How to Make Hollyhock Dolls and Use Them to Decorate Cupcakes

My childhood was populated with hollyhock fairies. They are fast and easy to make and can be made without any tools.

Hollyhocks are edible, so the hollyhock dolls make an elegant, but frugal decoration for cupcakes. You can use old-fashioned hollyhock flowers or double hollyhock flowers. Both are lovely for garden parties and tea parties.

Make sure your hollyhocks come from a source that has not been treated with pesticides and other chemicals. You need to rinse the hollyhocks well, if you are going to use them to decorate cupcakes. After rinsing the hollyhock flowers, pat them dry before assembling.

How to Make Hollyhock Dolls

Items needed to make 1 hollyhock doll:

• 1 hollyhock bud
• 1 partially opened hollyhock flower
• scissors (optional)
• toothpick (optional)

If  you are using the hollyhock dolls to decorate cupcakes, the multiply this amount by the number of cupcakes you want to top.

Directions:

1. Pull off the sepal petals on the bud to expose the “eyes”:

2. Pull or cut off the stem to create the “mouth”:

3. Insert the stem of the flower into one of the holes in the bud:

Now stand your hollyhock doll up and she is ready for the party:

How to Use Hollyhock Dolls to Decorate Cupcakes

You can use a toothpick to make your doll more secure. Insert it through the middle of the hollyhock, leaving a bit of toothpick sticking out on top to attach the head, and a little on bottom to insert it into a cupcake:

Once the head is attached you can stick the toothpick into a cupcake:

You can also add rosemary or lavender twigs for arms if you choose. I doubt that most people will want to eat their hollyhock doll, but they can if they want to. The petals are slightly sweet, but the white portion of the bud is bitter and is avoided when used for culinary purposes.

Do you have hollyhocks in your garden? If not, here are tips on growing hollyhocks. You can also make candied flowers with rose petals and pansies and use them to decorated cupcakes.

I used this Gluten-Free Vanilla Cake recipe to make the cupcakes and I frosted them with Butter Cream Frosting.