Animal Cupcake Ideas

Depart from the traditional sheet cakes at your next birthday party in favor of cupcakes. These sweet little treats come in individual serving sizes so you won't spend the entire party stuck at the food table cutting cake. An animal-themed party lends itself well to a variety of cupcake designs. Many of the decorating ideas are easy to adapt to the specific type of animals you're featuring at the party. Add this to my Recipe Box.

Animal Faces

Decorate each cupcake top as the animal's face. Cover the cupcake with a layer of frosting in a color that coordinates with the animal. For example, use orange frosting for a tiger or green frosting for a frog. If the animal is furry, use a grass icing tip which has several small holes in it. This tip makes the icing resemble fur. Add the facial details of the animal using either frosting or fondant. Fondant allows you to shape the facial features and stick them in the frosting base. If you choose frosting, use a pastry bag with an attached icing tip to draw the features on the cake. Add any other details such as stripes on a tiger or spots on a cow.

Fondant Animals

Fondant works well to create three-dimensional animal cupcake toppers. You can either purchase pre-made fondant at the store or make your own. Gum paste also works for the animal figures. Tint the fondant to match the desired color for the animal. Craft stores also sell colored fondant so you don't have to mess with food coloring. Model the fondant into the animal shapes much the same way you would use play dough. Use contrasting colors of fondant to add details to the animals. Let the fondant animals harden for a few days so they hold their shape. Place them on top of an iced cupcake to complete the design.

Animal Prints

Instead of actually creating an animal on the cupcake, ice it to resemble an animal print. This option works with both frosting and fondant. Ice the cake in the background color. Add the print with another color. For example, for zebra print cupcakes, ice them white. Use a pastry bag fitted with a decorating tip to draw on the zebra stripes using black icing. Tiger stripes, leopard spots and cow spots are just a few other options that work well.

Cupcake Cake

For a different twist, arrange the cupcakes into the shape of an animal. Glue the cupcakes into place on a cake board using a dab of frosting. Ice all of the cupcake tops as one unit using a color that fits the selected animal. For example, if the cupcakes are arranged in the shape of a dog, you might use brown frosting as the base color. Use additional colors of icing to add the details of the animal. The cake resembles a large cake but is easy to serve because the guests just grab a cupcake.

Plastic Animal Toppers

This decorating option takes the least amount of work. Ice the cupcakes in any color. You can use a decorating tip to make a swirl of frosting or ice them smooth. Another option is to use a grass decorating tip and green frosting to make a grassy covering. Place a new, clean plastic animal toy on the top of each cupcake. The animals tie the cupcakes to the theme and give each guest a little toy to take home.