One of my very favorite foods I made for the Creature from the Woods launch party was a board of these mossy woodland cupcakes. I got a ton of questions about them, and I think I understand why… they may have turned out a little too realistic!

I wanted to share this super easy recipe with you for your own woodland baby showers, birthday parties, and everyday snacking!

Instructions

All you need is one box of chocolate cake mix, one box of yellow or white cake mix, the ingredients required on the boxes, food coloring, and a tub of chocolate frosting. (You can absolutely make the cakes and frosting from scratch as well! I’d love to do that myself someday, but your girl was so frazzled during launch week that boxed mix was going to have to do haha.)

First, I just baked the chocolate cupcakes according to the box instructions. Then it was on to the fun part!

The key to making the mossy tops is the yellow cake mix and food coloring. I made the cake batter as directed on the boxed mix, then added drops of each color until it was just the right color. I added blue and yellow food coloring to get a nice, vibrant green. I found that a couple drops of red helped tone down the lime green into a more natural, mossy color.

Once the green cupcakes had baked and cooled, I crumbled them up onto a plate. After frosting each chocolate cupcake, I rolled the tops through the green crumbles. Each green cupcake covered the tops of about 3 chocolate cupcakes.

And that’s it! I was so happy with how these cupcakes turned out, especially for how easy they were to make!

Variations

When I was testing out the recipe in preparation for the launch party, I tried a few different methods. You can play around with these variations to make your cupcakes just the way you want!

• Graham Cracker Crumbs: On my first go of this recipe, I mixed some crumbled graham crackers in with the green cake crumbles, which added a dirt effect that made them look even more natural and woodland. I decided not to use graham crackers on the launch party cupcakes, but I might try it again for a different occasion!
• Red Velvet Moss: I found another blogger who made a similar recipe, but she recommended using a red velvet cake recipe, substituting red food coloring for green. I think that would be delicious!
• Mint Flavor: If you’re a mint-chocolate lover, try adding some mint oil into your green cupcakes! I’m not a mint fan, otherwise I totally would have.
• Decorations: I liked how simple these came out, but you could absolutely add decorations on top. I think they would be adorable with little mushrooms, plastic woodland animals, or chocolate acorns!

If you’d like to learn more about the book that inspired this recipe, you can check out the Creature from the Woods hub! Creature from the Woods is a sweet bedtime story all about unconditional love (and fluffy animals!) I loved bringing the woodland vibes to life with recipes and crafts like this at the launch party!