burrr, it's cold outside: Penguin Cupcakes

For my daughter's 2nd Birthday, I made the Penguin Cupcakes from the Hello, Cupcake book. I was a little worried that these would be a big fat pain, like the shark cupcakes were... but alas, these went much smoother.

To get the shape of the penguin on the top of the cupcake, I bought mini-doughnuts & doughnut holes. First I cut the mini-doughnuts in half. (The book called for plain, but I couldn't find any- so I got cinnamon flavored ones. I think that the plain would've been ideal, as the icing would have probably stuck to them better than mine, but mine still worked!)

Next, while I was waiting for my cupcakes to finish baking, I did some prep work..... making the penguins' bellies by cutting 1/8" off of the end of a marshmallow.

Then I cut the top off of those, so that the belly would have a straight edge.

After my cupcakes cooled, I iced them with thinned Wilton's decorator icing. Then I attached the cut mini-doughnuts, cut-side down.

Next I plopped a dolop of icing to the top of the doughnut, so that I could affix a doughnut hole there..

After sticking a doughnut hole ontop of the hole of the mini-doughnut, I reinforced my penguin's body with more icing to fill in the cracks.

Next, into the freezer to set, for about 15 mins. I found it helpful to have them in a muffin pan, so that they wouldn't fall over in the freezer.

While they were freezing, I tinted some chocolate fudge icing black, with Wilton's tint. Then, just before I got the cupcakes out of the freezer, I warmed the icing in the microwave so that I could dip the penguins to coat their bodies. Then I attached cut pieces of Famous Chocolate Wafers as flippers and stuck on the belly.

The feet and beaks were cut from yellow Starburst candy.

Then I attched the beaks to the head, just above the belly. For the eyes, I piped white icing and then stuck a mini-chocolate chip into it. And then I piped a tiny dot of white icing for a highlight in the eyes. The feet were stuck onto the outside of the cupcake liner with some icing.

To go along with the penguins, I had some cupcakes made to look like icy buckets of fish... complete coconut shavings, with small fish candy and rock candy ice.