Leopard Print (pattern on the inside) Cupcakes!~ Baby Shower- Video Tutorial

In this video, you will learn how to carry a leopard print pattern to the inside of your cupcakes!

I love anything with a surprise inside, and the cupcakes are perfect for fun, funky themes, animal themes, or in this case, baby showers!

These cupcakes are meant to go along with the leopard print baby shower cake that we made in another video tutorial. However, the technique that we used to make the pattern is slightly different for our cupcakes than for our cake.

Please see below for additional details–I hope that you enjoy the tutorial! *CLICK HERE to see the matching leopard print baby shower cake video!

Supplies/Notes

In this video, we are using our White Almond Sour Cream recipe from the Recipes section
White Fondant (we used Satin Ice) for accents
Coloring Gels–We used Americolor Ivory to tint the bibs and circles, Americolor Super Black, and Americolor Chocolate Brown (but whatever brand you prefer is fine). The frosting is tinted with Americolor Soft Pink
Vodka/Lemon Extract- We used vodka to mix with our coloring gels to create the “paint” that we decorated our accents with.
Buttercream- We used our Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream recipe
Cocoa powder for tinting batter (optional, you could simply use coloring gel)
Piping Bags-We used 3 plastic/disposable piping bags to hold our batter. One bag with white, one bag with dark brown, one with medium brown batter
Piping Tips/Cutters- Two Round cutters for creating the bib–one large one small (I used an Ateco 847- this makes a 1 ¼ inch circle) and a standard piping tip for the small circle (I used a Wilton tip 12)– Wilton tip 2 for piping accents, Wilton 2D, Ateco 808. 2D and 808 are optional, but are what I chose to frost my cupcake swirls of buttercream with.

Misc:

Artist’s Palette (A plate would be fine!)
Paint Brushes
Americolor Black Coloring Pen (optional)–I used the pen as an alternative to the brush, as well as for a design on the bib
Parchment Paper – to dry the fondant pieces on
Tylose Powder- I like to knead in a small amount of tylose into my fondant. This is optional, but makes them a little easier to work with, firmer, and they dry more quickly.

Notes

We used the White Almond Sour Cream recipe. I tinted part of the batter dark brown, and part light brown. For the cupcakes, you do not need to tint much of the batter. For instance, if you are making a single batch of the WASC recipe, you should be fine to reserve in separate bowls about ¾ to 1 cup of the batter to tint dark brown, and ½ cup to tint light brown. In my leopard print cake video, you can see how I tint what will become my bowl of darker batter with 1 Tablespoon cocoa powder per cup of batter, plus a couple of drops of black and brown coloring gel. To make the lighter shade of brown, I use a little of my darker batter, plus a little chocolate brown coloring gel.

(*We originally planned that our cupcakes would be a part of our leopard cake video, which is why we don’t show this process in the cupcake video also.)

You’ll prepare three bags–one light brown, one dark brown, and one plain white batter. Then, the fun begins! ;0)

This “layering of dots” technique is what I prefer for cupcakes. Since cupcakes are so small, you are sure to have spots exposed with every bite. However, with cakes, I prefer a different technique that ensures that each slice of cake will have spots. I demonstrate this in the cake video linked above.

{Alternative Video Format}

Interested in creating Buttercream Leopard Print? We’ll show you how in this free blog and video tutorial! Leopard Print Buttercream

Comments

D July 2, 2012 at 12:48 pm

These are so darling and so girly

Barbara Allman July 2, 2012 at 8:32 pm

Thank you so much for posting this! I love the cake AND cupcakes! In fact I’m going to make the cake for a work birthday this Friday. Planning to experiment with a dark chocolate cake and light spots, wish me luck, I’ll post how it comes out.

Keepers Cakes July 3, 2012 at 10:07 am

Awesome….I continue to learn so much from this site. Thank you so much for making it available to us.!!!!!!

Anita Barron July 3, 2012 at 9:10 pm

These are precious.

Ditas Agtay July 4, 2012 at 12:38 am

wow! this is awesome!

houda el haimeur July 8, 2012 at 1:51 pm

the idea is great thx

Diorella Villar July 12, 2012 at 2:42 am

Can you use a normal vanilla cupcake recipe for this?

BeBe July 12, 2012 at 7:24 am

Hi Diorella, yes, you can. The batter cannot be thin or runny, if it is your leopard spots will have marbled look.

Katrina Caminiti July 17, 2012 at 6:43 am

Looks great… what tip did you use for the ruffle piping on the cupcakes?

BeBe July 17, 2012 at 10:31 pm

Hi Katrina, Melissa used the Wilton 2D tip

Bertha CRUZ January 27, 2013 at 4:30 pm

I love this cake I’m a try to make it for my baby shower :)

Melissa Diamond January 27, 2013 at 6:27 pm

Thanks so much, Bertha! Let us know how it goes!! xo

Lisa McNally January 31, 2013 at 9:26 am

Wow this is fab thanks for sharing i am going to use this for a the next cake i am making x

Lori McGeoch February 25, 2013 at 6:40 pm

Hello,

The video won’t play for me. Can anyone offer any advice? Thanks

Melissa Diamond February 25, 2013 at 6:55 pm

Hi Lori, can you see it now?

Louisa Bown April 19, 2013 at 6:39 pm

Just made these fabulous cupcakes for my daughters 6th birthday party tomorrow, she is mad on leopards so these were the perfect idea! They have turned out amazingly and I can’t wait to see her face when she sees the surprise inside. Inspired idea, thank you very much!!

Melissa Diamond April 19, 2013 at 7:05 pm

Yay! Louisa, I’m so happy to hear that you made them (and love how they turned out)!! I hope your daughter has a fabulous birthday party!!

Maria July 29, 2013 at 3:25 pm

I already did the leopard cake and can not wait to do the cup cakes.

libia olmeda June 1, 2014 at 9:59 am

Hola Happy Sunday…
Someone has requested for me to make this cake…
how much should I charge for an 8 inch cake?