Celebrate Animals with Cupcakes

Tomorrow will be the 10th National Animal Rights Day so in honor of that I want to show you this Wilton DIY-Lish Cute Critters Dessert Decorating Kit I was sent to test out and review via the Amazon Vine program. No other form of compensation was received and this feature review is an unexpected bonus for Wilton.

The first thing to note about the kit is that it has conflicting information on the box. The front claims it will cover 12 cupcakes but the nutritional values list it as 7 servings. It could be that a serving is more than on cupcake worth of fondant but it is confusing. Depending on what critter faces you make and the size of the cupcake top, it may cover 12 cupcakes. The fondant inside is Wilton's so I used other Wilton fondant to add to what was included when I tested it out because I wanted other colors and I needed to cover more cupcakes.

What is in the kit?

2 metal cutters -- a large round and a smaller teardrop shaped one. You could use these to cut dough of all types so wash and then hang on to these to use again and again.

3 fondants -- black, brown, and white. The brown is pretty much the chocolate fondant I've tried in the past. They are in foil and cannot be resealed so if you have any left over you'll want to store it in an airtight container. It may last for another 2-4 weeks if you do that.

1 direction card -- it lays out how to make three critter faces (badger, bear, and bunny). However, if you have other small cutters or a steady hand you can make other shapes, too. We made a fox faces using the two cutters plus two triangle ones that I already had. So many ears had to be made with both the mixed red and "chocolate" fondant -- which tastes nothing like chocolate! In total, I rolled out then cut 48 large and 48 small triangles then assembled them before place placing them on the face of the fondant fox.

1 fondant roller -- it is small but for working with small amounts of fondant it is fine. It will get a bit greasy as you work with the fondant but it washes off well so you can keep it to use again and again.

51 sugar beads -- to use for eyes or noses but you'll want to add a bit of frosting to them to make them stick well.

The directions were easy to follow. The fondant was easy and a challenge to work with at the same time. Be careful rolling it out because you want it smooth and even. Remember to keep kneading it between rolling it out because it will start to dry out quickly even if it is humid as it was when we tested it. Mixing colors to make new colors is a lot of work with your hands that requires stamina and patience. The black will stain your hands but neither the white or brown fondant left stains. The fox face base to the right is what we created using the ideas for other animals. The ears are two different sized triangles. The base is a white circle and the reddish brown (created by mixing colors together) is another circle but with two sections cut out using a cookie cutter. We found using mini cookie cutters allowed for greater control than trying to do it by hand or with a fondant tool. Perhaps if we use fondant more often, we'd get better at it.

Here is our resulting foxes! What do you think?

We made half vanilla and half chocolate cupcakes. If you look closely at the above photo you can see that the fondant fox face is on top of a layer of chocolate frosting and then a vanilla cupcake. These were made for a birthday and it took my hubby and I full afternoon and evening to do all the faces for 24 cupcakes. We took these to the restaurant for our celebration (the place was kind enough to let us do so) but we made a horrible discovery. The fondant melts! I won't show you those photos because they would only scare you.

In terms of taste, no, this does not taste great so make sure your cupcakes or cake is very tastey to counter them.