Lady Bug Tulip Cake

Last week my 4-year-old son’s teacher wrote in the classroom weekly bulletin that they are studying the life cycle of lady bugs in their science and gardening class. They will be growing ladybugs in the classroom and releasing them into the school garden once they’re fully developed. They also get to observe the lady bugs that are already chewing on the veggies in the school garden- Blake says the ladies favorite snack is swiss chard LOL.

So that’s when I decided to make a ladybug cake for a friend’s birthday and mini cupcakes for my son’s entire class.

So friends I just wanted to share the decorating techniques I used in hopes that you’ll be inspired to make a lady bug cake or cupcakes of your own to celebrate the spring season. You can use any cake recipe you’d like even a box cake mix is just fine.

Thanks to Hobby Lobby, you don’t have to make the lady bugs on your own, you can get them  HERE . This is sure to save you a ton of time- I remember making sunflower cupcakes years ago with Oreo cookie centers and homemade lady bug candies. Now I didn’t literally make the candies but I did pipe polka dots and antennas onto 24 red candies and at the end of it my fingers were hurting.

I topped my cake with a bouquet of tulips. I used Russian piping tips to pipe them out easily. I also used a grass tip to cover the base of the cake board. All you need to do is use food coloring to tint your homemade buttercream icing. I often use the Wilton Method because it is stiff enough to decorate cakes and you don’t want your gorgeous blooms melting or unable to hold their shape. Here’s what the tips look like- all you have to do is squeeze your icing bag and out pipes pretty tulips and grass.

It’s really that simple. Bake a cake or cupcakes – pipe out pretty designs with the above mentioned icing tips. Also if you want to make a cake but want to skip the layering and icing of the cake- please check out my post First Day of Spring Cake (EASY) for more inspiration! And as always I love seeing your creations -please tag me on Instagram or leave a comment and let me know how your bake-date went.