Sunflower Cupcakes

[sushiluvzombie]

So in the back of this month's Redbook were the most adorable cupcakes, and since I had everything I needed to make them already, of course I had to try and make them.







Redbook listed a vanilla cake mix recipe for the cupcakes, but I just used a white boxed cake mix, then it calls for two cans of vanilla icing, red m&m's (I used the new wild cherry m&m's since the whole bag is red ones), chocolate icing (just enough to do the details on the ladybugs) and of course oreos.

You'll need to bake up your cupcakes (redbook suggested using green cupcake liners), then just use a spoon to carve out an oreo-sized chunk from the top of each cupcake, so that the oreo will sit nice and snug inside.
Take one can of icing and color it green and spread it inside the hole and along the top edge of each cupcake.
Take a ziplock back and cut one corner to be a downward V (see diagram below)(or use a leaf tip) and put in some more of your green icing and make the leaves around the top edge of each cupcake.
Take your second can of icing and make it all yellow, then take about a cup of that, and make it orange. Now you'll put both yellow and orange in a new ziplock bag so that when you make your petals, you get some of both colors. I used more orange when I did the bottom petals, and then more yellow when I did the top ones.
Make your first row of petals on top of the leaves and then place your oreos in the holes you made earlier. Your petals may get a little messed up, but don't worry, cause you'll hide that when you put on the top row of petals.
For the ladybugs, fill another bag with the chocolate icing (you can leave it brown or color it black) and cut a liiittle hole in the corner of the bag. Squeeze a good sized dot of icing onto the oreo where you want the ladybug to be, and then place the m&m on the oreo. Then just pipe on the little details and TA-DA!

Oh, and if you let them sit overnight, the oreos get nice and soft.

Incase anyone was confused, here's how you'll need to cut the tip of the ziplock bag. You use this cut for the leaves and the petals.

[feelix]

Those look sooooooo good. :-)

I totally want to try these.

[Shan]

okay, these are beautiful. I love cupcakes and i wish these were sitting on a plate to celebrate my birthday. Wonderful.

[dez-igns]

those are the most beautiful cupcakes i have ever seen!! I'm totally going to try these and I'm totally hitting this rocks!!

[bunsenhoneydew13]

Those are clever and fancy.  Kudos to you for trying them out! 

(I'm glad I don't have the stuff needed to make them right now, because that's what I'd be doing instead of going to bed  )

[fujiiro]

those are incredibly adorable!

I wish I hadn't seen them right now, because I totally want to stop studying for my exams and go whip up a batch of these right now. XD  I'm definitely bookmarking this so that I can try it after exams.

P.S. (I totally envy your piping/icing skills XD)

[Knotty Kitty]

CUUUTE!! M&M ladybugs! Damn, now I want a cupcake.

*wanders off*

[3littlechicks]

MMMMmm...those look so good, and pretty! I agree with the others, kudos to you for trying it out

[gammerus]

 I give this my seal of cupcake, flower loving, approval.

[zombiecazz]

Those are just adorable.