Whether you're 5 or 50, the sight of a Martian cupcake is sure to make you smile.
Start by frosting a batch of cupcakes with light green frosting. Cupcakes with high domes work best because they create a sense of depth to the face.
Use a light crusting frosting so it can be smoothed. I prefer one tub of Duncan Hines Classic Vanilla frosting beaten with one stick of room temperature butter. This not only produces a frosting that can be smoothed without cracking but it also tastes great. Depending on your humidity, let the cupcakes sit for one to two hours to form a crust. Then cover with a sheet of Viva paper toweling and lightly stroke the top of the cupcake to smooth the frosting. What should result is a perfectly even surface that will make a much more believable face.
Start the smile by scoring a 60-degree "V" on the bottom half of the cupcake using the pointed end of a bamboo skewer.
Then use the blunt end to scrape out the smile.
This creates a hollow which, when covered in black frosting, looks like a mouth. If the mouth is simply piped on top of the green frosting, it ends up looking like lips and doesn't work very well. Also, when the tooth is piped on top of these lips it looks like it's floating in space.
Using a small (#3) tip, cover the bottom of the mouth. Don't fill it in. All you want is a thin layer on the bottom.
Use a 1/4-inch tip (#12) for the eye and a small flat tip (#47) for the tooth. The bottom of the eye should be at the middle of the cupcake.
Scatter various sized dots of dark green frosting over the face with a 1/8-inch (#5) tip.
Let the cupcakes rest for an hour to let the white and dark green piping crust, then use the paper towel trick to flatten out any points.
A bulging eye looks funny, but a bulging pupil looks strange. Use the bunt end of a skewer covered with paper to create a dimple to receive the black frosting that will be the pupil.
Once the pupil frosting has crusted, press it flat and you're done!
Vary the faces so they don't all end up looking a plate of silly Martian clones.
Martian cupcakes, or troll cupcakes if you prefer, take a little time to make but the laughter they invariably produce makes it all worth while. If you prefer live action directions, you may enjoy the following video:
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