Cookie Monster Cupcakes

Cookie monster cupcakes have been on my mind ever since we began the cupcake challenge. I absolutely love cupcakes, but this time, I wanted to focus more on the decor than taste. If you've got a delicious cupcake recipe, feel free to use it here. I paid homage to Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade cooking empire and made these from a box.

Whether you go for gourmet or box cupcake, these are really really simple to decorate.

Here's what you'll need to make your cookie monster cupcakes fabulous:

One dozen cupcakes that have been baked and cooled. 
One container vanilla frosting (mine was store bought, you could make this easily. I love this recipe for cream cheese frosting.
Blue food dye
One bag of shredded coconut
Chocolate chips
Chocolate chip cookies

• Start off by putting most of your vanilla frosting in a bowl. You'll want to reserve 1/4 of the frosting to make the whites of the eyes of your little monsters.

• Add several drops of blue food dye until your frosting becomes a nice consistent blue. This took me about 20 drops.

• Frost your cupcakes and get ready for the next step -- we're going to make them furry!

Next,  put your coconut in a bowl and add food dye until it becomes a nice dark blue. Dunk your frosted cupcakes in the coconuts, coating them with fur!

Cut a slit in the bottom third of your cupcake and take half of a chocolate chip cookie and insert it.

Finally, put your remaining white frosting in a ziploc, snip off a corner and begin piping the white of the eyes. Add an upside down chocolate chip to make the pupil.

And there you have it! Eat and enjoy (and don't forget to take pictures!).