Last summer we had a jungle theme birthday party for my nephews. My sister and I made jungle animal cupcakes with little palm trees. They weren’t too difficult to make, but they did take a little time.
The palm trees trunks are pretzel sticks, and the leaves were piped from icing onto wax paper with Wilton Leaf Decorating Tip #352
and allowed to dry. Then a little icing was added to the end of the pretzel stick to “glue” the leaves to the trunk.
The jungle or zoo animals were made of chocolate. You can use an animal shaped mold, but she used a round circle mold, then used a fine decorating tip to pipe the details onto their face. The ears, and the lions mane were piped around the heads, then left to dry. The animals are all on lollipop sticks, to hold them in the cupcakes.
The leaves around the animals were piped with the same #352 tip.
You could also use molded chocolate lollipops as party favors for almost any party theme.
For more Jungle Party fun visit our Jungle Party Ideas page.
More on melting and molding chocolate
11 comments
Hello! I absolutely LOVE these cupcakes! I had a couple of questions about how you made these. I want to make them for my son’s zoo-themed birthday party. I think they will be a big hit! I wanted to know where you got the chocolate molds for the animal heads? Also with regard to the leaves, did you make each individual leaf and lay them out on wax paper? How far in advance do you think I could make the frosting leaves? Any info would be very helpful!! Thanks so much!
My sister used a round lollipop mold, then added the ears, stripes etc. You can also use an animal or jungle candy mold. Wilton has one, http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=93495952-423B-522D-F70B2AADAD84BA9E&fid=A22EDB32-423B-522D-F5A66A968A63D077
or you may be able to find one at your local craft store (JoAnn fabrics carries them in our area, or Amazon.
You should make the leaves all together, so they dry as one piece. Make the leaves a couple days ahead of time, and let them dry (make a few extra for breakage). Use a little fresh icing to stick the leaves to the pretzel stick.
Here’s my favorite icing recipe: https://sweetpartyplace.com/my-favorite-icing-recipe-for-decorating/, but you may want to use royal icing for the palm tree leaves to make them sturdier.
I am doing a Madagascar themed birthday party and I was also wondering about the chocolate molds. I haven’t made any previous so I am a little new at the chocolate mold thing….did your sister decorate the molds with coloured chocolate to make the faces and details before filling in the mold?
They look amazing. Thanks for posting:)
Taylor- It depends on the mold. You can put the details (different colors) in before you pour the main color, or you can use a small detail brush, or fine tipped decorator bag and paint or pipe the details on after the molded chocolate has hardened.
Ebay is another good source for the chocolate molds.
Thanks for the info Linette…I think I will pipe in the details after. That is what your sister did and they look great! One more question…the lion’s mane and elephant’s ears, etc….she just piped them on after with chocolate colours too and they stayed attached? Do you freeze them to hold or just leave them sit on the counter?
Love the cupcakes. I try to decorate them but they don’t look even closer! Could you please send me the recepi for the icing?
Thanks.
Here’s the icing recipe I usually use,
https://sweetpartyplace.com/my-favorite-icing-recipe-for-decorating/
or I use the Wilton buttercream icing reicpe,
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