Teacher Appreciation/Mother's Day Gifts!

In true slacker fashion I waited until the LAST minute to make something for M's 5 teachers!  Its ok though - Its crazy cute and super easy!!!  Wanna see?!?!?!  Ok....  I'll share - AND, I tell you how to do it!

Aren't they CUTE!!!  And really these are so easy to do!  I did take some time and paint the pots with Chalkboard Paint - made them all the cuter!!!

Are you ready to get started?  Ok - here we go. 

Step 1.  Bake your favorite Cupcakes, try to keep the top fairly level, it will make piping the flowers a little easier.

Step 2.  Grab some yellow buttercream, a piping bag, and a tip 352 (leaf tip).  Put the tip in the piping bag and fill with your yellow buttercream.  This leaf tip looks like it has a V in it.  You will want to hold the tip so that the V is facing the side, not the top.  Holding the bag at a 45 degee angle and with steady pressure squeeze and then start to pull out, stop squeezing and continue to pull - you just made your first petal!  Do 2 rows of petals on the outside of your cupcake: 

Step 3.  Grab some chocolate fudge icing - its ok if you cheat on the chocolate (I do!):

(just don't use the sprinkles.)

Again you will want another piping bag and a tip 16 or 18 (star tip).  Put the tip in the bag and fill the bag with chocolate icing.  Make sure that you do not leave the icing in a hot environment or in the fridge before you use it.  To pipe the middle, just fill it with stars.  Hold the piping bag at a 90 degree angle with the tip almost touching the cupcake.  Squeeze, stop, lift, repeat until the whole center is completely full.  (if you use chocolate cuppies and you miss a spot, no one will know!  shhhhh!)

BEAUTIFUL!!

YUMMY!

Now, if you have had enough and you want to quit - grab a cute box (michael's) and give 'em to the teachers or your mom.  BUT!  If you want the real WOW factor - Keep reading!

Grab a couple things:

Flower Pot; Foil, Styrofoam to fit the pot, Small wooden skewers and your FABULOUS sunflower cuppies!

(the picture shows sucker sticks also, but I did not use these. So... ignore those.)

Wrap your styro ball in foil - don't want all that messy foam getting on your cupcakes!

Next, use the tip of your skewers to poke holes in the bottoms of your cupcakes (not just through the paper but actually into the cupcake) - this makes it easier to put them on later.

You will then want to start by pushing one of the skewers into the styrofoam ball - the angle depends on how many you want to fit into the pot.  I do them one at a time.  Then when I get to last one I place the middle one as well.  Make sure that you push the skewers in far enough into the foam that they will not poke through the top of the cupcake. 

Once you get all the cuppies on - YOU ARE DONE!  Wasn't that EASY!

After I made this one, I decided that, for teachers it would be so much cuter with chalkboard paint!  So, I made THESE:

At the last minute I also decided that it would be best to cover the edges and the styrofoam ball with crushed up oreos - like potting soil.  I love the look!!!

I got SO MANY compliments on them just carrying them from the parking lot to the classroom.

Feel free to jazz up your pots however you like - the sky's the limit - HAVE FUN!!

Really - what could be better than flowers you can EAT!

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