Month 5 for the Grandpa Goff bug club is all about ladybugs! How convenient that ladybug month rolled around just about the same time as Valentine’s Day! We loved sending a few sweet Valentine’s crafts to our toddler Love Bugs, but you can celebrate ladybugs any time of year.
Ladybug Cupcakes
Bug Club is a long-distance project to help us connect with grandchildren who live too far away to visit every month. I’m always glad when I can find a creative project that’s appropriate for little hands that I can drop-ship directly to their door.
We used a purchased kit manufactured by Wilton to make our batch of Ladybug Cupcakes:
The kit included 24 red-spotted ladybug cupcake wrappers, some cute candy eyes, and picks with ladybug antennae. I shipped a box of red velvet cake mix and some prepared icing as well. If you opt to create your own ladybug cupcake “kit” you can purchase candy eyes near the cake-decorating supplies in almost any grocery store.
Brooklyn wore her favorite princess outfit while she was baking…
Her finished ladybug cupcakes had a charm all their own!
The package I shipped included some extra sprinkles and candy hearts, and it’s a good thing. This quadruple-antennaed ladybug would not have been quite the same without.
While my own carefully-frosted ladybug cupcake mostly followed the package instructions, it lacked the charm of Brooklyn’s version.
Why are cupcakes such a great “first cooking” project?
Cupcakes are my go-to first cooking experience for little ones because they provide some hands-on fun and not a lot of mess.
- A packaged cake mix is inexpensive and usually includes only 2-3 additional ingredients. Make sure you let your toddler dump in the mix, the water, and if you are extra brave, even crack the egg.
- Cupcakes can be mixed easily by hand. This is a great large motor activity that a 2 or 3-year-old is thrilled to help with. If you opt to use a stand mixer instead, be extra careful to be sure little fingers are out of the way.
- Putting cupcake liners into a muffin tin is an activity that’s intriguing for a youngster. In fact, even when there’s no cake mix involved, putting muffin or cupcake liners in and out of a muffin tin is usually good for a few minutes of distraction.
- A 2-1/2 inch trigger ice cream scoop dishes out just about the perfect amount of cupcake batter for a perfectly-rounded cupcake. It’s also much easier than spooning mix in or pouring directly from the bowl.
- Your toddler can probably frost her own cupcake with very little help. She can probably eat the finished product all by herself as well, which is why it’s lucky for you that most packaged mixes will make up to 24 cupcakes.
