As someone who always loves trying new things, I wanted to attempt a red velvet flavor for my son’s birthday cupcakes. Given the fact that we were using Ohio State colors of scarlet and gray, this seemed like a good fit! Below, I’ll detail how we iced (1) field cupcakes; (2) football cupcakes; (3) field smash cake.
What I used (yield 50 cupcakes + 1 smash cake):
- Cupcake recipe tripled
- Cupcake icing recipe doubled
Separate icing as follows: green (1 recipe), brown (1/2 recipe), red (1/4 recipe), and white (1/4 recipe) using Wilton gel food colors
- Smash cake icing recipe dyed green
- Star and Round icing tips
- Bags (decorating bags or ziploc bags work fine too)
(1) Field Cupcakes
As with all icing projects, I recommend practicing a bit either in your icing bowl before bagging your icing or on a paper towel. You need to fill the entire tip with icing anyway before starting on the actual cupcakes, and you’ll be able to test to the type of pressure you’ll need to achieve the look you want. Win-win.
Start by going around the outside of the cupcake, making dollops of icing as you go.
Continue to the inner layers. Don’t worry about staying perfectly uniform (it’s supposed to resemble grass after all).
When you reach the very center, you’ll be able to close any gap (no matter how small) by placing a dollop where you want. It will disperse the surrounding icing so you won’t have any gaps showing.
At this point, you can leave your field alone or add embellishments. Because I wanted a pop of red, I added a red “one” to some of the field cupcakes.
(2) Football Cupcakes
Switch to your brown icing. Using a star tip, draw a squiggle down the center of your cupcake. As I told my three-year-old, it’s okay if the icing looks like poop at this point. So long as you have the basic form right, the next step will define the football.
Switch to your white icing and round tip. Add a long line in the center of your brown squiggle and three smaller horizontal lines.
(3) Smash cake
To get the smash cake dimensions, I baked the batter in two medium-sized ramekins lined with oil and waxed paper. I then leveled them and stacked them, using icing to secure the levels. (I will do a tutorial when I can justify serving cake again).
Using a star tip, make small dollops of icing around the base of your smash cake with the same technique as the field cupcakes above.
Continue around and up the sides of the smash cake. Finish by adding icing to the top of the cake. I also added a small football (using extra icing from the football cupcakes) and a #1 candle.
Note: the goal post in the back is hot-glued to the base of the cupcake top. I attached the cardstock pennant with thread that I stuck through and knotted to the straw posts.
When I added them to my cupcake stand, this is what they looked like:
For other tailgating or football party ideas, check out Football Shenanigans: A B1G Day!
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