Sunflower Cupcakes

It's my friend Jen's daughter's bday again, and I want to continue the tradition of baking something fun for her.
You can see the cupcakes that looked like her I made previously, and the cake pops.

I decided I wanted to try sunflower cupcakes from the book, Hello Cupcake.

Callie likes pumpkin cake, so I tried Martha Stewart's recipe (lots of spices!)
And rather than buttercream, I chose a stiff cream cheese frosting.

Green cupcake liners would have been cute, but I opted for something more colorful, though less representative of the real flower.

Using black decorator gel with a toothpick, I painted red M&M candies to look like ladybugs.
This video tutorial was super helpful.  She added antennae (super cute, but I skipped that step).

The cupcakes were initially frosting in green, then topped with oreo cookies.

Petals got piped around the cookies, though the cream cheese proved too soft, so next time I want to do some piping, I think I'll use buttercream.
Then the M&M ladybugs were added, as well as leaves cut from fruit leather.
Some cupcakes got mini oreos added for additional blooms.
Pretty simple, with a wow effect.

Voila!

I tried to get a pic of the birthday girl, which turned out more difficult than you'd think!