Panda cupcakes!

Again, it is another privilege and honour to be asked to provide cupcakes for a special occasion! An 18th birthday this time, and the request was for panda cupcakes, like these Mini Panda Cupcakes from Bakerella... I had to do some tweaking with the decorating ingredients to make them fit on normal sized cupcakes, but I think they turned out alright! I was constantly referring back to this picture I was sent, though.

The first job was to make the cupcakes... Chocolatey chocolate cupcakes:

Once that was done, I'd decided that before I iced the cupcakes, I should probably work out how I was going to make them look like pandas... For the eyes, I had mini marshmallows, Cadbury chocolate melts, and Coles chocolate cooking chips...

With the marshmallows cut in half, I placed them onto the chocolate melts, sticky side down so I didn't need icing, and then with some fudge frosting, I added the chocolate chips :)

Before long, the panda eye production line began!

Now I was ready to make the icing... I used Solite (a product I've used before) to make the icing whiter than usual. Next I piped the icing onto the cupcakes and dipped them in caster sugar to make the pandas appear 'furry'.

Another production line began, as I slid two Nestle chocolate melts into the sides of the icing to resemble panda ears; then placing the eyes I'd made on them, and lastly using a Cadbury chocolate chip upside down & fudge writing icing, I made the noses and mouthes! ... Once I had made a few, I felt confident enough to try different expressions, and I am very happy with how they turned out :)

All boxed and ready go to the birthday girl's mother, who was surprising her

daughter (who loves pandas) with them the following day!

Because I became so involved in making these cupcakes, I had boxed them before I took the finished photos of them! So, I took them out and took these photos, with them coincidentally placed on a bamboo green platter of mine :)

 And of course some individual portraits of the different facial expressions
and potential panda thoughts :)

And here's a photo of the cupcake display, and the birthday girl:

Happy birthday 'Mandy Pandy'!! :)