My son, he who inspired the Clone Trooper Cupcakes, Dragon Cake, and Perry the Platypus Cake, is obsessed with Angry Birds.  Well, he’s really obsessed with about a dozen games on the iPhone or Android when we’ll let him play them — and he got to play a lot while we were on vacation in Mexico.  And we had a 4 hour delay so I played my share of Angry Birds, too.  Anyway.  So here they are in cupcake form (here are a bunch of other Angry Birds creations, too).  Lots of fun to make, and quite tasty, too!

Wanna make them yourself?  They really aren’t that hard.  But I will warn you, they are definitely time consuming!

OH YEAH! Please go vote for these in the instructables cupcake contest!

More photos on Flickr

Basically, on top of your standard iced cupcakes, you place a bird.  The birds (and pigs) are made out of donut holes covered in marshmallow fondant, (the smaller birds are wrapped up mints or whoppers or similar).  It’s like playing with playdoh, and my 6 year old actually helped me make one of the set of 3 little birds (those are easier to make because with a hard center, you don’t have to be as careful while wrapping them).  Really, this is not that hard to do, it does take a little time and patience though, especially to kneed all those different colors into your fondant!

I wrote up an Instructable with everything step by step, and you can download it here: PDF: How to Make Angry Birds Cupcakes

Dave Gugel, of Davenport FL, has one of the most impressive Halloween decorated houses I’ve seen in a long time. Check out the interview we did with him last year, and the pictures!  His website has pictures of the finished product for the past several years, and pictures of the construction process and the behind the scenes of how he puts it together.  I asked him if he would grace us with a tutorial on how to make some of his great decorations, and he’s agreed!  Check it out… ultra-creepy Electric Candles!  Tutorial is below.

How to Make Electric Candles

By Dave Gugel (www.goreNmore.com)

Shopping list:

PVC pipe
Strand of Flicker Lights
Styrofoam disk cut to size for the interior diameter of the PVC pipe
Hot Glue gun
Glue sticks
Pliers
Paint
Optional Materials:
Wood Dowel
Wood Plank

To make these electric candles I first start off with a trip to a Hardware store to purchase PVC piping and a strand of flicker lights. (The light strand can only be purchased while Christmas lights are available in stores or online throughout the rest of the year.)

I then saw the PVC pipe to the height I want each candle, and disassemble the flicker light strand. To disassemble the light I take 2 pliers and pull the 2 section of the socket apart.

I take my hot glue gun and give each piece of PVC pipe wax drippings, just like you would find on a real candle. Once the glue dries I paint the entire candle.

I then take the Styrofoam disk cut them to the size of the PVC pipe and glue then into place just about an inch from the top. Once this is dry I drill a hole in the center of the Styrofoam so that the flicker light can slide through.

Optional Step: Since these will be outside I take a wood dowel and cut it to half the length of each candle. I then layout where I want each candle to be placed on a wood plank, drill holes for the electric wiring, and attached each dowel just behind the hole. This will help make sure the candles do not blow over with high winds

I take the electric wire from the light strand and thread it through the hole in the Styrofoam (and wood plank if you are doing that step) . I then snap the socket for the light back into place and then hot glue it into place.

Once you do this for all your lights you put the lights back into the sockets and turn it on. You now have a lit candle with no chance of the wind blowing it out. =)

The fun thing about these candles is that you can change the height and width of each candle to suite your tastes. Enjoy!

Thanks so much to Dave for sharing some of his secrets with us today!  Happy Halloween!