Cacti Cupcakes

Cacti Cupcakes

Yup. You heard me y'all.

HR was hoping for a fiesta birthday party - kind of to bring home some of the southwestern flavor we miss so much after living in Arizona. Not sure how much of that cultural flair actually happened admist an 11 year old's party with 10 other kiddos, but it was a crazy fun fiesta that deserved a siesta!

Not having much any time to spare, I opted for cupcakes rather than a cool cactus cake that I didn't have a shaped cake pan for, or the time to bake, shape and create from scratch.

The first cupcake icing attempts weren't pretty. I wanted something fun and cactus-ey. No suerte here! But, I didn't mind eating the errors! :-)

See what I mean? This just wasn't happening. I found that trying to rim the edge in brown (for sand/dirt) did not work well at all.

So, I opted for a simple cactus "planted' in a hip urban container (the foil cupcake liners - not that the boys would even make that connection) with the cupcake color peeking out just a bit under the cactus to simulate the desert. Toothpicks made perfect cactus spines. Quick and easy!

Watch out for the needles! (As HR always used to call them.)

And, yes, we did make sure that all boys removed the toothpick cactus needles before eating the cupcakes!