Buzz-worthy Bee Cupcakes and Hive

To make the bees, frost mini-cupcakes with white icing.

Dip frosted tops into a bowl of yellow sparkle sugar. This is a great job for preschoolers who are working on their hand-eye coordination.

Draw stripes across the cupcake using black sparkle gel.

For wings, cut the tips off marshmallows and then cut them in half. Place the wings, sticky side down, onto the top of your cupcake. Each marshmallow will give you two sets of wings. It's easiest to use a pair of kitchen scissors. Kids will love helping with this step.

Press chocolate chip stingers, pointy side up into the back of the bees.

Finish off bees with a dollop of black decorator gel for your bee's heads.

To make the hive, invert the cake as shown after baking in a 6 oz. custard cup, dome side up. You may want to place it directly onto the platter that you will serve it on, once it is frosted it will be tricky to move.

Put yellow icing into a pastry bag fitted with a #12 round attachment. (You can purchase yellow icing at a cake supply store, or mix your own using gel food coloring). Pipe icing in a circular pattern around the cake, mimicking the pattern of a beehive. If you don't have a pastry bag simply frost the dome with yellow icing and use a toothpick to create the lined beehive effect.

Push a round chocolate candy into the base of the hive. This is the entryway for your bees.

Finally, use green icing to create leaves around the bottom of your hive. Place green icing into a decorator bag fitted with a leaf pastry tip before arranging your cupcake bees around your hive.