Mum Cupcakes

Since the month of May is dedicated to our Blessed Mother, and with Mother's Day coming up this weekend, I thought I would share the directions for these cupcakes, which we recently made at our last Little Flowers Girls' Club Meeting based on the virtue of Responsibility and St. Anne, Mary's Mum!   They were very easy to make, though they did take a little bit of time to assemble.  The girls all had so much fun making each of their cupcakes.  I thought they all turned out beautiful and were worth the time!  

Mum Cupcakes

inspired by What's New, Cupcake?: Ingeniously Simple Designs for Every Occasion

Ingredients:

Cupcakes
Light Colored Frosting (I used a cream cheese frosting)
Colored Sanding Sugars
Mini Marshmallows (you can use the pastel colored ones or plain white)
Licorice Pastels (I couldn't find this candy so I skipped these)
Green Licorice Twists (I used a couple packages of Rainbow Twizzlers)

Directions:

Bake the cupcakes and allow them to cool completely before topping each with a thin layer of frosting.

Use a separate bowl for each color of sanding sugar you plan to use (this will also allow you to save any extra for future use). Make the petals for the cupcakes by cutting mini marshmallows in half on the diagonal. The authors suggest 22 mini marshmallows for each cupcake. Depending on how big your marshmallows are and how closely you space the petals, you may need more or less. I used white mini marshmallows, but depending on the colored sugars you are using the pastel colored marshmallows would be very pretty as well. Once you've cut the marshmallows, press the cut side (it will be sticky) into the sugar to coat.

Starting along the outside edge of the cupcake, arrange like-colored marshmallow petals with the sugared sides up. Go all the way around the outside edge then move in and create another row of the same colored marshmallows inside the first. Continue until you've almost completely covered the cupcake. Repeat to cover all of your cupcakes with the marshmallows.

I skipped this step, but if you are using the licorice pastels, insert 5 like-colored ones into the center of each cupcake as stamens. I just used extra marshmallows to cover the entire cupcake since I forgot to buy the licorice pastels. Arrange the flower cupcakes on a serving platter and trim the green licorice twists to look like stems for the flowers.