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I have seen these character cupcakes all over the internet for a while and thought they were fabulous so of course I had to make them - it's a structured activity for junior and lots of fun for me (yeah, 'cos I really need an excuse to make cupcakes!!).

I used a 2 egg mix (from the Cake Mix Matrix) which you can find here and just added a couple of things:

For The Cakes:  

1. Once the cake batter is made add 2 drops of Americolor Electric Pink colouring gel and mix well. 
2. Divide the mixture between 12 cupcake cases and bake at 170 C / 250 F for about 15 minutes depending on your oven.

For The Icing:

50g / 1/2 stick unsalted butter softened

120g / 1 cup icing or confectioners sugar

2 tsps milk

Red, blue, and yellow liquid food colourings.

1. Beat the butter and sugar together (using the paddle attachment) until it is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Add the milk and beat for a further 30 seconds.
2. Divide the icing into 3 bowls.  To the first 2 bowls add a little blue or red colouring and beat well until you achieve your preferred colour.  To the 3rd bowl add several drops of yellow colouring, beat well then add a single drop of blue and beat again.  Keep adding colourings in this ratio (say 3 yellow to 1 blue) until you get a happy olive green colour.
3. Spread each colour icing fairly thinly over 4 cupcakes.  You may well have icing left over, it keeps happily in zip lock bags in the fridge for a week or so - certainly long enough to make another batch of cupcakes!

For The Toppings:

100g / 4oz shredded coconut

Red, blue, yellow liquid food colourings

4 orange peanut M&Ms (for Elmo's nose)

2 Oreos carefully cut in half (for Cookie Monster)

5cm / 2" piece of liquorice strap cut in 4 (for Oscar's eyebrows)

24 white chocolate buttons or candy melts for the eyes

Black writing icing (in a tube, from the supermarket) or small pieces of black fondant

1. Divide the coconut between 3 small zip lock bags.  To each bag add a squirt of food colouring, seal the bag and massage the coconut well so that it takes up the colouring evenly.  Remember that the green needs to be more yellow than blue so add the 2 colourings in the same proportions as for the icing.  Now, tip the coloured coconut onto 3 separate small plates or saucers.  Pick up a cupcake, turn it upside down and roll the iced top of it in the relevant coloured coconut (so, red for Elmo, green for Oscar).
2. Next, take a small sharp knife and cut mouth shapes for Cookie Monster.  I find it easiest to put the knife into the cake vertically and cut rather than sawing across the top of the cake.
3. Dab a small amount of icing onto the back of the chocolate buttons or candy melts, position them on the cakes for eyes.  Push a peanut M&M into each Elmo cake for his nose.  Take a half piece of Oreo, smear a little icing along the cut edge and press it into the mouth shape you cut for Cookie Monster.  Bend the thin strips of liquorice strap so that they curve slightly and push them into the icing for Oscar's eyebrows.
4. Finally, take the black writing icing and pipe the pupils onto the chocolate buttons.  Elmo tends to look straight ahead, Oscar tends to look down, and Cookie Monster's eyes are all over the place!  At the same time you can pipe a smile on the Elmo cakes, and a straight or slightly curved downwards mouth on the Oscar Cakes.

And there you are - your kids (or grandkids) will be impressed, and so will you!