Froggie-in-the-Water Cupcakes

Today, we are switching up our usual blogging style by introducing our niece, Emily, as our first guest blogger. Emily will soon start third grade loves to bake. She asked that we highlight one of her recipes from her cookbook, Tiana's Cookbook: Recipes for Kids. It's a Disney Princess & the Frog cookbook and they have absolutely adorable recipes for kids. I think she knows that she has her aunt wrapped around her little finger, so of course I documented the cupcake creation.

Here's what you need:

1 box white cake mix
3 eggs
1 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 container of white whipped frosting
blue food coloring
green gum drops
1 bag white chocolate chips
1 small tube of black gel icing

Here's what you do:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Mix up the cake according to the directions on the box. Start by combining the cake mix, water, oil and eggs. Emily decided she didn't really care if she had a pure white cake (and wasn't quite ready for the challenge of separating eggs), so we used the yolks. If you want pure white cake, separate the yolks out. You'll probably need an additional egg for that.

Mix that up until smooth and no lumps.

Once that's mixed, line your cupcake pans with the cups.

And fill the cups about 2/3 of the way up with the batter.

Bake for 19-23 minutes, switching the racks half way through.

While those are baking, mix up your icing. Add the container of white icing to a bowl and add a few drops of blue food coloring. Continue adding food coloring one drop at a time until you reach the desired color of blue.

Place in the fridge to stay cool until your cupcakes are ready to ice.

Next, move on to the eyes.

Go through the bag of gum drops and remove only the green. You will need one gum drop per cupcake. Slice the gum drops in half.

Press the white chocolate chips into the gum drops.

Finally, dot the white chocolate chips with the black gel icing to create the irises.

Once your cupcakes have cooled, spread on a good amount of icing. You need a thick base for the gum drop eyes to stick.

Carefully place the eyes on the top of the cupcakes. Emily and I had some trouble with this. Some of the chocolate chips just didn't want to stick. On some of the gum drops, we had to turn them around so the sticky inside of the drop was the front. They white chocolate chips stuck to those alright.

Enjoy!