Making A Lady Bug Cake

I have to confess that I reviewed multiple websites and "borrowed" their ideas when making this cake.

Now, I cheated and used a store-bought cake mix--Butter Yellow Cake Recipe by Betty Crocker.  I also did not buy the dome-shaped pan that many people swore I needed.  Instead, for the body of the lady bug, I used a clear, glass pyrex bowel (1 Qt, but you can go bigger) and poured in the entire batch of batter.  For the head, I used a chocolate cupcake that I made for Ellie's playdate party a few days ago (nope, it wasn't stale!) for the ladybug's head.   I imagine you could set aside enough batter to make 1 dome cake and 1 cupcake.

Cake Decorating Ingredients:
1. Box of cake mix (plus ingredients listed on back of the box--ie eggs, water, etc)
2. Icing (see below if you want to make your own) 3-4 cups
3. Junior Mints
4. Black Liquorice
5. White Gum Drops
6. Coconut
7. Black, Red, & Green food coloring.
6. Icing tips or ziplock bag

Cake:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Mix together batter and pour into pyrex bowl.
Bake for 50-55 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean
Allow to completely cool


Icing:
Mix together 1 stick (1/2 cup) of butter and 2 teaspoons of Vanilla extract.
Alternate adding in 4 cups of powdered sugar and 3-4 tablespoons of milk.
Consider sifting the powder sugar to eliminate clumps.


Decorate:
Set aside a small amount of the icing.  Add in red dye to the mixing bowl whip in until desired color is achieved.  I do not use icing bags but rather ziplock bags with the corner snipped off.  You can still use the cake decorating tips if you want stars and whatnot or you can use the ziplock bag's open-tip to create simple lines or dots.  After icing most of the lady bug cake in red, I then added in a few drops of black dye to the bowl.  The remaining icing will cover the head, make a line down the center of the bug's body, and fill in the back end (this is where I used a star-shaped icing tip).

Use Junior Mints for the spots on the ladybug's wing.  Use two white gumdrops to form the eyes or use the plain icing icing to form eyes.  Break the piece of black liquorice in half to form antennas.
(Note: I went to bulk candy section at the Super Target and bought only 2 pieces of gum drops and only 1 piece of liquorice--this saved me from eating a tons of left over candy!)

Use half a bag of coconut and mix with a few drops of green dye.  This will be the grass that your lady bug sits on.

Enjoy!