Giraffe Cupcakes That Kids Can Make

I got a bit carried away with a giraffe baby shower theme. There aren’t a lot of giraffe cupcakes online that I could copy so I had to create my own.  Plus, La Jolla Girl really wanted to participate since the party was for her aunt. I found these Wilton Mini Noah’s Ark Metal Cookie Cutters. One of the shapes is a giraffe.

Then I decided to use fondant instead of making cookie cupcake toppers in giraffe form.

You may buy colored fondant, but it’s much more economical to dye white fondant yourself, if you already have food coloring. Here’s how to dye your own fondant:

1. Roll fondant into a ball
2. Stick a toothpick into food coloring.
3. Poke the toothpick with food coloring all over ball of fondant.
4. Knead the fondant until the color is spread evenly

Easy, it takes only a few minutes and then you can adjust the color to your liking.  Then have your child roll it out with a Wilton Fondant Rolling Pin or similar (no, Wilton did not sponsor this post). The rubber bands at the end make sure the fondant is rolled to an even thickness.

Next steps:

1. Cut giraffe using cookie cutter.
2. Pull the giraffe’s neck up a little bit to elongate it, if you like.
3. Color eyes and spots on the body with Food Markers.
4. Pipe orange frosting tail and horns.
5. Push in any uneven edges (I hadn’t done this yet on the test giraffe in the photo).

My 3 year old daughter did everything except for steps 4 and 5. In the end, I opted to scrap step 4 due to lack of time. I should mention that because her father is an artist (lawyer first), she’s practiced in holding markers and pencils pretty steadily.

The Barefoot Contessa carrot cupcake recipe has maple glazed carrots on top. I plopped a giraffe on it. We used jungle cupcake wrappers and it was pretty cute.

Your kids can definitely make these fondant giraffes about a week ahead. If you store in Tupperware, make sure it’s not totally air tight. We frosted (I swirled the icing using a Wilton 2D tip) and placed the giraffes on top of the cupcakes the night prior to the shower. If you do this too far in advance the fondant gets a little funky.

Using this easy technique your kids can make a variety of easy cupcake toppers. I was so busy hosting the shower that I did not take any photos. I will hunt down a close up photo of the final giraffe cupcakes and post it here!

Letting your kids help you in the kitchen keeps them away from the TV and builds fine motor skills. Read more Kids in the Kitchen ideas here.

Tagged as: Fondant Giraffes, Giraffe Cupcakes, How to Color Fondant, How to Dye Fondant, Kids in the Kitchen, Wilton Cakes, Wilton Cupcakes, Wilton Giraffe Cookie Cutter, Wilton Noah's Ark Mini Cookie Cutters