Succulent Cupcake Succulents

One of my colleagues has started growing succulents at her desk in a bunch of mini pots. They're very cool, but alas not edible, unlike these cupcakes below that I saw posted on Reddit, that are decorated to look like succulents. So, hold onto your baker's hat and gardening gloves, as we're going to explore the world of cupcakes and succulents.

Cupcakes:

Betty Crocker: The Big Book of Cupcakes:

"Features 175 delightful cupcakes, all using new and fun decorating ideas anyone can master and simple ingredients available anywhere. And as a unique feature, almost every cupcake can be made from scratch or with a mix: You decide which method to follow. Recipes include kids' party favorites like Double Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cupcakes, as well as sophisticated flavors like Mocha-Caramel Cappuccino Cupcakes."

American Girl Cupcakes (children's book):

"This beautifully photographed volume of inspired cupcake recipes, the latest title in the best-selling American Girl collection of cookbooks, begins with a range of trusted cake and frosting options, then offers easy ideas for the many creative ways in which cake and frosting can be combined, added to, and embellished according to preference and the occasion."

Prairie Girl Cupcake Cookbook: Living Life One Cupcake at a Time:

"Focusing on classic techniques and ingredients--no shortening, mixes, frozen or stabilized products found here!--Prairie Girl took off at lightning speed. The vision is simple- exceptionally consistent, superior baking. In Jean's first cookbook, Prairie Girl fans and cupcake aficionados alike will fall in love with these easy-to-bake, beautiful treats."

Artisanal Gluten-free Cupcakes: 50 From-Scratch Recipes

"The foundation of these recipes is their intensively developed gluten-free flour blend, which enables home cooks to craft bakery-quality confections, from kid-pleasing favorites like Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting or ?Peanut Butter Cup? Cakes, to more subtle and surprising treats like Mojito or Poached Pearfection cupcakes. They include tips for adapting the recipes to alternative diets of all kinds, including egg-, dairy-, and refined sugar'free versions."

What's New, Cupcake? Ingeniously Simple Designs for Every Occasion:

"The endlessly imaginative duo who turned cupcaking into a national pastime is back, with utterly new, eye-popping creations anyone can make."

Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat:

"175 ideas for simple to spectacular creations–with cakes, frostings, fillings, toppings, and embellishments that can be mixed and matched to produce just the right cupcake for any occasion. Alongside traditional favorites like yellow buttermilk cupcakes swirled with fluffy vanilla frosting and devil’s food cupcakes crowned with rich, dark chocolate buttercream, there are also sweet surprises such as peanut butter and jelly cupcakes, dainty delights like tiny almond-cherry tea cakes, and festive showstoppers topped with marizpan ladybugs or candy clowns."

The Sprinkles Baking Book: 100 Secret Recipes from Candace's Kitchen:

"Now, in her first cookbook, Candace opens up her recipe vault to bring you 100 irresistible desserts she can't live without. You'll learn all the secrets for making 50 beloved Sprinkles Cupcakes, from iconic red velvet to new flavors created exclusively for the book, like crème brûlée."

You might also be interested in Sugar art or sugarcraft flower cake decorating books:

Cakes in bloom : the art of exquisite sugarcraft flowers:

"'Cakes in Bloom' is a celebration of Peggy's skill, style and experience and first time that she has shared her repertoire of incomparable sugar blooms with her legions of fans. The ultimate reference and inspiration for sugarcrafters, this book reflects Peggy's mastery of a breath-taking array of flowers, creatively used on a variety of cakes."

You may also want to try a few of these more general baking books too:

Red Truck Bakery Cookbook: Gold-standard Recipes from America's Favorite Rural Bakery:

"Red Truck Bakery is beloved for its small town feel and standout baked goods. Red Truck Bakery Cookbook is your one-way ticket to making these crowd-pleasing confections at home. Full of fresh flavors, a sprinkle of homespun comfort, and a generous pinch of Americana, the recipes range from Southern classics like Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits and Mom's Walnut Chews, to local favorites like the Shenandoah Apple Cake and Appalachian Pie with Ramps and Morels."

