Easter Dessert "Reveal" {mini marshmallow flowers}

Hmmmm... using the word "reveal" in my post title sounds so dramatic! But, since I gave you a "teaser" in my last post, I suppose it'll work. LOL.

So as I mentioned, we went to my in-law's house for an Easter Brunch on Sunday. I was in charge of fruit salad and dessert. I decided to make cupcakes for dessert and immediately knew that I wanted to go with a spring-like theme so that meant... FLOWERS!

First I just made some plain yellow cake cupcakes - I was able to get 12 regular size and 24 mini size out of one box of cake mix. Then frosted them with white, vanilla frosting (yes, from a can - for shame, I know!). Sounds pretty boring up to this point, doesn't it? Well... that's when I added the piece de resitance! :) These flowers...

DIY edible flower

Before I tell you how to make them, let me show you a couple more pics of these little beauties.

 

Mini Marshmallow Flowers are so easy to make!

I love all the pretty colors

So how do you make these beautiful little things? It is really very easy, but I'll admit it, kinda time consuming so be sure you have a couple hours set aside. 

Here is what I used: mini marshmallows, colored sugar sprinkles, white chocolate and mini M&Ms. You'll also need a sharp pair of scissors, some wax paper and a plastic bag.

My supplies for Mini Marshmallow Flowers

First you want to cut your mini marshmallows in half - along the diagonal.

Cut the Marshmallows diagonally

Drop your cut halves into the sugar sprinkles. Shake them around and you'll see that the inner, sticky part of the marshmallow (the edge that you cut) will pick up all those pretty colored sprinkles.

Toss the halves in the sugar sprinkles

Melt some of your white chocolate in the microwave. Place it in a small plastic bag and snip off a tiny bit of one corner.

Cut off a tiny corner of your plastic bag filled with white chocolate.

Squeeze out a dime-size amount of chocolate onto some wax paper. I recommend only doing about 3 dollops at a time otherwise the chocolate will start to set up on you too quickly. Take my word for it! LOL. As you can see in the below photo, I didn't take this approach at first and had to re-melt most of those dollops! :)

Dime sized dollops of white chocolate

Take 5 of your marshmallow halves and place them in a circle around the edge of your white chocolate (you want the marshmallow to actually be about halfway in the chocolate). 

Place your "petals" in the white chocolate, leaving a little room in the middle.

After you place your 5 petals, add a mini M&M in the center. Of course, you don't have to use an M&M here - a small round pearl sprinkle would work well, or some other mini round candy. Whatever you happen to have or find! :)

When the chocolate sets up, the marshmallow "petals"  and the M&M will stick to it, creating a solid flower that can be peeled off the wax paper in one piece. I was worried that the marshmallows would harden overnight but I stored them in a ziploc bag and they were still nice and soft the next day. (And for the record, it is now Wednesday -  4 days later - and the leftover flowers are STILL nice and soft!). Now keep making flower after flower after flower! LOL.

I then just stuck one flower on each mini cupcake and 3 on each large cupcake. The white frosting really helps the colors of the petals POP!

Stick 3 flowers into the frosting of a big cupcake and voila! Beautiful Marshmallow Flower Cupcakes!

You could put all the same color flowers on each cupcake, but I chose to mix it up!

Mini cupcakes got one flower. For these petals, I mixed up the sprinkle colors together.

The kids actually placed these flowers - they just stick right to the frosting - so easy!

I also made a few bunny rabbits for the kids using some big marshmallows I had on hand for the ears, a big dollop of chocolate for the face, chocolate sprinkles for the whiskers and a heart sprinkle for the nose. I put one each on a big cupcake - the kids loved them!

hop hop hop

Ready to go! (I always have to keep one naked cupcake for my niece who doesn't like frosting - whaaaat???)

You could even customize the colors of your sugar sprinkles to suit your needs - think baby shower or wedding shower. Oh and they'd be sweet for Mother's Day too! And the nice thing is you can prepare the cupcakes and flowers in advance like I did. Then on the day of the event, simply frost and apply the flowers.

So, what do you think? Pretty? Fun? If nothing else, they're cheap frugal! :) The cake mix and frosting cost $1 each on sale. The bag of mini marshmallows was on sale for $0.99 (and I only used about half of it). I actually had all of the sprinkles on hand already (I admit it, we let the girls put sprinkles on their fruit cups and applesauce) so there was no cash out of pocket for those. And the mini M&M's were from a snack size bag left over from trick or treating so again, no cost to me. Gotta love a pretty dessert for less than $3 out of pocket! :) Not to mention the YUM factor!

Lots of pretty marshmallow flowers - I just love looking at them!

This project was featured! Thank you!

 

Linking up here:

Someday Crafts

Nifty Thrifty Things

House of Hepworths

It's a Keeper

Fingerprints on the Fridge

Mommas Kinda Crafty

Simply Designing

A Little Knick Knack

Truly Lovely

WHile He Was Napping

Tatertots and Jello

Green Door Designs

Be Different Act Normal

Craft Envy

Under the Table and Dreaming

C.R.A.F.T.

The Tattered Tag

Keeping it Simple

Muffin Monday at Talking Dollars and Cents

Polly Want a Crafter

Polish the Stars

Krafty Kat

Not Just a Housewife

Small Fine Print

Also Linked up to the CSI Project's Flower Challenge!