I know Kevin loves the artwork by Joe Ledbetter, so I designed his birthday cupcakes based on one of Joe's painted objects. Kevin also likes zombie things, so I literally typed "Joe Ledbetter zombie" into my search, and this bunny came up. What a cutie. I really like the whole outlined look of his art.
I was also going to make some graveyard cupcakes to surround the bunny, but couldn't decide on how to go about making them. So I dropped that idea, and just kept the entire presentation simple. I figured the bunny would look best on four cupcakes. Though.. as I drew my circles for the cupcakes, I realized the placement was a little.. phallic-like. I couldn't unsee it! Nor did I want to change it, because it was the best arrangement for the design. So, what I ended up doing to sort of avert the attention was arrange some cupcakes around it. (Though, the four bunny cupcakes will probably be eaten last, so.. it'll just show up anyways.)
The recipe I used for these cupcakes is called "Chocolate Wasted Cake". It was my first time trying this recipe, and I thought it turned out well. The cake was chocolatey without being too sweet. The only thing that went wrong was the chocolate chips I had added to the cake ended up sinking to the bottom :(
My one photo of the cake making. I sang Jingle Bells as I sifted my dry ingredients. Mmm, brown snow.
I had to try a cupcake while they were still warm. So. Good.
I decided on a grey frosting as the background, because I wanted a clean, modern look.
Before icing the details, I mixed all the colors I'd need and placed them into piping cones.
My only process shot. Whoopsies. How I usually go about this is I start by piping a shape, and then fix using a toothpick.
Once I'm satisfied with the outline, I fill in with color.
The face took the longest, as you can imagine considering all the detail. While I was frosting, I kept thinking it looked like Stitch.
I'm really happy with the outcome! And thanks to Phil, they were delivered earlier today. Even though he had a ton of cupcakes the night before, birthday boy still really enjoyed them :)
Happy birthday, Kevin!