Modern Baking: Cakes, Cookies and Everything in Between:

"Australia's bestselling, favourite and most trusted cook, brings you one of her most beautiful books yet: Modern Baking, with over 250 mouthwatering recipes for cakes,biscuits and all kinds of divinely delicious sweet treats."

Succulents:

Succulents: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing, Designing, and Growing 200 Easy-Care Plants:

"Inspiring, practical and richly photographed, this comprehensive guide offers creative ideas and DIY projects using beautiful low-maintenance, water-wise plants. Succulents are the ultimate easy-care plant: versatile, effortless to grow both indoors and outdoors, and drought tolerant."

Infinite Succulent: Miniature Living Art to Keep or Share:

"From blue- green to purple and pink, flower-shaped to squat and spiky or tall and fuzzy, the variety, versatility, and low-maintenance care of succulents makes them go-to plants for home gardeners. Here, succulent stylist Rachael Cohen shows that these traits also make succulents the ideal material for living art. Tiny, jewel-like succulents can be clipped and replanted in infinite combinations, and unlike cut flowers, they thrive in these arrangements."

Stylish Succulents: Japanese Inspired Container Gardens for Small Spaces

"Inexpensive projects presented along with the spare aesthetic of Japanese design will appeal to everyone from interior designers to small space enthusiasts to gardeners. Stylish Succulents approaches container gardens as an art form ranging from low-key to lush."

Succulents:

"Succulents are plants that hold water in their leaves, such as cacti, aloe, and echeveria. They have captured the hearts of crafters, decorators, and plant lovers all over the world. Always popular as an outdoor plant in warm climates, succulents have found a new popularity as an indoor plant that's easy to care for and fun to look at. 'Idiot's guides: succulents' includes: tips on successfully propagating new succulents from existing plants; extensive advice on choosing pots and unique planters, repotting succulents, and pairing varieties for maximum impact, and an index of succulents by colour and height that gives readers another tool for selecting the succulents that will look good"

Designing with Succulents:

"This new, completely revised second edition of her bestselling classic is a design compendium that is as practical as it is inspirational. Designing with Succulents shares design and cultivation basics; hundreds of succulent plant recommendations; and profiles of 50 easy-care, drought-tolerant companion plants. Lavishly illustrated with 400 photographs, you will find everything you need to visualize, create, and nurture a thriving, water-smart succulent garden."

Cacti and Succulents for Cold Climates: 274 Outstanding Species for Challenging Conditions:

"There are many reasons to grow cacti and other succulents--they're drought-tolerant, low-maintenance, and they look great. But what about hardiness? For those who thought that these spectacular plants were only for gardens in California and the Southwest, guess again--hundreds are fully cold-hardy and can be grown outdoors from New England to British Columbia, Wisconsin to Texas. Cacti and Succulents for Cold Climates is filled with inspirational portraits of 274 plants that can be used to create drought-tolerant gardens"

Hanging Kokedama: Creating Potless Plants for the Home:

"Learn all about the Japanese art of creating pot-less plants, known as kokedama, from botanical extraordinaire Coraleigh Parker, and have a go a creating your own pot-less, hanging plants. Coraleigh's breath-taking moss ball creations, featuring ferns, succulents, herbs, orchids and even small trees, are suspended in mid-air and supported by nothing more than a series of strings or fishing lines, intricately wrapped around a root ball. Decorating with indoor plants has never been more popular and hanging kokedama is the ultimate botanical trend as it offers everything through a single, versatile and inexpensive craft; you can turn any of your favorite plants into a kokedama on a (shoe)string in no time"

Modern Terrarium Studio: Design and Build Custom Landscapes with Succulents, Air Plants and More:

"Presents 25 easy-to-make terrariums and living landscapes that push the boundaries of traditional terrarium design."