Who doesn't love the cookie monster? These cute little cupcakes are sure to be a hit with the kids and are fairly easy and entertaining to make! 

This recipe makes 24. 

Ingredients: 

Cupcakes:

• 200g unsalted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups self-raising flour, sifted
• 1/2 cup milk

Icing:

• 250g butter, cubed, at room temperature
• 450g (3 cups) pure icing sugar, sifted
• 60ml (1/4 cup) milk
• 2 drops blue food dye

Decoration:

• 1 cup desiccated coconut
• 1 packet of your favourite cookies
• 48 white chcolote melts
• 48 chocolate chips
• 2 drops blue food dye

Method:

Cupcake Recipe:
1. Preheat oven to 160/180 degrees Celsius, fan forced oven. Line cupcake pan with paper cases.

2. Using an electric mixer, beat butter, vanilla and sugar until light and fluffy. 1 at a time, add eggs beating after each addition. Stir in half the flour. Stir in half the milk. Repeat with remaining flour and milk.

3. Evenly distribute the cupcake mixture among the pan,  bake for 10 - 12 minutes. 

4. Stand cakes in pans for 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Icing recipe:
1. Place butter in a large mixing bowl. Use an electric mixer to beat for 2 minutes or until light and fluffy. 

2. Gradually add the icing sugar or beat until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Slowly add the milk and beat until smooth and well combined.

3. Finally, add the colouring to the mixture and stir well.

Decoration Recipe:
1. Frost each cupcake once cooled. 

2. Pour the coconut into a bag and add a few drops of colouring, shake the bag well. Tip the coconut into a bowl and dip each cupcake so that it is well coated.

3. To make the mouth, make a cut about halfway into the cupcake. Make a second above the first at a slight angle and remove the piece of cake. 

4. Cut each cookie in half and insert it into the mouth you just created. If your feeling a little more creative, why not crumble or break apart the cookies instead!

5. Now for the eyes, using the leftover icing as 'glue' attach one chocolate chip to each white chocolate melt.  

6. Almost there! To add the eyes, dip them in a little icing and then pop them on top of the cupcake.

7. Enjoy! :D

Generations of Wiggles fans will have their chance to farewell Murray, Greg and Jeff at the end of the year when the trio perform their last Australian concerts.

The Wiggles confirmed on Monday that their Celebration Tour will head home in November and December.

Having spent 2012 travelling through Asia, the US, Canada, Ireland, the UK and New Zealand, The Wiggles will return to Australia to send off three of the original four Wiggles.

For Murray Cook, Greg Page and Jeff Fatt the Australian leg of the world tour will be the last time the trio will don their coloured skivvies and perform on stage.
The Red, Yellow and Purple Wiggles announced in May that 2012 would be their final year of touring together.

They are passing on their famous skivvies to a new generation of performers and will work behind the scenes in creative roles for the Wiggles franchise.

Blue Wiggle Anthony (Field) will continue driving in the Big Red Car alongside newcomers Emma Watkins, Lachlan Gillespie and Simon Pryce.

"We've been entertaining children around the world for 21 years and it's important that we plan for the future so that The Wiggles can keep wiggling in the years to come," Murray said in a statement.

Tickets for The Wiggles Celebration Tour will go on sale on Monday, August 27!

QUEENSLAND’S dynamic new premier Campbell “Can-Do” Newman will tackle the nuts and bolts of how he is implementing his 100-day plan in relation to parents in his electorate at a special Mums Brunch in Ashgrove.

The Mums Brunch, hosted by West Brisbane parents’ publication the KindyNews, will be held at the Marinara Café and Restaurant in Latrobe Terrace on Friday, July 27, 2012.

“We are very honored and excited about having the premier as our special guest in July,” KindyNews spokesman Karen Jackman said. “We are looking forward to hearing him articulate and outline his “Can-Do” plan to parents in his electorate. Our readers support and respect his energetic and positive approach to facing up to a very difficult challenge. This is going to be a must-attend event for Ashgrove parents.”

Also a key speaker at the brunch is the chief executive of Queensland’s largest and longest established kindergarten provider.

C&K Preschooling Professionals’ Barrie Elvish will speak about “Children’s Right to Childhood”.  In particular, Mr Elvish will outline how C&K plans to action this view at its newly acquired Ashgrove premises: 

“We have just purchased part of the old Ithaca TAFE at Ashgrove and we intend creating an outdoor environment which challenges not just the existing regulations and future regulations, but also the perceptions of what might be safe and unsafe environments for children,” he said.

KindyNews’ Mums Brunches are held periodically for parents of young children as a relaxed forum for social engagement and the discussion of community issues relating to parents and carers of young families.

