Cupcake ladybirds - icing or marzipan?

[JFly]

Going to make these for my son's birthday.

Wondering if I should go with the marzipan method in the recipe or just find some ready-coloured icing and make the ladybirds with that. Haven't worked with either, really, before.

If I do icing, can I do them in advance and if so should I store them in the fridge or at room temp?

They look brilliant, I might have to pinch your idea and do them for dd's birthday.

I would probably use icing. It's fairly easy to colour white icing with the colour pastes you can buy.

I would store them at room temp

I think I will try icing, then. And just buy the ready coloured kind since red and black are tricky colours.

Also, was thinking of doing a caterpillar version using chocolate buttercream covered with ground up chocolate biscuit crumbs to look like dirt. Can I find chocolate bourbons without the cream filling?

use crushed double choc chip cookies