Kayden's 2 Year Old Celebration - Animal theme

Since his class is pretty small, 8 students including the boy himself. And we only going to have a small scale celebration with family only. Personally I think to just buy a normal 2D cake, it will be so uninteresting. So I decided to give baking a try.

We had basically finalised his theme this year to be ANIMALS.

I had toyed with the idea of doing a small cake and decorate it. However I am not keen of fondant as it usually is very sweet.

I googled for ideas and this webpage came up.
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/jungle-animal-cupcakes/a8accd18-50b5-40b2-a7d6-06954ef74378

Pretty right? Check out the webpage, it even have the video. Looks simple. So I went in search for the ingredients. Decoration bits for the zebra poses a challenge.

I was also considering to buy pre-mix cake mixture or bake from scratch. In the end I chose to bake the cupcakes using the same recipe I gotten from my friend for hubby's cake less the cheese layer. I used to have another cupcake recipe but decided against it as it tends to peak. I need it flat for decoration.

I decided to go with ready made Betty Crocker frosting. Butter cake for lion and tiger designs. Chocolate cake for monkey and bear (my own version). I shall not attempt on the zebra.

For the school, I only went for 2 designs. Lion and Monkey.

 

the lion

 

the monkey

 

mini cupcakes

For the family, I went with more designs. Lion, Tiger, Monkey and Bear.

Bear was actually created by accident. First time trial, I did not follow strictly and did the Monkey based on memory. It turned out looking like Bear. Realised the difference is the placement of the ears and how the nose/ mouth is drawn.

 

mini cupcakes

 

the tiger

 

the monkey w/o ears

 

the bear w/o ears too

 

the lion w/o whiskers

 

the cakes on the stand

Since this is designing at work so I did change some things slightly. Mainly as long as I can achieve the effect. 

Ingredients

Betty Crocker Rich and Creamy Chocolate Frosting

Betty Crocker Rich and Creamy Cheese Frosting (original recipe called for Vanilla but oos)

Wilton Black gel

Wilton Red gel

Wilton Yellow gel

For my 8 butter cupcakes and 8 chocolate cupcakes, I mixed about 4 tablespoons (eating metal kind) of the chocolate frosting and 4 tablespoons of the cheese frosting. (Still have excess)

Orange: Mix Red and Yellow (1 spoon each using the stirrer spoon) into the 4 tbsp of cheese frosting and mix well.

Light Orange: Spoon out about 1 tbsp of the Orange mixture into another bowl and spoon another 1 tbsp of the cheese frosting. Mix well and scoop into a piping bag. Cut out a SMALL corner.

Brown: Use as it is for the chocolate frosting

Light Brown: Mix about 0.5 tbpn of each chocolate frosting and cheese frosting. Mix well and scoop into piping bag. Cut out a SMALL corner.

*Try to make the colour differentiation between the Orange and Light Orange/ Brown and Light Brown as varying as possible. Once the light colour was piped onto the darker colour, if the variance is not too great, it will somehow blend in abit and it will not look so distinctive or nice anymore.

Black: Mix the chocolate frosting with about 2 stirrer spoon of black (or whatever it takes to achieve as black as possible). Mix well and scoop into piping bag. Cut out a SMALL corner.

Lion Decoration

Spread the Orange onto the cupcakes.

Popcorn for the mane

Mini Choc Chip for the eyes

Pretzel Sticks for the whiskers

Orange Frosties Cereal for the ears

Pipe the Light Orange for the snot. I use fingers to even the surface.

Pipe the Black for the nose and mouth over the snot.

Tiger Decoration

Spread the orange on the cupcakes.

Mango (or any flavour as long as it's orange colour) Gummy Sweet for the ears (Cut into half for each ear)

Mini Choc Chip for the eyes

Pipe Light Orange for the snot. Even the surface.

Pipe the Black for nose and mouth over the snot.

Pipe 2 triangles on each side and 1 triangle on top with the Black for the stripes.

Monkey Decoration

Spread the Brown on the cupcakes

Mini Oreo cookies for the ears (Half it)

Mini Marshmellows for the outer eyes (Cut into half)

Mini Choc Chips for the eyes

Pipe the Light Brown for the snout and the turf of hair on top. Even the surface for the snout.

Pipe with the Black a small dot on the marshmellow before placing the choc chip to ensure it 'sticks'. Then pipe the nose and mouth.

Bear Decoration

Pretty similar to the Monkey except the placement of the ears (Monkey is at the side whilst the Bear at the top) and how the nose and mouth is drawn (Monkey is drawn with a dot and a smiley smile whilst the Bear is drawn the same way as the Lion and Tiger)

Spread the Brown on the cupcakes.

Mini Oreo Cookies for the ears (Whole)

Mini Choc Chip for the eyes (I did not use the marshmellow as I wanted the Monkey and Bear to have more differentiation)

Pipe Light Brown for the snout. Even the surface.

Pipe the Black for the nose and mouth over the snout.

Green Wordings

0.5 tbsp on Cheese frosting with 1 stirrer spoon of Wilton Green gel. Mix well and scoop into piping  bag. Cut out a SMALL corner.

I piped out the Green 'H-A-P-P-Y B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y K-A-Y-D-E-N 2' on each mini cupcakes. 

Stick candle on another mini cupcake.

Quite happy with the overall effect.