Sweet Froggies for a Super Sweet Girl

I received the sweetest email a couple of weeks ago from a friend I went to high school with, Stacy.

Turns out that Stacy’s 12 year old daughter, Miranda, really enjoys my blog and has fun reading it! Miranda enjoys being creative and has recently started showing an interest in cooking and baking.

This past year has been tough for Miranda and her family, so I wanted to write her a little note, and make her something special to help bring a smile to her face (and what a gorgeous smile it is)! That’s why today’s post is filled with adorable little frogs, they’re one of Miranda’s faves!

Miranda, from everything your mom has told me about you, you’re a sweet and wonderful girl! I hope you love the gift I’ve sent to you (hand it over, Mom!) and I hope you’ll share pictures with me of all the wonderful things you make! Keep sharing your beautiful smile with the world and always do what makes you happy! I’m so proud that you like my blog, and I want to say thank you to you for inspiring me to make something new today!

These little froggy cupcakes are for you, Miranda!

I hope you love them! The frogs were fun and easy to make, and you can make any design that you like. Mine were inspired by Niki’s (Sugarcraft Workshop). They’re basically just various sized balls of fondant that are shaped and stuck together.

Making these little frogs is much simpler than you might think! To get started, just roll a small piece of fondant into a ball, then gently shape it into an egg shape. This will be the body. Next roll two much smaller, equal sized pieces into balls. Gently flatten each ball slightly, then place a tiny dab of water on the bottom of each and place them at the top of the egg shaped body. Finally, roll two small pieces of white fondant into balls slightly smaller than the green ones, press them down gently and use a tiny amount of water to attach the white pieces to the green. You’ve just attached the eyes!

With the frog’s body done, let’s move on to the feet. Again you’ll roll two equal pieces into balls. These should be about three times bigger than the pieces for the eyes. Once they’re rolled, gently lengthen one end on each piece until they’re teardrop shaped, then flatten them. Finally, using a paring knife, cut two small triangles from the round end of the feet to form toes. Place the two feet next to each other, then brush a small amount of water onto them and place the frog body on top.

When you have the frog assembled, you can put the details on the face (I recommend doing this before it’s on the cupcake…something I thought of after the fact). I used a black foodwriter to draw the pupils in the eyes, and a toothpick to make two little nostrils. Last, but not least, I used the cap from my Mr. Sprinkles bottle to give my frogs a happy little smile. Use any round shape you like for this by pressing just half of it into the frog’s face to form a happy little grin.

For some of the cupcakes, I decided to make some pretty, frilly little lily pads! I think they made the cupcakes so much more fun!

Making these was incredibly simple, but they really added a little something extra! All you have to do is roll out some fondant and cut enough circles to cover the extra cupcakes. Place a circle on a thin piece of foam and use a small round modeling tool (or something comparable) to flatten alternating sections of the rounds (this makes the frills). Cut a small triangle out of one side and place the lily pad on your cupcake. Next, roll out another piece of fondant (I chose to do a slightly lighter shade of green). Using a smaller cutter, cut out more rounds and repeat the steps above, then place the smaller piece centered on the larger one.

Finally, I topped the lily pads with some cute pink flowers. All I did was cut out two sizes of flowers. On the larger one, I used my modeling tool to shape the petals by gently pressing the rounded end into each petal, then I ‘glued’ the smaller flower in the center with a tiny dab of water. Next, I pushed the center in slightly and placed a large sugar pearl in the indentation.

For even more cuteness, I also added some cute, tiny little flowers to the froggies! These turned out to be wonderfully fun! They only took about 20 minutes to make enough frogs and lily pads to adorn 12 cupcakes (six frogs, six lily pads)! If you’re new to fondant work, these are definitely a great jumping off point, and you can easily modify the design to make other critters! Enjoy!