The Hunger Games – Mockingjay cupcakes

May 20th, 2012 by justJENN

My friends have the best ideas. What else would a bunch of geek girls do on a weekend in May, but have a real live Hunger Games party? My friends Amy, Autumn and Sarah planned the whole thing – take a look at it in it’s entirety, here. As fans of the books and movie we all gathered to their themed out bash full of food, fun and of course games!

Amy made a feast including homemade Peeta’s nut and raisin bread, Prim’s reaping gift of goat cheese wrapped in basil leaves, lamb stew, goat cheese and apple tarts, Cinna’s orange chicken – and she asked me to bring cupcakes. Sticking to the theme, the only thing that would make sense would be Mockingjay cupcakes, what else?

I bought a silicone mockingjay mold on etsy, which gave out perfect impressions. I used plain white fondant and pressed it into the mold and out popped a perfect mockingjay!

I realize from this photo that no human needs 32 ounces of vanilla but trust me – I go through it rather quickly. I mixed vanilla extract with edible gold dust to make an edible ‘paint.’

Using a clean kitchen paint brush, I painted the mockingjays with the edible gold paint which gave the fondant color and more defintion and sheen.

Once that dried I added a little more ‘bling’ by brushing straight edible gold dust on top of the painted areas.

I made “decadent chocolate cake” cupcakes (per the book) and frosted them with a cream cheese frosting.

Then I dipped them in ‘coal’ (i.e. silver black sanding sugar) to represent District 12. District 12 specialized in coal mining you see. I’m realizing if you haven’t read the book this post makes no sense to you…

I placed the painted fondant mockinjays on top of the cupcakes and presented them to everyone before the reaping. Oh yes, there was a real reaping.

The game went well, people died (sort of), there was a winner proclaimed and everyone loved the cupcakes! May the odds be ever in your favor!