These Had Me Hoppin'

My second fondant challenge was a big one. My son's t-ball team The Treefrogs was having an end of the season party and I used it as a great excuse to work with fondant some more. I decided I wanted to make fondant tree frogs.  I don't even know why I decided to go with something so complex, but I rationalized that it really wasn't that bad - just a sum of parts.

ELEVEN parts, to be exact.

I originally thought I would make a frog for each of my 48 cupcakes, but that was a plague-like feat I simply wasn't going to be able to accomplish.  Considering that first tree frog took me about 30 minutes to complete.  And that I have a baby and a young son to tend to, etc etc  It just wasn't possible.  We ended up with 10 frogs total.  And I came up with some other ideas for the additional cupcakes, which turned out pretty great as well.

This first cupcake I called my "all-star cupcake."  The stars are 4th of July marshmallows I picked up at the grocery store on clearance.  I speared them with toothpicks, dipped them in tinted candy melts, sprinkled them with sparkling sugar and voila - sparkly stars.  Used a grass tip for the icing, which was a bit tricky to get used to.

My baseball cupcake.  These were pretty tough to get right. My first attempt looked like my baby son had done them.

And my complicated little tree frog.  Eleven parts to assemble, but well worth the time and effort.  For the pupils of his eyes, I dipped the end of a cotton swab into black food coloring (since I haven't yet purchased any edible markers.)

To make the frogs appear slimy, I sprayed a bit of butter flavored non-stick spray onto a plate and used a small paintbrush to paint each one.  I didn't want to spray them whole for fear that their pupils would run.  

Here they are on my cupcake tree at the party.

Top frog!