Cuppy Cake

Long ago I bought the book Hello, Cupcake! and ever since then have been dying to try out one of the adorable creations on the glossy, color pages. All I needed was an occasion and a little help. Our ward had a Memorial Day picnic so I signed up to bring a dessert. It just so happens my in-laws were visiting for the weekend as well. I knew I could enlist my sweet so sweet MIL for some slave labor. Of course, Liesel wanted to join the melee so I was all set. Memo to me, memo to me: I really need to get her a little apron of her own!

This was the easiest part of the entire process; frosting the cupcakes.

Liesel's no brown-noser... that's frosting that somehow missed her mouth!

The cupcake design I picked was far and away the most difficult. It required the most candy, different colored frosting and intricate piping. But it was SO cute, I just couldn't resist! My MIL was a doll and patiently worked, chatted and entertained Liesel. All of us were sneaking bits of candy. Even so, the sugar high had run out by the time we finished several hours later.

Jeanne diligently working on the signs. She did ALL of them!

Liesel proudly displaying the finished product. I'm glad we snapped a photo; they didn't last long!

I love the idea of eating veggies for dessert! These are vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting, dipped in crushed Oreos which makes up the dirt. The radishes are red Starbursts dipped in white chocolate with leaves made of cornflakes covered in green frosting. The peas are green M&M's wrapped in watermelon Airheads with Twizzlers curled around them. The carrots are orange Starbursts covered with a little cinnamon (to make them look like they've just been pulled out of the dirt) with green piping. The lettuce has a green M&M center with the cornflakes arranged around them. The signs are graham crackers covered in white chocolate and then piped with different colored icing. A pretzel on the back holds them into the cupcakes. Oh, and pretzel and gum shovels with bits of different colored Twizzlers cut to look like seeds.

Yeah, I picked the most difficult one in the whole book. But don't they look adorable? And it was a lot of fun putting them together. Thanks Jeanne!