A Flock of Cupcakes

I received a request from my brother for cupcakes when he came down to visit.  He specified these cupcakes, which are indeed the most adorable and edible thing I’ve seen in a long time.  I actually just like to look at the picture to swoon about how adorable those little sheep are.  Adorable and perfect.

In reality I think my brother was joking about actually wanting the cupcakes, but he knows that I think sheep are wonderful and sent me the picture as a way to combine my love of food and my love of sheep.  He may have been joking but I interpreted it as a challenge.

And I am crazy.  I have no cake decorating experience and I had no idea how to even start on these amazing creations.  Unfortunately, Mrs. Stewart just supplies pictures of the cupcakes and no direction on how to make them.  The only advice given is that the “wool” is made of mini-marshmallows.  As my mom would say, “No shit Sherlock.”

If you look closely, you can tell the wool of these "sheep" is made of mini-marshmallows.

A search of the Internet informed me that all other sheep cupcakes online are 100% not as cute as these.  I suggested to my brother that I learn to make fondant, since I believe that’s what the face is made of.  That was shot down faster than you can say, “Baah”  or “gross”, which is what my brother said.  Other sheep cupcakes have chocolate covered almonds or Brazil nuts, which I didn’t even bother running by my brother, his distaste for nuts in desserts is well known.

A trip to my local natural food market was in order and I was determined to find a chocolate covered nut that would be delicious and make it past my brother’s scrutiny.  Just a note, natural food stores are not the place to try and find unnatural foods such as mini-marshmallows.  Luckily though I didn’t need to figure out which chocolate covered nut would be acceptable, instead I found malted milk balls!  No nuts, more chocolate, and they will make chubby-cheeked sheep.  I also found cacao nib pieces that looked like they could make cute sheep ears and the littlest bits could be eyes.

Cacao nib pieces make irregularly shaped eyes and ears, which adds character.  Right?

Before decorating the cupcakes I got nervous.  My cupcake recipe made 22 cupcakes and that’s a lot of sheep to make.  Dare I say, it’s an entire flock?  I thought that maybe I would make 4 cupcakes one for my brother and his wife, as well as Andy and I.  However, once I started decorating the sheep I tons of fun!  I liked putting the wool on and seeing how each of the faces turned out.  Some looked better than others, some had googly eyes, one definitely had a sleepy eye.

Sheep creation.  It helps to have your work elevated.

As fun as it was to make these, I would only put this much work in to making food cute for another special occasion.  A request from my brother and a visit is special enough.