Ladybug Valentines Cupcakes

I made these cute ladybug cupcakes for valentines day five years ago but never posted a how-to. They are super easy to make and would make a great project to work on with your kids.

What You Need

Flat Topped Cupcakes (slightly underfill the wells and reduce temp by 10 degrees to get flat, not rounded tops)
Pink or red frosting*
Black frosting*
White frosting (just a little bit)
1 Tbsp powdered sugar
Offset Spatula
Piping tips sized 1 and 3 if you want to get fancy (but use what you have)
Piping bags with saran wrap OR 2 Ziplock bags
Licorice strings. (try Darrell Lea Original Soft Eating Liquorice cut into strings for a natural alternative to conventional candy)

*Looking for natural food coloring? Check out: India Tree Natural Decorating Colours

Prep
The total amount of frosting needed will vary based on how many cupcakes you're decorating but you'll want about 3 parts red frosting, 1 part black frosting and 1/2 part white frosting.

Set up your black and white frosting in piping bag(s). Even if you're a cake decorating pro, take a minute to check out this mind blowing tip for how to do all this with less mess and less clean up. If using piping tips, put the smaller tip on the white frosting. If you don't have piping bag, you can pack the frosting into the corner of a ziplock bag and snip just a teeny bit off the end to make a wee little hole.

Peel your twizzler to separate out individual strands. Cut the individual stands into 2 inch pieces. Cut 2 pieces for each cupcake you want to make.

Let's Get Decorating
Step 1: Use the offset spatula to spread a smooth layer or red or pink frosting on the tops of the cupcakes

Step 2: Use the black frosting to make a circle for the head at the front edge of each cupcake and then draw a line down the middle.

tip: to make a smooth circle, draw a circle with the piping tip and fill in in a spiral fashion. Dip the tip of your finger into powdered sugar and smooth out the frosting with your finger.

Step 3: Use the black frosting to draw different sized dots on each side of the line.

Step 4: Use the white frosting to draw smaller white dots for the eyes. Draw a line in a half-circle shape for a smile.

Step 5: Use the black frosting to make smaller dots on top of the white dots. I like to put the black dots in an upper corner of the whites as ladybugs looking up and away are cute. Ones looking straight forward are creepy.