American Eagle

By Leesa W

Ingredients

• 29 Duncan Hines vanilla cupcakes baked in white paper liners
• 2 cans (16 oz. each) Creamy Home-Style Milk Chocolate Frosting
• 1 can (16 oz.) Classic Creamy Vanilla Frosting
• 8 to 9 thin chocolate cookies.
• 2 yellow fruit chews.
• 3/4 cup white coarse decorating sugar
• 1 brown mini candy coated chocolate.
• 6 yellow banana shaped candies.
• 1 thin pretzel stick
• 2 rolls strawberry fruit leather
• 2 cups yellow coarse decorating sugar (optional)

Details

Servings 1
Preparation time 90mins
Cooking time 90mins
Adapted from duncanhines.com

Preparation

Step 1

1. Spoon the chocolate frosting into 4 to 5 separate freezer weight plastic bags. Spoon 1 cup of the vanilla frosting into a ziplock bag. Press out the excess air and seal the bags.
2. Cut the chocolate cookies in half with a serrated knife. For the beak, press the 2 yellow fruit chews together and shape into a 2 1/2 by 1 inch triangle. Curve the long end to shape into the beak. Insert the pretzel stick into the wide end of the beak as the support when added to the cupcake.
3. Lightly moisten one strip of the fruit leather with water and press the other strip on top, pressing to secure to make the ribbon.
4. Arrange the cupcakes, using the photo as a guide into the shape of the eagle on a large serving platter.
5. Place the white sugar in a shallow bowl. Frost the 7 cupcakes at the base of the assembly (the ribbon and claw cupcakes) with some of the remaining vanilla frosting and make the tops smooth. Roll the tops of the frosted cupcakes in the white sugar to coat. Rearrange them on the platter. Snip a small (1/4 inch) corner from the bags of frosting.
6. Spread a layer of vanilla frosting on top of the cupcakes along the lower edge of the wings. Using some of the chocolate frosting, attach the cut chocolate cookies along the top edge of the wing cupcakes, straight edge out, to create the wing shape. Trim the cookies if necessary. Allow a cookie to overhang at the tip of the single cupcakes as the wing tips. Use the remaining cut cookies and a dot of frosting to fill in any gaps on the assembled cupcakes.
7. Starting along the bottom edge of wings or body cupcakes, pipe the feathers with the chocolate frosting using a squeeze, stop and pull technique of the frosting bag. Pipe slightly overlapping rows of chocolate frosting feathers, always pulling the frosting down towards the feet of the eagle. Repeat, using the other bags of chocolate frosting to cover the eagle body and wings. Pipe longer chocolate feathers at the wing tips.
8. Pipe the white frosting, starting at the base of the neck, in overlapping feathers as well, to cover the head. Pipe several white feather on the base of the feet cupcakes.
9. Add the yellow candies as the claws. Arrange the red fruit leather on top of the cupcakes at the base of the eagle, trimming if is too long.
10. Add the chocolate candy as the eye with a dot of vanilla frosting as the sparkle. Insert the pretzel stick into the edge of the head cupcake as the beak.