Monday, September 28, 2009

Jungle Safari! Part 1

I'm going to have to divide Carson's birthday party pics into 2 posts. But first, some of you have requested pictures of the cupcakes, and here they are! This is the menagerie of jungle safari animals: zebra, lion, monkey, giraffe, elephant and tiger. I could not have made these without my in-laws, who took the kids on Friday night and Saturday! These were an absolute labor of love...one that I will not be repeating. I spent the better part of a month collecting all the little candies necessary to finish these babies, and from start to finish it took about 7 hours to make. I've decided it's easier to make LOTS of one kind of cupcake, even if it's time-consuming, than to make a few of several different kinds like this.Here's the tiger.

For some reason, I did NOT choose the best looking monkey for a solo close-up! This one has crooked ears and googly eyes. But, these would be one that I would definitely do again for a monkey-birthday party or something. They are cute and not too challenging.
Lion.
Zebra.

Elephant.
I did the ears and trunk with melting candy wafers like I used for the butterfly wings. By the time the pictures were taken and it was time to eat the cupcakes, most of the ears had broken off! The tusks are banana runts. :)
I forgot to take a solo pic of the giraffe (so this was cropped from another pic) partly because I was not that happy with how they turned out and partly because I finished them last...late on Friday night, and I was exhausted!
Here's the display! It was fun for Carson to not have seen any of the prep and walk in to the jungle animal cupcakes he had chosen so many weeks ago.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

Holy cow, that looks like a lot of work. I bet they were delicious!

Lyn said...

Absolutely adorable!

Pascale said...

Wow! You are a Cupcake QUEEN! Those are so cool! I'm helping to organise a baby shower for a close friend in November and we've decided to do a kind of Safari theme (Adventures in Parenting, maybe?) and when I first saw your cupcakes, I was totally excited and thought, yeah! We could make those! And then I saw that it took you seven hours and you said you wouldn't be doing them again. Oh. We're trying to make this a stress free shower since we're all busy mummies and some of us are pregnant mummies...
Jen, oh Queen of the Cupcakes, do you think you could reconsider your vow of safari animal cupcake abstinence, move to Canada and make them for us? Thanks, that'd be great. ;)

Unknown said...

Holy Crap!!! I can't even begin to imagine how long that took you!!! They look absolutely amazing - any adult wouldn't want to bite into those in fear of destroying hte work of art - but I'm sure the kids had no problem. Wow, oh Wow!!

See you Wednesday!

Trista & Chris said...

Those are amazing! I show people at work your cupcakes when I'm blogstalking, everyone's SO impressed!

Aj Schwanz said...

Seriously: Ace of Cupcakes! I'll be looking for your upcoming series on the Food Network or your visit to Martha. Amazing.

johnsonandjohnson said...

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I'm in awe! Good job...scratch that Fansmashtic job!

Lyonslove said...

Thank you for saying how hard this was and how long it took you! Thanks for being honest rather than saying, I just put this together while the kids were taking a nap.

That being said-These are so cute! You did a great job.

Dionne Sincire said...

they looks so cute! what a big time investment-- thank God for family who will take the kids off of your hands so that you can make these personal touches. i think your zebra looks a lot like marty from madagascar. what do you think?

Unknown said...

Jen, you are so creative! And PATIENT! If I had to spend seven hours on it I would've probably poked my eyes out with Mr. Giraffe! Anyway, speaking of your creativity...we're about ready to switch over to Christmas card season, right?

Unknown said...

P.S. Elisha saw this post today and goes, "Um, mom, can you ask Jen if she could also make me those next time?" Sure! Get right on that, k?