My boys were absolutely fascinated with ladybugs this spring. I had never seen so many ladybugs in my life as I saw this last spring in Louisiana! It was amazing! My two youngest especially, loved to hunt ladybugs to catch. They loved to pick them and let the crawl around on their hands. Little Z would shriek with nervous delight, still unsure despite my reassurances that the ladybug was not going to bite him.
I thought it would fun to round-up some ideas for a ladybug party! With such a versatile theme these ladybug party ideas would be perfect for a ladybug birthday party or even a homeschool ladybug unit party.
The ladybug cupcakes are my favorite part! Aren’t these just so cute?! The recipe below includes food coloring, but if you’re like my family and are trying to cut out artificial colors you can either use a fresh dark vegetable juice (like spinach juice) or you can try some natural food dyes. *As a side note, when using natural food dyes, your colors won’t come out quite as vibrant as the icing on the cupcakes here.
Wondering how to get these cute little cupcakes to your party? They really aren’t that difficult. Here’s the recipe!
Ladybug Cupcakes Recipe
Things you might need before you start:
- Food coloring (like we talked about before)
- Cute, ladybug polka-dot cupcake liners
- Wilton #233 grass tip
- Tube of black icing
Save RecipeIngredients
- 1 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup Hershey's dark unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
- 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 T vanilla extract
- 2 T cold milk
- Green food gel (you can also use a natural green coloring like fresh spinach juice--it won't taste like spinach, don't worry--or you can use liquid chlorophyll
- Strawberry candies
- Junior Mint candies
- Mini tube of black icing
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Grease cupcake pan or place cupcake liners in pan.
- In a medium mixing bowl, add butter and sugar and cream with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs, one at a time and mix until well incorporated.
- Stir in the vanilla extract and set aside.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- Add 1/2 of the dry ingredient mixture to the creamed butter and mix until just combined (do not over-mix).
- Add 1/2 of the buttermilk and mix until combined.
- Repeat steps 7 and 8.
- Fill each cupcake liner until 3/4 full.
- Bake for 15 to 17 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- Let cool in pan for five minutes.
- Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack to complete the cooling process.
- Frost with icing when completely cooled.
- In a mixing bowl, cream the butter.
- With an electric mixer on low, add half of the sugar until well blended.
- Add the rest of the sugar and beat on medium speed until smooth.
- Add food green gel until you reach your desired color of dark green grass.
- NOTE: to thin icing, add 1 T milk and to thicken icing, add 1 T powdered sugar.
- Fill 3/4 decorating bag with green icing and attach a Wilton #233 tip.
- Hold the decorating bag straight up and squeeze to create a glass blade.
- Immediately after squeezing pull up and away when the icing strand is about 1/2 inch. Stop squeezing and pull tip away.
- Be sure to keep the strands together so none of the cupcake shows through.
- NOTE: for a more natural grass look, you can pull the tip slightly to the left or right.
- Visit Wilton's website HERE for a video tutorial, if needed.
- Apply dab of icing to the back of a junior mint candy and press firmly to the front of a strawberry candy piece to resemble the ladybug head. Let set for 10 minutes.
- Dab little dots of icing on the strawberry candy to resemble ladybug spots. Set for 5 minutes.
- Place on top of green grass cupcakes.
- Enjoy!
Didn’t they turn out wonderfully?!
Check out these cute as a bug ladybug birthday party ideas!
Ribbons and Glue has some absolutely fabulous ideas for adorable ladybug birthday party decor, and I love her ladybug party favors too! So cute!
If you and your kids love chocolate covered pretzels, you must check out these fun ladybug pretzels from Cincy Shopper!
And I cannot get over this cute ladybug wreath from Roubinek Reality! Make it for the party and use it after all spring, summer, or fall.
Finally, if you’re like me, and you prefer to buy at least some of your party decor (because, really, as much as I love Pinterest, I’d rather be spending time with my kids than making a truckload of elaborate decorations), check out Kate’s ladybug party post for some cute ladybug party items from Discount Party Supply.
About Amy @ Oh So Savvy Mom
Comments