Chocolate Gingerbread Men and Candy Canes

I tried out a new silicon mold and was able to easily make these small chocolate goodies. I used semi-sweet baking chocolate cubes but Guittard Milk Chocolate Chips and Nestle Milk Chocolate Morsels work great too. More info and images will follow soon.

Fast forward to March 24th, 2014. I was invited to a late Christmas party last weekend and decided to make these chocolate gingerbread men. This time I gave them mouths and white noses. The red sprinkle noses kind of make them look like clowns so I think they look better this way:

Yes, it was strange to take part at a Christmas party in March : )

Rice Crispy Tweets

 

I made these pops with Rice Krispies Treats® instead of cake. They're fun and easy to make.

Panda Cupcake Tutorial

 How to Make Panda Cupcakes 

These are most of the ingredients and tools that you'll need. The white ball is fondant (for the face) and the pink one is gum paste (for the flower).  You'll also need a round cookie cutter that's a bit smaller than the surface of a cupcake. Another item not pictured is cake decorating tweezers which makes it easier to place small pieces.

Below I show how to make the eyes by painting pupils onto sugar pearls. An alternative is to buy 1/4" edible eyes online. You have to do a search for them but try Amazon. 

To do the details like the boy's mouth, his eyebrows, and the girl's eyelashes, you can paint them with a brush (see below). But an easier way is to use a black edible marker. I like how brush strokes look but you may prefer using a marker because it's faster and easier.

 STEPS

First you need to take a cupcake and then make two cuts for the ears.

Cut no. 1

Tip: Dip knife into water to avoid sticking.

Cut no. 2

Separate a Mini Oreo Cookie and then scrape off the white filling from the back of each piece.

This icing is useful for attaching pieces.

Put some icing on one end of a cookie.

Pinch one of the slits and insert the cookie.

The ears are in place! At this point it's a good idea to wash the black crumbs off your hands so that they don't get into the white fondant in the following step.

Now it's time to make the white part of the face which is made out of fondant. In this photo, I put a thin layer of frosting on the cupcake so that the fondant can be attached a little later.

Roll out the white fondant so that it's less than 1/16" thick.

With the round cookie cutter, cut out several pieces. Only cut out two if you only want to make a boy and girl Panda for now. 

Place the fondant on top of the cupcake and smooth it out. The top edge will probably look best if it almost touches the ears. 

This black Cookie Icing by Betty Crocker works well for the black spots around the eyes. 

I started in the center and then made a spiral going outward with three to four circles. If there's too much frosting it might start to run down the side so be careful. This takes a little practice so the first Panda might not turn out right. To adjust the shape a little you can use the tip of the Cookie Icing bag or a toothpick. 

At this point, he doesn't look great but he'll come together in a minute. 

Using pearl candy for the eyeballs is one way to make them. A second method is to order small candy eyes online and to use those instead. This is a bit easier to do compared to using the pearls but it's more expensive.

For an eyeball, place a white pearl candy into the black frosting.

Use a red Jelly Belly for the nose and attach it with frosting.

Mix some black icing color with a few drops of water. This will be used to paint the boy's pupils, mouth and eyebrows.

Use a small brush to paint these details.

Paint the pupils...

Paint the eyebrows...

...and now paint the mouth.

Now the Panda boy is done!

This is a second cupcake that's half finished. We'll make this one the girl.

Attach a small heart sprinkle for the lips. 

Carefully paint the eyelashes like this. 

All she needs now is a flower next to her ear. 

For the flower,  you could just buy some kind of small cake decoration at a craft store but here I'll show how to use this small shape cutter (Wilton).

Roll out a small piece of neon pink gum paste until it's about 1/16" thick.

Punch out the shape.

Use this mold (Wilton) to make the top texture of the flower.

Search for white sprinkles to use for the flower center.

Attach a white sprinkle into the center with frosting.

The happy Panda cupcake couple is finished!