Army Camouflage Cupcakes – Fun and Easy to Make

My son and I have a great time every year trying to decide what kind of cupcakes to make for his birthday. We have made Ninjago cupcakes, snake cupcakes, and ocean cupcakes. As he gets older it gets more difficult to think of cupcake ideas that he will like that I can actually make. My son looks up to his soldier daddy so we decided to go Army this year. We ended up with some really fun cupcakes. These Army Camouflage Cupcakes are easier than they look.

I usually bake my cakes from scratch but this time I opted to use a boxed mix to simplify things. You can use whatever recipe you like for the cakes and I will give you two that I have tried and liked. But, the benefit of using a boxed mix for this recipe (aside from saving time) is that I was able to find a white boxed mix and a chocolate boxed mix that required the same baking temperatures and times. That meant that I did not need to worry about uneven cooking with two cakes with differing baking instructions.

Army Camouflage Cupcakes

You will need:

• white cake batter, prepared and in a bowl
• chocolate cake batter, prepared and in a bowl
• 2 additional mixing bowls
• food coloring (I used green and yellow icing colors)
• white baking cups
• buttercream frosting
• cocoa powder
• graham cracker crumbs (buy them or make your own)
• Army men (check out the dollar store)
• mini flag toothpicks

1. You will need four colors of batter to make the cupcakes: green, dark brown, beige and dark yellow. Feel free to play with the colors and decide how much you want of each. Next time I make these I will use more beige and less dark brown. 
2. To make the green batter mix some chocolate batter with a little white batter and add green food coloring.
3. To make the beige batter mix add a little of the chocolate batter to some of the white. This can also be accomplished by making the chocolate batter first, emptying the bowl, and then making the white batter in the now empty bowl without rinsing it out first (since there will be batter on the sides of the bowl). Mine looks white in the picture below but trust me, it was beige.
4. To make the yellow batter mix some white and chocolate batter together and add yellow food dye.
5. The chocolate batter will be the dark brown.
6. Place the white cupcake baking cups into a muffin tin and add a little of each of the four colors to each cup. Fill the cups about 2/3 of the way full. Use a toothpick to swirl the colors just a little bit.
7. Bake the cupcakes according to the recipe or box directions and cool completely before frosting.

Decorating

1. Add a little cocoa powder to the frosting while you are preparing it (to make it beige). Add a half a teaspoon at a time so you don’t overdo it.
2. Frost one cupcake completely and then dip it in the graham cracker crumbs and roll it gently to coat it.
3. Place an Army man in the middle of the cupcake. Press it down far enough that it sticks and then gently press the frosting down around its feet.
4. Stick a flag toothpick behind the soldier.

I made my own graham cracker crumbs using my Vitamix but you can buy them in crumb form and save yourself some time. The graham cracker crumbs really complete the look of this cupcake. I really love the way they turned out!

Keep reading for a few more tips.

At first I planned to use camo cupcake wrappers but they came out of the oven greasy and dull looking. Luckily I had placed white baking cups inside of them. When I peeled the camo cups off I was pleased to see that the camo design of the cupcakes showed right through the white baking cups. Bonus!

One last tip. If you have to transport the cupcakes, place some non-slip shelf liner in the bottom of your cake box. This will decrease slipping and help you keep your cupcakes looking awesome.

These are my favorite cupcakes yet. I couldn’t stop staring at them. I felt silly and my son just did not understand. Have you ever felt that way about something you made? Feel free to leave a comment. Share and let’s talk about it.