Super Mario Cupcakes & Cookies

Ah the game that, according to my mother, caused me to have myopia at the tender age of 6: Super Mario Bros.! I'm talking about the 16-bit Nintendo NES game from back in the 90's. No wait, I didn't get at Nintendo NES 'til later. I actually originally played Super Mario Bros. on a Micro Genius console! Oh, the good old days.

Super Mario Cookies*

I got to make Super Mario mushroom cupcakes and piranha plant cookies for a Super Mario-themed dessert table for Super Mateo's 1st birthday celebration. The only other Super Mario dessert I've ever made before were these Super Mario Bros. cake pops for a retro 80s-themed party a couple years back. 

gettin' our frosting on.

The cupcakes were vanilla cupcakes, frosted with vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream dyed red (for Power-Up mushrooms) and green (for 1-Up mushrooms) with gel food colouring. An easy way to mound the frosting on top of the cupcake is to use an ice cream scooper to drop the frosting on. You get the same amount of frosting on each cupcake this way, and it's easier to smooth out into a dome-shape using an off-set spatula. 

Super Mario Mushroom cupcakes

The mushrooms were decorated with large white fondant circles, and then placed into cute mushroom face cupcake wrappers, designed and printed by All Mommy Wants. 

1-Up Mushroom & Power-Up Mushroom cupcakes

The sugar cookies were hand-cut into the shape of the piranha plant (that inflicts damage on contact, or even causes Mario to lose a life in the video game.) Lollipop sticks were inserted into the dough before baking, turning these cookies into cookie pops.

filling in these piranha plant cookie pops

I used edible ink markers to draw out the details on the cookies to serve as a piping guide, filling in the different sections using 15-second royal icing. 

piranha plant cookie pops

those sharp teeth

I also got to make name plaques in Super Mario font, carefully cut out of fondant using an Xacto knife. The name plaques went on this super detailed Super Mario macaron tower by Milleaville, which sat on top of Bakers Heart's fresh cream cake. (Shudders at the thought of how much food colouring it took to get that fresh cream deep red and super black!! Definitely mouth-staining!)

Super Mario font name plaque

Super Mario macaron tower cake!*

the details on these macarons!!*

The Super Mario-themed cupcakes and cookies went on this awesome Super Mario-themed dessert table, put together by the talented All Mommy Wants team. I love the super unique way that the piranha cookie pops were displayed, coming out those green warp pipes, just like in the game! 

Piranha Cookie Pops coming out of warp pipes!* 

Even the Power Up & 1-Up Mushroom cupcakes were creatively plated on these white-framed picture frames, with game screenshots behind the glass! So cool!!

Power Up & 1-Up Mushroom Cupcakes*

And the background features 3D bricks, which were hand-crafted out of styrofoam and painted to look like actual bricks!

Too cool 3D backdrop*

Super Mario backdrop featuring 3D bricks!*

custom-printed Super Mario goodie bags*

Super Mateo's Super Mario Bros. Dessert Table!*

*pics courtesy of All Mommy Wants