Lion Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for  Stephanie's babyshower and then again for Aiden's 3rd Birthday because they were so cute.  I had so many people ask about them, I thought I'd post how easy they were here!  They look much more difficult than they were ... so I wanted to help out those of you who think you'd never have time to do this!

Here are the cupcake tops.  I made them a few days before the party so I wouldn't have so much to do that day.  The key is to make sure they are getting enough air so they don't get too soft or condensate or melt and not too much air so they don't turn rock hard and are still edible.  I used a pyrex container with a sealed top but left two corners of the tops slightly open to accomodate the air flow. 

 The faces were pretty simple and I got some advice from the many sources online!

I used Wilton's Fondant to make them and since it comes in white, used food coloring to color them.  Make sure you wear latex gloves as the food coloring will surely die your hands!  Knead the coloring in for each piece to enough fondant for the part you are working on and work fast the fondant gets hard quickly.  Pick up the Wilton's cookie cutters in the Flower and Circle 3-pack shapes. 

For the Mane I used the Wilton 3" flower cookie cutter

For the Face I used the 2.25" circle cutter

For the ears and mouth and dots on the other cupcakes I used the .5" Wilton's circle

For the eyes and nose I used the small tube of colored Wilton's frosting tips

The finished product ...

Enjoy!