Cupcake Dino-Rama

I'm a huge fan of cupcakes. I hate taking time out of my kids' parties to slice and serve cake and ice cream to guests... I want to be a part of things. Not to mention, if I'm not behind the camera, no one is.

When my son wanted a dinosaur birthday cake I searched the net for an awesome dinosaur cake only to mind that most suggestions were beyond my ability and my cupcake bias was still tugging me in that direction.

So, I hit Wal-Mart in search of inspiration and happened upon the solution: a two dollar pack of dinosaurs, complete with mountains and trees. I could already see them scattered across cupcakes, fending off preditors and protecting their nests. To make it a little more cake-like, I arranged the cupcakes in what I called, my cupcake dino-rama (an awesome throwback to my elementary school diorama days).

To create this awesome Dino-Rama, you will need:
1 jelly-roll pan, covered in tinfoil
1 pkg cake mix
1 large can frosting (or 2 regular)
a handfull of crushed, cream-filled cookies
about 2-3 cups coconut flakes (extra can be freezed for other parties or used elsewise)
green food coloring
toy dinosaurs
jelly beans

Before getting started, fill a large ziploc bag with the coconut flakes and add a few drops of food coloring. Let your kids take turns shaking and smooshing the flakes around until the are grassy looking.

Begin by frosting the "mountains." I frosted two cupcakes for the far right corner and sprinkled them with cookie crumbs. For the tall mountain, I removed tins from two cupcakes, stacked, frosted and then rolled them in crumbs. I toyed with the idea of adding fruit- by-the-foot lava but didn't go there. Be creative if you are so inclined! Arrange mountains and foliage around your pan.

Then I dyed the frosting green and frosted as many cakes as would fit but before arranging them my kids helped top them with grass. Arrange your cupcakes on the pan and then decorate with dinos, nests and anything else you may have rounded up.

If you do a Dino-Rama, please send us a picture so we can see what you created!

--Brittney