Lawn Mower Cupcakes

       Here's the "Lawn Mower" Cakes I attempted to make. I can tell it's going to take me some time to get good at decorating cakes. : / This cupcake on the left turned out the best. I did change up the ingredients a little bit. Instead of using Hershey nuggets I used a variety pack of mini candy bars. The only reason for this was the price. The other thing I did a little differently was the handle. I still used black licorice but I couldn't find them as twizzlers so I simply cut red vines in half. I did however find that using the entire length of the licorice helped it to stand up because I could push them farther into the cupcake.

        One little tip: DO NOT leave them in the car or let them get hot any other way. The body of the mower kept in great shape but as you can see the licorice had issues. Even though they didn't look the best my Dad and family still got a laugh out of them :)



        I did fail complete in regards to making my husband a cake but that was because I didn't give myself enough time. It takes a lot of time to make anything look good, at least it does when I'm learning. Hopefully I can make the baby shower cake with owls happen. I do have 3 kids to care for all week but I will do my absolute best!

Ingredients

• Chocolate-frosted cupcakes (I used simple milk and powdered sugar for frosting)
• Coconut, flaked
• Green food coloring
• Hershey's Nuggets (Mini candy bars of your choice)

• M&M's
• Frosting (plenty leftover from the cupcakes)
• Black licorice laces (Red vines cut in half)

Instructions

1. For each cupcake, mix a handful of flaked coconut with a few drops of green food coloring. Press a chocolate-frosted cupcake into the coconut to cover. (I simply made a bowl full of green coconut to save a little time - the food coloring goes a long way as well if you add a little bit of water to your coconut when you mix it in.)
   
2. The mower is made with a dark chocolate Hershey's Nuggets body, brown M&M's wheels, and a red M&M's engine, held in place with dabs of frosting.
   
3. Shape the handle from a piece of black licorice lace, then insert the ends into the cupcake.