and eyebrows with melting chocolate. Finally I was finished with Mario! (Luigi is virtually the same as Mario, except with a green hat and an "L")

I used the cookie concept when I made Toadstool, except I used a little bit bigger piece of cookie (cut in half). Then I iced the cookie and the cupcake to look like him. And then finally the star was the easiest, I simply iced a star pattern onto a cupcake.

The lesson I learned is that I feel like if I am going to do this as a hobby then I have to put in the time and effort that it takes. You get the best ideas when you sit down and draw stuff out. Even if you aren't the best artist it will help to have something in front of you to look at. All in all it was a fun project and I'm excited about the way it turned out!