Spring Themed "Flower Cake"

• There is nothing better for a spring event than a flowerbed cake. Wow your guests with a cake that seems to be plucked right out of the garden. Start with a dozen to 18 cupcakes, flavor of your choice. Dye vanilla frosting green using about three drops of food coloring and frost the cupcakes completely. Next, cut marshmallows into small petal shapes, and shape them into a flower on the iced cupcake. Finally, decorate as you please using sprinkles, piping or candy.
  
  

Race Car Cake

• For a little boy's birthday party, or even if you're having friends over for the big race, a race car shaped cupcake display will be sure to impress even the most critical of guests. Start with 18 cupcakes; once again the flavor is up to you.
  
  Here is where your creativity can soar. Choose your favorite color and dye vanilla frosting to match. Ice the cupcakes then dip them in sprinkles. The shape of the race car will be made by placing your cupcakes in a car shape on a cookie sheet, the nose of the car should have only one cupcake, and the body should have two cupcakes for each row.
  
  To create a "spoiler" on the back of the car, use six cupcakes, stacked three-on-three. Use four chocolate-coated mini doughnuts to create the look of tires.
  
  

A Baby Shower

• The perfect centerpiece for a dessert table at a baby shower is just that -- a baby shower. Begin with 19 mini cupcakes; choose your favorite flavor. After covering a cookie sheet with baby-themed paper, frost one cupcake blue and lay it on its side, to look like a shower head. Then decorate the remaining 18 cupcakes with flesh colored frosting and pipe baby faces on the cupcakes. Display the cupcakes in a Christmas tree shape, as if they were falling from the shower head.
  
  For an added touch, cut blue fruit candy into teardrop shapes and display along with the cupcakes. This creates a shower of babies.
  
  

Don't Limit Yourself

• When you're deciding what to create with cupcakes, don't limit yourself. The idea is to create your own masterpiece, with something that is often overlooked. Turn an ordinary dessert into a piece of art that is almost too pretty to eat. When using individual cupcakes rather than a full-sized cake there is an added sense of control because you can display it the way you want. Let your creativity run rampant and design your own, cupcake cake.