These cupcakes, made to look like little frogs are so adorable you could just eat them right up (if they don’t hop away first!)

Follow these easy directions and you and your child will have one unforgettable afternoon creating these cute frog cupcakes oh, and I bet it will be an afternoon in the kitchen that you and your child will not soon forget.

Ingredients:

• Cupcakes (check out my favorite vanilla cupcake recipe )
• Green Frosting (homemade vanilla with just a touch of green food coloring will do)
• Green Gum Drop (one per cupcake)
• White chocolate chips (2 per cupcake)
• Black Icing (a small tube will be more than enough)
• Red Icing (a small tube will be more than enough)
• Red Licorice (I use Twizzlers)

Directions:

1) To get started, take your pre-made cupcakes and frost them with the green frosting. After thats done, take some gumdrops and slice them in half (long ways). Just as a safety precaution, you might want to slice the gumdrops for your kids. Family time is fun, but it should always stay safe.

2) After you have sliced enough gumdrops for two halves per each cupcake, set them aside. Next, count out the white chocolate chips so that there are 2 for each cupcake. This step is extremely popular with the younger kids who are learning to count in school. Use this as a time to have fun in the kitchen and to reinforce newly learned math skills.

3) When I made these cupcakes for a birthday party, I had one of my 5 year old neighbors help me count out the ingredients (gumdrops and white chocolate chips). She really enjoyed showing me how high she could count and it was a fun time for the both of us!

4) After you have counted out the chocolate chips place them tip down into the center of the sticky side of the gumdrop. Press the gumdrop lightly into the frosting on the cupcakes to resemble eyes with the white chocolate chips facing outwards. Once all of the eyes are in place, take the black frosting and put little dots on the white chocolate chip for the little frogs pupils. If you want to get really creative use the red icing and draw in tiny frogs tongue off center of the mouth line. Kids in the kitchen really love this touch and it brings out the laughs!

5) Now, take some of your candy licorice and pull them apart until its just one strand. Take that strand and cut (or tear) off a piece about 2-3 inches long to use for the frogs mouth. Continue this step for all of your cupcakes and soon you too will see a cute little frog smiling back at you!

This easy cupcake decorating idea is great for family time, perfect time of combining learning and fun for the younger kids, and a huge hit at the parties! If you wanted to alter the design a little bit, you could take away the mouth and use light blue frosting instead of green. Take a small knife and pull it across the blue icing in little squiggles to create the look of waves. By doing these subtle changes, your frog is now partly submerged underwater looking out at you! What a hoot! Who wouldn’t crack up with this suggestion for a cupcake decorating idea. In fact, I bet your cupcakes will be the talk of the party.

I would recommend this design for kids of all ages! Its easy, fun, and after you make the frogs you can enjoy baking and eating them with your kids.

Who knows, now you might want to go to the library and check out that frog and amphibian book to read with your children! No matter how you slice it, you’re bound to have fun in the kitchen decorating cupcakes and your kids will too. This cupcake decorating idea gets two thumbs up from me… and a ‘RIBBET’ from the frogs!

Now, for starters, there are two main types of tips for cupcake decorating. There are those little metal things you screw onto a pastry bag… tips. Or there are those little hints people give you to help you create a smoother, more professional-looking cupcake… also tips.

Well today must your lucky day because you’re learning about some of both. I know in my kitchen, I will take all the cupcake decorating tips I can get!

First off, lets start with the little metal tips you could use to decorate your cupcakes. There are obviously many different types.

First, there’s the star tip; its pretty much a classic. This type of tip gives you piping line that has points on it like a star and its frequently used for large cake borders.

The second tip is called the basket weave which is a type that resembles a thin rectangle. There are two varieties of the basket weave. In one, both of the sides are flat, which gives you a ribbon-like look. The other type has one flat and one rigid edge. This tip uses the rigid edge to create a textured effect, frequently used to give the illusion of a traditional basket-weave.

The flower, leaf, and rose petal tips are fun as well. These tips are commonly used on cupcakes and when you use these tips, it makes a flower or a leaf in one step. When you are mass producing cupcakes, these tips are very useful to keep the designs simple, yet elegant. It is a huge time saver in the kitchen.

The final tip is the round tip. (Of course, there are still many more types of tips out there; but these are the four basics and the ones that I find myself using most often.) The round tip is the most commonly used tip. It is about as simple as it gets. The round tip delivers a round dot, pretty much as large or small as you’d like, depending on the size of the decorating tip. It can make dots or if you steadily move it, it can make lines or letters. If you’d like to write anything on your cakes or cupcakes, I’d definitely suggest this tip. Some choose the basket weave tip with two flat sides but usually that tip is too wide to get a clean finished product. Remember… you are working in a very small area.

So that’s some simple cupcake decorating tips. Are you still looking for something more? If so, it’s possible you were looking for decorating tips; those little hints people give you to help improve your baking and to create the best decorated cake or cupcake you can.

Of course, I want to make sure that I give you what you are looking for so if you are looking for cupcake decorating tips, I have written a second article based on the helpful hints for cupcake decorating in: A Cupcake Decorating Tip On Tips (Part 2) and you’ll surely find what you’re looking for!

If you’re looking for a frosting that packs a little more of a punch, try some fun variations! Because this recipe is so basic, there are many different options when it comes to “spicing up” your deliciously simple cream cheese frosting.

What else is there to say?! This cream cheese frosting recipe is sure to please… and comes at ease!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of butter (1 stick), room temperature
• 8 oz of cream cheese (1 package), room temperature
• 2 – 3 cups of powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Directions:

1) With an electric mixer, mix the butter and cream cheese together, about 3 minutes on medium speed until very smooth. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure even mixing.

2) Add the vanilla extract and mix. Slowly add the powdered sugar. Keep adding until you get to desired sweetness.

3) Either spread on with a blunt knife or spatula, or spoon into a piping bag to decorate your cake or cupcake.

4) Enjoy!

Yum! Yum! What a delicious frosting! If you’re looking for a different taste try some fun deviations. For instance, if you’re topping a coconut cake, add in some coconut flakes to your cream cheese frosting. For carrot cakes, try adding in a pinch of ginger.

With red velvet cakes or German chocolate cakes, you could even mix in a handful of crushed pecans. This gives your frosting a unique texture! No matter what you decide, this cream cheese frosting recipe will perfect; like the icing on the cake!