Golf Cup Cakes

I made cupcakes for friends coming over tonight. Although my hubby turned 29, I can't help but throw a good theme party. So I decided I would do very minimal decorations involving golf. {Post to come on the cute centerpieces I made!!}

I'm not much of a baker, but have learned that having an oven with a pre-heat and working timer are key to producing something yummy.
After the help from my friend Allison a while back for THESE cupcakes, I've tried a few more times on my own.

So, first I baked the cake mix {did you know the first time I attempted cupcakes I had to call Allison and ask her where those boxes were? had no idea cake mix was the same as cupcake mix...I've come a long way} but DID NOT put the cupcake cups in the pan. She gave me the tip that it'll take the color out of the cups, so I just placed the cupcakes in there after they were cooled.

Next, my friend Jordan gave me her tackle-box-like icing kit, but since I am not crafty in the department of cake decorating, I couldn't figure out how to use it. So I went back to my old way of shoving icing {I like the cream cheese kind and then use food coloring to tint} into the corner of a Ziplock baggie and cutting the corner out and using a tiny spatula to spread the first layer on.

I started with mixing green food coloring for the grass part and then using my Ziplock baggie with plain icing to draw a golf hole flag {I'm sure there's technical term but I've got no clue what it is}. I started out a little small but got better the longer I kept doing it!
Next I mixed in red food coloring and used a new Ziplock baggie to shove the icing in to fill in the flags. I was going to do red and blue, but got a little ahead of myself and just did them all.

And here they are... I know most of you can make ones even better but I was pretty excited!