Animal Cupcakes

May is birthday month at our house.  Four of us have birthdays in May.  That's A LOT of cake in one month!  Last Saturday we had a birthday party for our daughter and some of her friends at the park.  She LOVES animals, so we decided to have an animal themed party.  Instead of a cake, we had a cupcake bar.  The girls all made at least 2-3 cupcakes each, so I think it was a hit.  I made these simple animal cupcakes for examples.

First, make your favorite cupcakes from scratch or from a box.  Too make things easier I made mine from a box and also used store bought frosting.

Monkey Cupcakes

Chocolate frosting

Nilla Wafers

Mini Nilla Wafers

Black Decorating Gel

After frosting cupcake, place Nilla wafer on bottom half of cupcake for monkey mouth and nose area.  Cut a mini Nilla wafer in half and place on sides for the ears.  Use black decorating gel for eyes, nose and mouth.  You could use red decorating gel for the mouth---I didn't have any on hand.

Idea from bigflavors.blogspot.com

"Cub"cakes

White frosting

Coconut flakes

Mint Patties

Junior Mints

After frosting cupcake, dip into coconut.  Add mint patty and 3 Junior mints.  So easy!

Idea from Family Fun

Piggy Cupcake

Pink/Strawberry frosting

Pink marshmallows

Chocolate chips

Mini chocolate chips

After frosting cupcake, cut pink marshmallow in half (I used kitchen shears.  You might want to butter them or use cooking spray to keep the marshmallows from sticking to them.)  Place marshmallow half on cupcake as snout, sticky side up.  Place two mini chocolate chips on top for nostrils.  Take the other half of the marshmallow and cut in half again.  Place the 2 pieces on top for the ears.  Add 2 regular chocolate chips for the eyes.  

Idea from All Things Cupcake

The Results...
We thought these were really cute cupcakes and they are simple enough for kids to make.  Out of all the things we had planned for the party, I'd say the cupcake bar was one of their favorites.


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