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.

garden cupcakes

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Things You\’ll Need

  • Cupcakes

  • Chocolate frosting

  • Oreo cookies

  • Orange Starburst candies

  • Candy apple Laffy Taffy candies

  • Skewer

materials

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.

cupcakes

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.

frosting

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.

oreos

Hold the cupcakes upside down and press them into the Oreo crumbs, allowing the frosting to act like a glue.

crumbs

The combination of the dark cookies and the light cream centers makes the crumbs look just like soil.

soil

Step 4: Shape the Carrots

Cut an orange Starbust candy in half. Each half will make one carrot.

starburst

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.

carrots

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.

taffy

Using your fingers, shape the small green taffy pieces into leaf shapes.

leaves

Attach the green leaves to the top of the carrot. The Laffy Taffy will stick easily onto the Starburst.

carrot

Step 6: Plant the Carrots

Position two carrots in each cupcake with the pointy ends facing down into the dirt.

planted carrots

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.

greens

Step 2: Form a Stalk

Join the three leaves at the base to form a stalk.

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.

hole

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.

seedlings

Pop the cupcakes into clean terra cotta pots for the perfect display.

vegetable garden cupcakes

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