Penguin Cupcakes!!

First of all, Happy WAYYY Belated Birthday to my hubby Jon! I made these penguin cupcakes as a cupcake cake (CCC) for Jon's birthday last month because he loves penguins! And I guess also because I figured it would be super fun and give me some more practice on my cake decorating/fondant skills. (I will be posting a special fondant/cake section in the near future with more cake fun and a fondant recipe/tutorial!) The only thing that didn't turn out so great with these, was the cake part. It was okay, and edible, but they were pretty dry and too thick, just not the right texture. So for now, use your favorite cupcake recipe. Oh, and I swear the black stuff was not intended as penguin poop, as Jon joked, but instead it is supposed to look like ocean rocks.

These penguins may look cute and chilly but don't worry, I gave them candles later ;)  Here are 5 of the 7 little guys I created:

 

The Penguins:

For the penguins I made fondant and dyed about a third of it black with Wilton concentrated food-dye; this process takes quite a while! The darker the color, the harder it is to make it come out an even, smooth color. To dye fondant, use a toothpick to insert the amount of dye desired into the ball of fondant. For black, go to town with the dye because you will need it. Then you will basically knead the ball until the color spreads, folding and kneading over and over. This takes a LOT of time and patience, but on the bright side, you get a nice hand workout. I dyed a much smaller portion yellow, which didn't require as much dye, and of course the white, is just plain fondant. For the scarves and hats, I simply used a tube of royal blue icing which hid the space between the wings, head and "neck."  This, I also used to "glue" on the heads, wings and other body parts.  

As I mentioned above, the cake part did not turn out great, and at this time of writing, my "Chilly Blue" buttercream frosting recipe has gone missing. When and if I find it, I will be sure to update, because the frosting was definitely DELICIOUS! All I can tell you is it involved confectioner's sugar, whipping cream and sky blue dye. Haha...Sorry folks!

Photos by The Chocolate Cookie