Plants or Dessert?

My Easter contribution to dinner at mom's was a brilliant dessert idea I saw recently while browsing though old Martha Stewart magazines. I love to read magazines for inspiration and rip out the pages of things I like then recycle the rest. I've got stacks to go through.

My dessert: flower pot chocolate cupcakes. Supplies: unused terra cotta flower pots, about 2 1/4 inches high, 79 cents at AC Moore; vegetable oil; foil; chocolate cake batter; eggs; chocolate frosting; chocolate cookies for dirt crumbles; mint.

First you have to wash the pots out with warm soap and water. Then you prepare them by brushing the insides with the oil, line them with foil, brush that with oil then sprinkle cocoa powder on the inside. This preparation took the most time. So after I finished most of the pots, I used cupcake liners to see how those would work. They seem to be good, you basically just need something to line the pots so the batter doesn't come out of the bottom and doesn't stick completely to the sides.

Next you mix the batter per the directions on the box and ladle it into the prepared pots about 2/3 full and bake it according to the time and temperature on the box. Make sure to test them before you take them out of the oven. I found they needed an extra 10 minutes.

After they have cooled enough you can put on the frosting. I used chocolate of course and smashed chocolate cookies into crumbs so it looked like dirt, then sprinkled it on top of the frosted pots.

In the foreground are the 2 1/4 inch pots, but I also bought some little ones in case I had left over batter. I mixed 2 boxes of chocolate cake mix and it filled 13 2 1/4 inch pots and 7 little ones. The little ones might work well if you have a serve more than a dozen people.

Then you stick mint into the tops of each cake like a plant. Look how good they look! The mint is so realistic and makes the whole project come together. It was cracking me up how real it is. You can cut the mint too. At quick glance, you can't tell the difference. Is it a plant or dessert?


Here they are up close, my flower pot dessert cupcakes. They were a hit at Easter dinner and the pots are easy to wash out. I'll definitely be making these again.