Tidy Mom made these amazing french vanilla and butter rum Mardi Gras cupcakes. The beads and the mask make a fun background in this picture. Be sure to visit Tidy Mom and learn more about her recipe and the meaning behind the Mardi Gras colors.

kristin_a made a cinnamon vanilla crumb cupcake topped with cream cheese frosting and Mardi Gras inspired sprinkles.

S_K_S made this Fat Tuesday mini King Cake cupcake with almond flavoring and rum frosting.

Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday is a day to celebrate with sweets at Mardi Gras. King Cakes are a popular treat on Fat Tuesday and Mardi Gras inspired cupcakes can be a fun way to celebrate this tradition. I feel like I don’t need an excuse to enjoy a cupcake, but Fat Tuesday is another day to celebrate and eat cake.

Last year I made King cake cupcakes for a Mardi Gras theme party for our friends who moved to New Orleans.

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This last weekend we had a fun filled Mardi Gras theme party for friends of ours that are moving to New Orleans. Of course we were having cupcakes, but it was also exciting to plan our food menu as we prepared New Orleans inspired food like Jambalaya, Cajun shrimp, Po’ boy sandwiches, and corn bread. Purple, yellow, and green were colors of inspiration that were easy to find when buying decorations for the party. Most of my decorations came from Oriental Trading and Mardi Gras Outlet, including the masks and Hurricane cups. We didn’t drink real Hurricanes, just made sparkling punch for everyone and served in a large punch bowl.

After some Mardi Gras research I wanted to produce a cupcake version of a King Cake. This colorful and tasty bread caught my eye for several reasons, but the cinnamon stood out as something that would be fun for a cupcake recipe. When I think cinnamon and yeast, I think cinnamon buns. I wanted to make this quick and easy since I was already making a lot of food and make it appealing to the kids at our party. I decided to use Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. It was easy as I just put them in the cupcake liners, baked and then frosted them. (Sorry to lose the tradition but I didn’t have any plastic babies on hand so I did leave it out.) I did make my own cream cheese frosting, added purple, yellow and green food coloring and topped it off with matching colored sugar.

In searching for a fun and decorative cupcake stand for the Lemon Bar cupcakes, I decided to modify a Wilton Halloween stand. I removed the haunted house topper from the Halloween stand and what was left was a black cupcake stand. I now had room for the Mardi Gras mask on the cupcake stand. Some streamers were added and my Mardi Gras cupcake stand was complete.

Not that we needed any more sugar for our party, but I also made marshmallow pops. I used green and purple melted candies to decorate the tips of the marshmallows. Sprinkles were added and it only took about 15 minutes to complete. I found a fun way to stand up and cool the marshmallow pops by using the slots in a baby bottle washer.

One of my favorite ideas for this Mardi Gras party was the crawdad sign holders. These crawdads came with our Oriental Trading party supplies and the claws worked perfectly to hold the little signs.

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These lemon bar cupcakes were served at our Mardi Gras New Orleans theme party this weekend. The recipe came from Real Mom Kitchen and we loved the idea and how the color yellow fit our Mardi Gras theme. I’ve always loved the lemon bars my grandma made for me as a child and thought these lemon bar cupcakes would be fun to try. If I recall correctly, she used a box of Sunkist Lemon bars and added powder sugar after they cooled off. My patience was always tested as I wanted to eat them straight from the oven. These lemon bar cupcakes are zesty and full of lemon flavor…both parents and kids loved them at our party.Tomorrow I will be posting our Mardi Gras King Cake cupcakes that are inspired from the New Orleans King cake recipe.

Lemon Bar Cupcake Recipe (makes 2 dozen cupcakes):

1 box of your favorite lemon cake mix
1 cup sour cream
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup oil
4 eggs
1 small package lemon instant pudding

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients.
3. Add wet ingredients and mix together for several minutes.
4. Lemon bar batter will be fairly thick in consistency.

Bake cupcakes at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. When you remove the cupcakes to cool, you might notice that the cupcakes are indented in the middle. This can be smoothed out when you add your lemon bar buttercream frosting.

Lemon Bar buttercream frosting:

1 cup (2 sticks) soft butter
6-8 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (peel)

1. Use a large mixing bowl and add soft butter.
2. Add 4 cups of sugar
3. Add lemon juice and the zest (peel).
4. Beat until smooth and creamy.
5. Gradually add the remaining sugar (1 cup at a time) until icing is thick enough to spread over lemon bar cupcakes.
6. Store at room temperature.

If you are a fan of traditional lemon bars, you will love this cupcake recipe.

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