'Tween Girl Birthday Party: Animal Print Cupcakes

One of the cake-y things I do is go to birthday parties and workshops in the Twin Cities and teach cake, cupcake or cookie decorating. I tend to have a lot of 10-14 year-old girls at the parties, and one wanted to go with a "fashionista" idea. So, we came up with these really, really easy cupcakes.

What You Need:
2-3 dozen standard-sized cupcakes
Homemade Marshmallow Fondant*
Ball-shaped sprinkles
Parchment or waxed paper
Powdered sugar
Rolling pin
Large round biscuit or cookie cutter

* Note: I made two batches of fondant. One white and one using 3/4 cup chocolate chips, melted. I colored some of the fondant pink, yellow and black, and saved some white and some light brown.

** Note #2: The top row of cupcakes above shows the fondant decorations atop a cupcake swirl, if you go that route, you'll need to make some icing, as well.


Zebra/Tiger Stripe Cupcakes:

On a piece of parchment paper "floured" with powdered sugar, roll fondant about ⅛” thick (about the thickness of a nickel or a quarter).

Cut base color of fondant (white for zebra, yellow/orange for tiger) into a circle the same size as the top of the cupcake (large biscuit cutter).

Roll out black (or stripe-color) fondant. Use a butter knife or pizza cutter to cut strips.

Paint clear vanilla on strips using a food-safe paintbrush. Arrange on cupcakes.

*If desired, add a swirl of icing to the cupcake, using a Tip #1M, and add the fondant disc on top of the icing swirl.

Giraffe Spot Cupcakes:

• Roll fondant about ⅛” thick (about the thickness of a nickel or a quarter).
• Cut base color of fondant into a circle the same size as the top of the cupcake (large biscuit cutter).
• Roll light brown fondant to ⅛” thick. Cut into squares. Press with your thumb or fingers to make the spots look more natural
• Paint clear vanilla on spots using a food-safe paintbrush. Arrange on cupcakes.

*Note: This would also work for cow-print cupcakes, if you use white & black instead of yellow and tan.

Cheetah/Leopard Print Cupcakes:

• Roll fondant about ⅛” thick (about the thickness of a nickel or a quarter).
• Cut base color of fondant into a circle the same size as the top of the cupcake (large biscuit cutter).
• Pinch off about a pea-sized piece of black fondant for each spot. Roll into a ball. Use your thumb to smash the spots into round, but not perfectly circular, shapes.
• Pinch off a smaller pea-sized piece of light brown fondant for each spot. Roll into a ball. Use your thumb to smash the spots into round, but not perfectly circular, shapes.
• Paint clear vanilla on spots using a food-safe paintbrush. Arrange on top of the black spots to make them look like leopard spots.

Fondant Flower Accents:

• Roll fondant about ⅛” thick (about the thickness of a nickel or a quarter).
• Cut small flower shape. Press ball-shaped sprinkle into center. Attach to cupcake with clear vanilla.