BY MURPHY GARCIA, Editor

Ingredients:
-Green food coloring
-Black cake gel (or black icing)
-White mentos
– Any cake mix
-White frosting

*Note: in order for the color to turn out green, the cake mix should be white.

Materials:
-Muffin tin
-1 Bag of marbles
-Cupcakes liners

Directions:
1. Place cupcake liners into the muffin tin. Use three marbles per cupcake tin. Place two marbles at the top of the tin (both upper-left and right) as well as one at the bottom. It should look somewhat shamrock-shaped.

2. Follow the directions on the cake mix box of your choice and continue to make sure to add the green food coloring to the batter until the desired shade is reached.

3. When  placing the batter into each cup, it is easier to place the batter into a piping bag because spooning it gets messy. If you don’t have a piping bag, a plastic ziplock bag works just as well. Just pour the mixture into the bag and cut the tip off.

4. Place tin in oven and bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. Before taking them out, make sure they are done by checking with a toothpick.

5. After the cupcakes have completely cooled, take them out of the tin and take off any excess batter that may have cooked over the liner.

6. Take the frosting and color it a deep shade of green with the food coloring. You could also just buy already green frosting if you prefer. Pipe the frosting onto the cupcake following the shape. There are also flavor packets that you can find in the baking isle at the local Jewel or Meijer, that mix into the frosting with a specific flavor and color. For these cupcakes, the mint flavor mix was used.

7. Now it’s time to decorate. Take two mentos and put them at the top of the cupcake. These will be the eyes. Use the black gel and trace a smile and two dots over the mentos to finish the face. To finish the look, use any green candy or fondant and put it at the very bottom for a stem. Laffy Taffy works well.