Flower Cupcakes

I made some marshmallow flower cupcakes for a friend's baby shower a couple of weeks ago.  They turned out cute so I thought I would share what I did with you all.  I saw this design in my Betty Crocker Decorating Cakes and Cupcakes book.

I made chocolate cupcakes and then made a light-pink buttercream frosting to frost the top of the cupcakes.  Then I took jumbo marshmallows and using dampened kitchen shears, I cut them crosswise into 5 pieces.

Then I dipped one side of each petal into colored sugar. 

After making 5 petals for each cupcake I arranged the petals on the cupcakes, pressing down a little bit to make sure they stuck in the frosting and wouldn't fall off during the drive.

Now I had all the flower petals on but I needed a center.  What is the middle of a flower called?  A stigma?  Anyway, the book has you put a candle in each middle if it's for a birthday or a round colored candy if candles are not appropriate.  I didn't have any round candies so I just made a pink frosting that was darker than the pink frosting under the petals and used a round decorator tip to make a center. 

Here is the finished cupcakes set in their stand at the shower.  I thought they turned out rather pretty and I received lots of nice compliments on them.  Really it didn't take that long to do and it was much easier to make marshmallow flowers than to pipe them on with icing.  That's just my opinion though.