A few weeks ago I received an email from a sweet friend. One of her favorite shops in Old Towne Orange, The Dragonfly Shop & Garden, was celebrating their 5^th birthday with a weekend of festivities including a Cupcake Contest! Converted to a retail store, the vintage 1920’s home, The Dragonfly Shops & Gardens is a fascinating mix of great finds, hidden treasures and affordable prices.  Located in the heart of Old Towne Orange, it’s an adorable shop worth checking out. Visit them at 260 North Glassell Street Orange, CA 92866. There were several categories bakers could enter, I opted for Presentation. The moment I heard about this contest I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

It’s a garden! When I came across this idea in the Hello, Cupcake book awhile ago, I couldn’t wait for the opportunity to give it a try! The flavor for these cupcakes was Oreo Cookie and frosted with Vanilla Buttercream. All the cupcakes were covered in crushed Oreo to look like dirt then topped with various ‘vegetables’.

• Carrots: made with orange Starbursts and green frosting leafs
• Lettuce: made with Corn Flakes covered in green frosting glaze and a green Laffy Taffy molded candy ball in the middle.
• Radishes: made with red chocolate coated candies, dipped in white frosting and topped with a green corn flake as the leaf.
• Peas: made with green chocolate coated candies and covered with molded green Laffy Taffy then green frosting vines.
• Shovels: made with pretzel sticks attached to a cut up blue piece of gum.
• Signs: made with graham cracker covered with frosting and piped with design.

And to top the display off, I custom designed a White Picket Fence Box with green grass. The whole thing put together was absolutely perfect! Couldn’t imagine it turning out any better, but I wasn’t the one judging the display.

I dropped the cupcakes off and headed to a restaurant in Old Towne Orange to finally eat after a morning of decorating. When we finished we decided to walk to the Dragonfly early to see the other cupcakes. As we walked in we could hear them giving out the awards- we were late! When we reached the back the owner said, “And the best presentation goes to The Garden.” WINNER, WINNER!!! Yup, I made it just in time! It was a fun day!

For more pictures from the contest, visit this link- http://www.dragonflyshopsandgardens.com/?p=3506