Candy-Shop Cupcake Blossoms
A dozen cupcakes and a batch of your favorite frosting create a perfect field for ideas to bloom. Use store-bought candy and a pair of scissors to create these flower-topped treats that are fit for a garden party.
Sweet, Edible Petals
Create a bouquet's worth of sugar-coated blooms with this colorful glossary of store-bought candies (like colored licorice, gummy fish and jellybeans), which can be shaped into flowers for topping your favorite cupcake.
Start with a Delicious Base
Use Food Network's Go-To Vanilla Cupcake recipe as the classic base for displaying your candy flowers.
Get the Recipe: Go-To Vanilla Cupcakes
Red Flower
A few sticks of colored licorice and a red raspberry candy are all you need to create this bright-red bloom. The next slide explains how to make it yourself.
Red Flower How-To
Center a red raspberry candy on the cupcake. Cut strawberry licorice into eight 3-1/4-inch segments. Stick one end of each licorice piece into the frosting near the raspberry, curl it in a loop, then push the other end into the cupcake near the liner.
Black-Eyed Susan
Large marshmallows and a pile of yellow sanding sugar combine to create this cheerful black-eyed Susan. The next slide explains how to make it yourself.
Black-Eyed Susan How-To
Center a black raspberry candy on a cupcake. Use scissors to snip off top-to-bottom slices all around one to two large marshmallows, leaving a sticky core (which you can eat). Each wedge will have a sticky inside and a powdery outside. Press the sticky sides into yellow sanding sugar, then arrange around the black raspberry like petals.
Cherry Licorice Bouquet
A few snips of sugared fruit slices and licorice bites create an edible bouquet in a flash. The next slide explains how to make it yourself.
Cherry Licorice Bouquet How-To
Cut green sugared gel candies (sugared fruit slices) into four strips of varied lengths (smaller than the cupcake radius). Arrange them like stems on the cupcake. Cut red licorice bites crosswise into 1/8-inch-thick disks, and press five of them into the frosting at the stem tips to make a bouquet.
Pinwheel Flower
Break out your favorite flavor of gumdrops to craft this colorful topper. The next slide explains how to make it yourself.
Pinwheel Flower How-To
Cut a domed sugar-coated fruit gel (like a gumdrop) crosswise into eight half-moons. Cut two 1-1/2-inch strips from a green gel candy. Arrange the half-moons like petals on the cupcake, overlapping a bit. Press the gel strips into the frosting between two petals. Put a jellybean or hard candy in the center, with a dab of frosting to help it stick.
Red Loop Flower
Twirled fruit leathers form the sticky red petals on this crimson flower. The next slide explains how to make it yourself.
Red Loop Flower How-To
Center a hard candy on the cupcake. Cut fruit leather into six 3/4-inch-by-3-1/2-inch ribbons. Make loops by pressing the ends together; arrange like petals around the hard candy. Cut green gel candies into four thin strips, press "leaf" veins on the back of a green gummy fish, and arrange around the petals.
Lily Pad
This marshmallow lily pad comes complete with its own gummy frog. The next slide explains how to make it yourself.
Lily Pad How-To
Halve three mini marshmallows diagonally with scissors. Press the cut sides in yellow sanding sugar; arrange like petals slightly off-center. Cut a small piece of green gel candy and stand it in the center. Using a small round or heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut three pieces from green fruit leather; arrange around the flower. Place a gummy frog on the side.
Mod Flower
Choose your favorite color combo of citrus gel candies to create this mod-inspired flower. The next slide explains how to make it yourself.
Mod Flower How-To
Cut one each yellow and red citrus slice gel candies into five or six thin wedges. Center a hard candy on the cupcake, then arrange the gel slices in a spoke pattern around the candy.
Daffodils
Know a daffodil fan? Surprise him or her with a favorite flower in edible form, made with a handful of jellybeans. The next slide explains how to make it yourself.
Daffodil How-To
Form stems by making three cuts in a green gummy fish, from the head almost to the end of the tail. Press it into the frosting with the tail at the edge of the cupcake. Arrange five small yellow jellybeans between and above the stems. Cut orange jellybeans into a few tiny pieces, and arrange them around the jellybeans.
Spiky Flower
Trim colored licorice into thin pieces to create this statement-making blue bloom. The next slide explains how to make it yourself.
Spiky Flower How-To
Center a black raspberry candy on the cupcake. Cut colored licorice into about 25 matchstick-size pieces (about 1 1/4 by 1/8 inches) and push them into the frosting in a spoke pattern around the raspberry.
Mini Rose, Mini Jellybean Daisy and Mini Gumdrop Flower
If you can't decide which candy flower you like best, decorate a tiny trio of cupcakes for displaying your top-three favorites. The next slide explains how to make them yourself.
Mini Rose, Mini Jellybean Daisy and Mini Gumdrop Flower How-To
Mini Rose: Cut a red raspberry candy in half and press the cut side down into the frosting at the edge of the cupcake. Make leaves by pressing a paring knife into the back of a green gummy fish to make veins. Halve the fish and arrange it next to the raspberry.
Mini Jellybean Daisy: Center a yellow gumball on the cupcake. Cut four pink jellybeans in half lengthwise. Press the cut sides into white nonpareils. Arrange the jellybeans like petals around the gumball.
Mini Gumdrop Flower: Halve one each red and orange gumdrop top to bottom; slice halves into wedges. Alternate the colored wedges around the cupcake like petals, leaving a small space in the center. Snip black licorice into two matchstick-size pieces. Dip the ends in frosting and then into yellow sanding sugar, then stand them upright in the center of the petals.
