Deadly Garden Cupcakes

Give your cupcakes a twist with these dangerous little decorations! Perfect for springtime, these deadly venus fly traps bring a taunting appeal to traditional flower decorations. You'll be sure to make heads turn with these brain-eating fly trap cupcakes!

- Fondant of different colors (I bought Cake Boss Fabulous Fondant 4oz packs of green, yellow, and pink)

- Circle cookie cutters (ribbed if possible)

- Cake Mix

- White frosting

- Food coloring (4 primary colors)

- Green decorating gel

- Candy pop sticks

- Toothpicks

- Paint brushes

- Non-serrated knife

- Roll out the fondant on a flat surface until it is about a 1/4 inch thick. It helps to microwave the fondant for a couple of seconds if it is firm.

- Use the circle cookie cutter to cut out petal shapes. This is done by cutting a circle, and then cutting another circle intersecting the first circle (like a venn diagram).

- Lay three petals in your hand so that they are tiered, one overlapping the next. Roll the top-most petal in toward the bottom two petals and squeeze the bottom to hold them together. Add more petals to the flower by first dabbing frosting on the petal surface, and then sticking it to the outside of your three-petaled flower. I used about 8 petals for each flower. Make sure to used enough frosting to the petals so that they are "glued" together!

- Paint a candy pop stick green using green food coloring. Let the stick air-dry (10-15 minutes) and then carefully lodge the stick into the base of the flower. It is best to do this while the flower is still pliable. Remove the stick from the flower base once you have made a hole (about 1/2 inch deep). Place some frosting into the hole, and re-insert the stick. The frosting will help keep the flower head on the "stem".

- Place the finished flower in a cup, standing up. Let the flowers sit a couple of hours to let the fondant harden.

- Roll out the green fondant to 1/4 inch thick.

- Use a circle cookie cutter (no ridges) to cut out a circle.

- Cut thin, long triangles for the "teeth" of the venus fly trap. Use a knife to cut the slivers of fondant.

- Spread a thin layer of frosting on the circle of fondant. Place the thin "teeth" around the circle with the pointed ends outward.

- Gently fold the circle over, as if you were going to fold it in half. Do not fold all the way down! You don't want his mouth to get stuck together! Place something inside the mouth to keep it propped open. You can decide how wide you want the mouth to be open.

- In the rolled out fondant, cut out a wavy shape, similar to an elongated "8" (without the openings). This will be the stem and leaves of the plant. Use this shape as a template to cut an identical shape. Spread a thin layer of frosting on the center of each of the shapes.

- Bend one of the candy pop sticks to give the plant a hunched posture. Place the bent stick on the frosted area of one of the plant bodies and carefully mold the fondant to the stick. Place the identical plant body on the opposite side to cover over the rest of the stick.

- Place the plant body on a flat surface and let dry for a couple of hours. Remember that the position it is laid in, is the position that it will solidify in, so make sure that you like the look of the body before letting it dry!

- Allow both the plant heads and bodies to solidify. Spread a thick layer of frosting onto the top of the plant body, and onto the bottom of the plant head. Use some toothpicks as props to help keep the head stable on the body. Place the plant on a stable surface standing up to let the plant dry. (I used a glass to keep the plant standing up, and a second glass to prop up the head while it dried)

- To add some detail, use food coloring to paint the inside of the mouths red. Venus fly traps typically have red mouths!

- Roll a small ball of pink fondant. Flatten the ball on one side, and elongate the ball into an oval to make it look more "brain-like".

- Use a tooth pick to make an indentation along the center of the brain and create the two hemispheres. Carefully pinch the two sides back together to make the indentation smaller.

- Gently roll the brain on a bumpy surface to give it some character. (I used a plastic, woven placemat)

- Mix 1 drop of blue food dye with 1 tablespoon of water. Paint the brain with the blue water to help the indentations stand out, and to make the brain shiny.

- Let the brains dry a couple of hours until solid.

- Bake your cupcakes following the instructions on the box (or using your own recipe!). I mixed peanut butter chips in my cake mix to make it look more like soil. Bake regular sized cupcakes, or mini cupcakes for a mini plant.

- You may choose to play up the garden theme by placing the cupcakes into plant pots. This is not necessary however.

- You may choose to frost the cupcakes to make it look like the plants are in grass. You can make green frosting by mixing a couple of drops of green food coloring with the white frosting. Frost the top of the cupcakes, and then use the flat side of the knife to tap the smooth frosting all over the cupcake top. This will make the frosting look more like grass.

- If you choose not to frost the cupcakes, they will look like the plants are in dirt. I frosted one and left my other cupcakes unfrosted.

- Alternatively, you may choose to bake a sheet cake and make you garden all on one cake!!

- Once all of your plants have hardened, and your cupcakes/sheet cake is baked, you can begin designing!

- Carefully insert the plants into the cakes far enough so that they can stand on their own.

- Place brains in the venus fly trap mouths or on soil. Get creative! (I cut into one of the flowers and placed a half of a brain sticking out. I also placed one of the flower heads on the ground)

- Squeeze some green decorating gel into the venus fly trap mouths and on the flowers to give the effect that the flowers are "bleeding" and the venus fly traps are salivating.

- Enjoy! Remember that the sticks and toothpicks are not edible!!