Chocolate Carrot top Cupcakes

These cupcakes were soo fun to make. I can't remember  what website I saw this on but seeing that Easter is so close, I had to make these! My 5 year old daughter Ericka loves to plant any kind of seeds from apples (her favorite) to cucumbers, to carrots, to green peppers. So she was right by my side while I was putting these cupcakes together.

You will need:

Chocolate cupcakes

Chocolate cream filled cookies

Orange and green buttercream icing

Icing bag or Ziploc bag

tip #2a

Ziploc bag (for cookies)

Butter knife

Ok lets make these babies!

Take the cupcakes, score a circle in the center

Scoop out the center into a cone shape using a butter knife

Do not throw away (or eat) the center piece just yet

 Then take your chocolate filled cookies, place them in a Ziploc bag and crush them, I used a rolling pin.

 Icing the top of the cupcake, not the center

Place the center back in and sprinkle the crushed cookies all over to cover the chocolate icing. This is your "potting soil"

Now lets make the carrots! Take your orange icing bag, with your #2a piping tip, start at the bottom of the hole, begin squeezing the bag, filling and pulling up out of the hole. All the way up til you have a small mound on top. 

I then just took some green buttercream in a Ziploc bag cut a tiny hole in the corner and just squeezed and pulled up three time to make the carrot leaves.

I also made little tags labeled, carrots!

Then I was curious to see how it looked in the center, so I cut it down the center...

Oh well, lol

Spring Flower Cupcakes!

Aren't these cupcakes the cutest?  WAIT! Before you flip the page, believe me, they are sooo much easier than you think. I first came across these a few months ago and thought they would be a challenge to make. To my surprise these babies are easy peasy!  These are perfect for an outdoor spring theme gathering, or bridal shower, even a wedding...with the right colors.

These would also be a great additions to your Easter gathering. I will be making some for my church this Easter since we always celebrate Easter with a fellowship meal on Easter. I can't wait til I sashay in that church building and unveil these beauties lol. It does take a little time to cut the marshmallows and dipped them if you are making a dozen or more. But it's actually fun to make, have the kids do it for you lol they'll love it. If they don't don't eat them all first lol.

So here is step by step instructions on how you can make your own spring flowers!

First, to make these particular flowers you need the mini fruity flavored marshmallows, they are a pastel color, that's why I like them, perfect for spring! Then you are going to take you kitchen scissors and cut each marshmallows  diagonally. Each cupcake will need 20 pedals. So you will need 10 of each color.

Then you will take each cut marshmallow and dip the cut/sticky side in the matching sprinkles.

 and here is what you end up with. 

Time to decorate!

You'll need a completely cooled cupcake. Also you do not want a high dome on the cake so don't fill the cups up to much, or you'll have a disfigured flower

 Next add on a thin layer of your favorite icing, I used buttercream, You can find my buttercream recipe here.

Now take your pedals and begin sticking the pedals on the outer edge 

Now the second layer

for the center you can use whatever you have, I used some edible yellow glitter. But you can use edible pearls, any kind of candy, or even icing. 

And your flower is complete. Isn't she beautiful?!

My 5 year old daughter Ericka made her own version, she even added a candy bumble bee :)

Nathan's 2nd Birthday

Planes Trains and Automobiles

Happy Birthday to my little Nathan!!!!  Nathan loves planes, trains and trucks and cars, so there was no questions about what his 2nd birthday theme would be. I made this cake the night before Nathan's party, and to be honest, I had no clue how this cake was gonna turn out. Normally I draw the cake out and go by that, but this time...I just...decorated.

I asked Nathan if he was ready to taste his cake, and this is what he did lol, right on top of a cloud!

The bottom cake is chocolate ant the top was just a white cake dyed blue.

Nathan decides he wants to help himself

 One of the games we did was the Cloudwalk (cakewalk). The children walk around on cutout cloud shaped poster board with numbers on them, and when the music stopped, if the were standing on the number that the host called out, then they won a cloud cupcake! We had about 8 guest so we actually played til everyone got a cupcake.

The party was a success!