You don't need a green thumb to create this bountiful crop of cupcakes decorated like a vegetable patch. The secret is cookie crumbs and candy for a realistic yet whimsical garden of yumminess. This is a case where even the pickiest eaters will love finishing their vegetables.
Things You'll Need
Cupcakes
Chocolate frosting
Oreo cookies
Orange Starburst candies
Candy apple Laffy Taffy candies
Skewer
Step 1: Bake Cupcakes
Using either a box mix or your own homemade recipe, bake a batch of cupcakes. You can choose whatever flavor you'd like, but I chose chocolate because it looks the most like soil.
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Step 2: Frost the Cupcakes
Spread some chocolate frosting on the cupcakes. Chocolate frosting is preferred here because it will be the underlying layer of the topsoil. Don't worry about making the frosting particularly even or pretty at this point. It will be covered up.
Step 3: Dip in Oreo Crumbs
Place about ten Oreo cookies (including the cream centers) in a food processor, and pulverize them to make the "soil" for the garden. If you don't have a food processor, place the Oreos in a zippered plastic bag and crumble them with a rolling pin. Then place the cookie crumbs in a bowl.
Hold the cupcakes upside down and press them into the Oreo crumbs, allowing the frosting to act like a glue.
The combination of the dark cookies and the light cream centers makes the crumbs look just like soil.
Step 4: Shape the Carrots
Cut an orange Starbust candy in half. Each half will make one carrot.
Mold each Starburst half into a conical shape that resembles a carrot. If you can, wear some food grade plastic gloves while handling the candy.
Step 5: Add the Green Carrot Tops
To make the greens, we're using green Candy Apple Laffy Taffy candies. Start by tearing three small pieces off of the candy.
Using your fingers, shape the small green taffy pieces into leaf shapes.
Attach the green leaves to the top of the carrot. The Laffy Taffy will stick easily onto the Starburst.
Step 6: Plant the Carrots
Position two carrots in each cupcake with the pointy ends facing down into the dirt.
Making Seedling Cupcakes
For your vegetable garden, it's fun to also create some cupcakes that only have seedlings sprouting out of the soil.
Step 1: Shape the Greens
Tear off three small pieces of the Laffy Taffy. These pieces can be larger than the ones you used for the carrot tops. Then shape them into long leaf shapes. Notice that the ones in my example are not particularly symmetrical. That's fine. They look more natural this way.
Step 2: Form a Stalk
Join the three leaves at the base to form a stalk.
Step 3: Poke a Hole in the Soil
Poke a hole in the soil with a wood skewer. The Laffy Taffy is not as stiff as the Starburst carrots, so it will need help going into the soil.
Step 4: Insert the Seedling
Place the green stalk in the hole you created with the skewer. Position the leaves so that the two side ones splay out, while the middle one stays upright. See how real those imperfect leaves look.
Pop the cupcakes into clean terra cotta pots for the perfect display.
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