Cooktop Cove: Make a vegetable garden cupcake
By Angela Brown
If you are looking for a clever way to celebrate warmer weather, these charming flower pot cupcakes are sure to put a spring in anyone's step! Making use of a non-conventional cooking tool, and a few ingredients you'll find in any grocery store, you can impress everyone with your newly-acquired cupcake decorating skills.
For this project, feel free to use any cupcake batter you like. Chocolate works best as the coloring most resembles dirt. Bake your cupcakes in a regular muffin tray or directly in the pots. A dark colored liner provides a more realistic look once the cupcake is decorated and on display.
After you've baked your favorite cupcake recipe and allowed them to cool, apply your favorite chocolate frosting. The pots have a hole at the bottom, so cooled cupcakes can easily be pushed up from the bottom using a chopstick or other small stick. My Cupcake Addiction uses Nutella in the video at the end of the article, but any chocolate frosting will work. Cover the cupcake with frosting to the edges.
Next, roll the frosted portion of your cupcake into a bowl of finely-crushed Oreo cookies. Make sure to completely coat the top of your cupcake and place the cupcake into a mini-terracotta pot. (You can find these at most craft stores for a few dollars.)
Using your fingers squish a purple Starburst (or other taffy of choice) into the shape of a beet. If the taffy is difficult to manipulate you can microwave it for a few seconds to soften. Be careful if you do heat up your taffy though, because it gets hot very quickly!
Use different colored taffy to make different fruits. Red's work great for radishes or apples and orange is perfect for carrots! To make the radishes, cut a red Starburst into four pieces, using a pair of scissors. Squeeze each red piece into a round shape to form your radish.
You carrot is made using an orange Starburst. Simply cut the Starburst in half and old each half into a carrot shape.
Next, you'll use a toothpick to you push a hole in the top of your fruit-shaped taffy. Cut off small pieces of a mint bundle including stems). Slide the stem into the hole on your fruit and pinch shut. When choosing your stems, bushier ones look great with the beats and radishes, while the carrots looks great with smaller pieces.
Using a toothpick, move aside a bit of the cookie on top of your cupcake. Using a bit of frosting as glue, attach the adorable fruit decorations to your cupcake. Cover any visible frosting with a bit of cookie crumble and your cupcakes are ready to serve!
Note that the mint leaves will start to brown after a few hours, so serve your cupcakes as soon as possible after preparation so everyone can enjoy the charming decorations at their best. To eat the cupcakes, use a dowel to push the cakes from the bottom of your pot (they should pop right out!).
What's your favorite way to decorate a cupcake? Tell us in the comments below.
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