Event: KindyNews Mums Brunch
Theme: Letting Brisbane Kids Be Kids
Speakers: State Premier and member for Ashgrove Campbell Newman, Chief Executive of C&K Preschooling Professionals Barrie Elvish
When: 10am-12 noon Friday July 27, 2012
Where: Marinara Café and Restaurant, 34 Latrobe Tce, Paddington
Contact: Karen Jackman
Telephone/Email:  (07) 3870-3234 / 0406 2222 59  media@kindynews.com
RSVP: ASAP

 
1. Are you going to miss being on stage?

(Murray) We will-we have had such a great time singing and dancing with you all over the past 21 years. But it’s time for us to spend more time at home.

(Jeff) We might make a few cameo appearances at concerts in the future, but we’ll be happy to be supporting the success of the new Wiggles team from behind the scenes.


2. What is Jeff going to do if he doesn't have anyone to keep him awake anymore?

(Jeff) I’m still going to have a big role in the musical side of things from behind the scenes and so will Murray and Greg. Anthony and the new Wiggles have all promised to help me stay awake!

3. Are you still going to help the New Wiggles after you finish the tour?

We certainly will! We don’t want to stop entertaining and delighting children-it’s what we love to do. Murray, Jeff and Greg will still be very involved creatively-coming up with new songs and performances and supporting the new Wiggles behind the scenes.

 5. Are the New Wiggles going be going on the last tour with you? What will they be doing?

(Anthony) Yes they will. Emma, Lachy and Simon have all been part of the Wiggles family for a few years now. They have been part of our shows as Captain Feathersword, Wags the Dog and Dorothy the Dinosaur.

6. Is the Pink Wiggle Kylie going to sing on the tour?

(Murray) We have had some really special moments over the past 21 years and singing and dancing with the Pink Wiggle was one of them! We’re still finalising the plans for our tour and we’re sure there will be some special moments along the way.

7. Are the New Wiggles just as funny as you?

(Greg) The Wiggles will remain The Wiggles for as long as those coloured skivvies are singing and dancing and entertaining children. The new members of the Wiggles will have their own talents and their own personalities, so of course it won’t be exactly the same, but we think that will actually be a good thing. Emma is a great singer and dancer and plays the drums. Lachy is a great singer and also plays the piano and Simon is an amazing singer and has a huge presence on stage. And we think that all of the new Wiggles are pretty funny too!

1.  Why did you choose to be the Yellow Wiggle?

“When it was offered to me I was very excited, it’s just brilliant. Just to be a role model is great for any children, girls or boys.”

3. Were you a Wiggles fan when you were little? Do you have any memories of that you can share with us?

"I've been a huge fan of The Wiggles since I was a little girl, so it's a huge privilege to be invited to wear one of the skivvies and perform for a whole new generation of children," she said.

“I am The Wiggles generation and I remember seeing you guys (referring to The Wiggles) at the Seymour Centre and I’m in a DVD jumping in a matching pinafore with my sister”

DO all those birthday party lollies turn kids into little monsters? Many parents say yes, but the sugar high may be a myth, writes a childless Karen Ravn.

"I have mothers tell me their child can ingest something sweet, and they know to the minute when the reaction is going to occur," says Jo Ann Hattner, a registered dietitian who teaches nutrition at the Stanford University School of Medicine in the US.

Yet the truth is that experts disagree about whether the sugar high and sugar crash truly exist.

Many say the evidence contradicts such stories. "There is no scientific basis to the idea that sugar and/or candy has any major effect on children's behavior, particularly if they eat OK," says Dian Dooley, professor of human nutrition, food and animal sciences at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Others think sugar has plenty of skeletons in its closet. "The bottom line is that the ingestion of too much high-glycemic carbohydrate causes a rapid rise and then fall of blood sugar," says Dr. David Ludwig, professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and director of the Optimal Weight for Life program at Children's Hospital Boston. "This triggers a series of metabolic and hormonal changes that can affect appetite and behavior for hours to come."
Still more experts think that the experience of a sugar high is real. But only because parents are convinced it exists.
"I would never try to convince parents the sugar high doesn't exist," says Dr. Thomas Robinson, professor of pediatrics at Stanford and director of the Center for Healthy Weight at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. "You can't tell them it doesn't happen because, for them, it does happen."
A little basic physiology implies that sugar highs could happen. Glucose, a digestive byproduct of the sugar we eat, is one of the body's two main sources of energy (along with fat). So it seems feasible that eating a lot of sugar could give a person a quick energy boost.
That's the reasoning behind, say, marathoners eating candy bars en route. It's also the theory behind an old test doctors once got a kick out of: They'd give a pregnant woman a glass of orange juice, Hattner says, and in no time, if the woman's baby was healthy, it would be treating its mom like a soccer ball.
But the body is designed to keep glucose levels in the blood stable. When the levels increase, the pancreas releases insulin, which moves glucose out of the blood and into tissues throughout the body.
If levels have spiked steeply, the pancreas might overreact and release too much insulin, so the glucose level could end up dipping below where it should be. But then the pancreas releases another hormone, glucagon, which moves glucose stored as glycogen out of the liver to bring the levels back up again.