Creative cake decorating

What you'll need

• One box of cake mix

• Chocolate icing

• Oreo cookie crumbs

• Oreo cookies

• Lollipop or popsicle sticks

• Royal icing mix

• Oil-based yellow food colouring

• A piping bag with a leaf tip

• Vegetable oil or cooking spray

• Flour

• One medium-sized terra cotta pot

• Parchment or wax paper

• Red Smarties

• Gummie worms (optional)

1. Spread out a layer of parchment paper on your work surface.

2. Twist open an Oreo cookie so that most of the icing ends up on one side of the cookie. Lay it icing-side-up on your parchment paper. Then press the top of a lollipop or popsicle stick into the icing.

3. Reattach the other side of the cookie.

4. Mix together your royal icing. Then add a few drops of yellow food colouring until you get a sunflower yellow shade. Pour your icing into a piping bag with a leaf tip. If you don't have a piping bag you can use a plastic freezer bag with the corner cut off on a diagonal. Pipe a circle of leaves around the edge of the Oreo.

5. Continue with two more circles of leaves (so there are three layers in total). Make the leaves smaller each time you go around the cookie. Repeat the flower-making process with two or three more cookies. Let the flowers dry at room temperature overnight. Do not refrigerate.

6. Coat a medium-sized terra cotta flower pot with oil and dust it with flour as you would a cake pan.

7. Cut out a round piece of parchment paper the same size as the bottom of the pot. Then use this parchment paper circle to cover the hole at the bottom of the flower pot.

8. Mix your cake batter according to the package directions, pour it into your flower pot and bake the batter-filled pot in the oven according to the package directions.

9. Let your cake cool and then coat the top with chocolate icing.

10. Then sprinkle the Oreo cookie crumbs over top of the icing to create the look of soil.

11. Now you're read to make your Smartie ladybugs. Fill your piping bag with chocolate icing. Attach a #1 round tip. If you don't have a piping bag cut a small hole in the corner of a plastic freezer bag and add your icing into it. Then ice a Y-shape in the centre of the Smartie.

12. Outside the Y add some ladybug spots.

13. Arrange your cookie flowers in your potted cake.

14. Add a dab of royal icing to the back of each of your ladybugs.

15. Attach the ladybugs to the petals of your cookie flowers.

16.Then you're done. If you're bringing the cake to a child's birthday party you can add some fun touches like gummie worms on top of the cookie crumb soil.

First published in Chatelaine.com's August 2009 issue.
© Rogers Publishing Ltd.