When I was at the grocery store my 3 year old pointed out a turtle cake and told me we “needed to get it for my birthday”. As much as I would have liked to indulge my toddler, I couldn’t. Several of us are gluten intolerant, plus grocery store frosting doesn’t taste very good. However he planted a seed…
The next day when I was getting ready to make my birthday cupcakes, I decided to do some experimenting. First I poured different amount of batter into the muffin tin, to get different size cupcakes: 
I did this mainly because I didn’t know exactly what I needed and the great thing about baking is you can always eat the mistakes!
Then I chopped the top off of a cup cake:
Then I put both pieces cut side down on a piece of wax paper and frosted them:
Quite obviously, I did not have any special equipment. I mostly just globbed frosting where I wanted it with a teaspoon. The ladybug’s dots are chocolate syrup thickened with cornstarch (but it was still a little unruly).
I also attempted several beehives. To make a beehive, I cut the top off of a shorter cupcake. Turned the bottom upside down, then adhered the top with frosting:
Then I made bright yellow frosting, added one drop of red and one drop of blue coloring to muddy the color and spread it on the cupcake with a fork:
Do they look as pretty as the cakes at the store? No, but they are allergen free, very tasty, and my three year old was pleased. I will have plenty of opportunities to work on my decorating skills, as we have two more birthdays this month. I wonder how many more birthdays will be celebrated with inverted cupcakes?
I left the cupcakes on the wax paper until the frosting appendages hardened enough to move them without causing damage. I used Pamela Gluten-Free Vanilla Cake mix and Butter Cream Frosting.
Do you like to decorate your own cakes and cupcakes?
For more cupcake ideas, visit Cupcake Tuesday at Hoosier Homemade.
Would you like to save this article?
We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!
kissykat says
ABSOLUTELY adorable! So creative! I would never even think to try something like that… even after seeing something like it in the store!
Money Saving Maine-iac says
OMG! Too cute! I love the bee hive/skep. 🙂 Thanks for sharing and Happy Birthday!
Alea says
Creative Cupcakes – I love the idea of making mini-cupcake bees! At the top of my list of to try ideas! Though I am going to have to work on my decorating techniques…
Sheila says
Too cute. I can't remember the last time I made cupcakes–I'll have to remedy that soon!!
Melissa says
These are so cute, and I imagine the frosting was MUCH better than the kind from the grocery store.
I just finished writing a cupcake post for Thursday. 🙂
HoosierHomemade says
Those are so cute! I bet your little one loved them! I agree…much better than the grocery store!
Thanks so much for joining in the fun at Cupcake Tuesday!
~Liz
creative-cupcake-recipes.net says
Very cute. I love the individual turtle. The behive is great. You know what would be so cute, making mini cupcakes to resemble bees to accompany.
Alea says
The turtle head is all icing. I just dropped a glob and declared it a head. 🙂
Jane Anne says
I love the turtle! Is the turtle head all icing? We can't get bakery goods at my house, either, due to food allergies. Our birthday cakes aren't fancy but they are made with love.
Shana says
Oh those are so cute Alea!! I love the beehive one best.