Ants on a Picnic

Ingredients

12 vanilla cupcakes in green paper liners
watermelon candies (available in a candy store that sells candy by the pound)
1 cup flaked sweetened coconut
green and yellow food coloring
1/2 cup canned dark chocolate frosting
1 can (16 oz.) vanilla frosting
36 brown candy-coated chocolate covered almonds (used Planters Dark Chocolate Almonds)

Directions

1. Place the coconut into a ziplock bag. Add 3 drops of green food coloring and 1 drop of yellow food coloring. Seal the bag and shake vigorously until the coconut is tinted grass green. Place the coconut in a shallow bowl.

2. Spoon the dark chocolate frosting into a ziplock bag, press out the excess air, and seal.

3. Tint the vanilla frosting spring green with green food coloring and a few drops of yellow. Spread the top of a cupcake with the green frosting and smooth. Roll the edge of the cupcake in the coconut. Repeat with the remaining cupcakes and frosting.

4. Snip a small (1/8 - inch) corner from the with with the chocolate frosting. Arrange 3 brown candies in a row on top of each cupcake, securing with a dot of chocolate frosting between the candies. Pipe 3 jointed legs on each side of each center candy. Pipe 2 chocolate antennae on each head. Pipe chocolate dots to look like seeds on the watermelon candies. Place the watermelon candies on top of the ant's legs. Arrange the cupcakes so the ants are marching in a row.

Source: What's New Cupcake?, Karen Tack & Alan Richardson, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010.