Settlers Of Catan Cupcakes

Let's face it - nobody can possibly beat the awesome birthday cupcake cake that me and my boyfriend worked together to prepare & decorate :) Tabletop nerds all around the world will be envious of my awesome baking skills! XP I'd probably brag more if this was my original idea, but tbh this idea was originally created by Nerdy Nummies (you can find her video here) and a lot of other people have re-created Ro's inspired treats, and it was her video and the various Google images I found of other people's attempts of Settlers of Catan cupcakes that made me want to try my own.

One great thing about making these cupcakes is that you can use your favorite cake recipe to make these cupcakes, any kind works! I've seen pictures of vanilla cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes, and I'm sure even marble would work perfectly well. It's the decorating that matters! For mine, since it was my birthday, I decided on a Rainbow Bit boxed cake recipe.

As for the decorations, there's no strict guidelines or rules - there are SO many options to help create every resource found in Settlers of Catan, and you can use whatever you can find in your local grocery story, candy shop, Bulk Barn, etc. Here is a list of what you need, along with some suggestions on what you might use for each resource.

What You Will Need:

- 37 Cupcakes (18 Blue, 1 Desert, 3 Red, 3 Black, 4 Dark Green, 4 Light Green, 4 Yellow/Tan)

- Decorative Icing (I bought a bunch of pre-coloured icings, but in retrospect, I recommend getting 3-4 containers of yummy vanilla icing and just dying it the proper colours, because it tastes way better).

- White/Plain cupcake liners

- The Decorations!

Blue = Water

- Light blue icing

- Blue sugar

Desert = Robber's Spot

- White icing (or beige icing from the wheat cupcakes)

- Crushed graham cracker crumbs

- Licorice piece(s)

Red = Brick/Clay

- Red Icing

- Red icing

- Nibs OR Red & Orange Mike'n'Ikes

Green = Wood

- Forest green icing

- Deep green sugar

- Pretzel sticks

- Green air heads OR Green Mike'n'Ikes

Black = Stone/Ore

- Black icing

- Black sugar

- Chocolate pebbles OR Purple rock candies OR Oreo cookie chunks

Light Green = Sheep

- Light green icing

- Mini marshmallows OR white air heads (assisted with some black icing & candy eyes)

Yellow/Tan = Wheat

- Yellow/Tan icing

- Triscut crackers

While I thought that it might take hours for me and my boyfriend to bake and finish decorating all 37 cupcakes, it honestly didn't take that long at all, especially with us each working simultaneously. While I was creating the texture on the light green cupcakes to make it look like grass, my boyfriend was laying down the nibs on the rec cupcakes to look like bricks and the rock candy on top of the black cupcakes. It was a great team effort, and I want to assure you reading this that making all 7 pieces of this Settlers of Catan cake board isn't as much of a time-suck as you may think.

You can find a complete walkthrough on how to decorate these beauties in Nerdy Nummies' video, so I won't re-list all the details here for you, but you can look at the pictures of my super pretty cupcakes! I'm so happy with how these turned out, and I'm looking forward to doing some more baking in the future to share with you guys - I'd really like to attempt the checkerboard cake that Ro does which she decorates in the style of Harley Quinn, that one's definitely on the list :)

Let me know what you think in the comments below - also, if you have any pics from any geeky baked treats that you've made in the past, please share them because I'd love to see them and gain some inspiration!