Culinary Crochet: Cupcakes

Shortly after I taught myself to crochet a year ago on YouTube thanks to a very nice lady name Teresa who posted a ton of how-to videos (you can too, click here), I had the sudden inspiration to stray away from the first thing I had learned, which was hats.  For some unknown reason I still can't quite explain, I could not shake the persistent idea I wanted to make realistic food out of yarn.  That little idea sent me on a search around the internet, until I was shocked to discover there is a whole crochet genre subculture out there called amigurumi, where you make dolls, animals, and sometimes realistic food using crochet and then stuffing them so they take on a three dimensional shape.  The first pattern I found was for some adorable cupcakes.  I just fell in LOVE with them, they were so cute and tasty looking.

The free pattern for these cupcakes is found here

In no time at all I had a platter full of yummy looking cupcakes.  First I made them all "devils food" but shortly after I did "vanilla" ones and even some "red velvet" ones (not pictured).  It was fun to mix the frosting colors with the cupcake flavors.  

These would make adorable pin cushions and I did a few that way using colored straight pins  through the top layer and they became the "sprinkles".  The other option is they make a great play kitchen food.  My girls instantly had these on a pan in their pink kitchen and having cupcake tea parties as soon as I'd get one finished.  

These could also make a lovely birthday present for a friend to keep around her desk (but with none of those pesky calories that normally come with baked goods).  This was my first attempt at crochet food, and since then I have done many more food items, (donuts, cheeseburgers, tea and cocoa cups, fried eggs and bacon, carrots) which I will share with you in future posts.  It has been fun to try and get them as realistic looking as possible.