Koi Pond Cupcakes

     For my next cupcake attempt, I'm am to pursue the "Koi Pond" design by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson. These little confections are described as, "Koi goldfish made from circus peanuts which transform a simple platter of cupcakes into a golden pond" (Tack and Richardson 99).

Ingredients for these bad-boys includes:

• Vanilla Cupcakes
• 1 Can + a 1/2 Cup of Vanilla Frosting
• Blue Food Coloring
• Orange Circus Peanuts
• Orange Peanut Butter M&M's
• Orange Froot Loops
• Brown Mini M&M's

     While going through this recipe, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy everything was. To begin, you were to place some of the vanilla frosting in a small ziplock bag and set it aside then tint the rest of the frosting with a few drops of blue food coloring and spread this on the cakes. You were then to cut the circus peanuts a variety of ways in order to create the bodies of the fishes, as well as their fins. After assembling the little guys on top of the cupcake, you were to use your set aside frosting as glue to create the fishes face out of M&M's and cereal (Tack and Richardson 99-101). These steps, of course, were far more intricate by the authors, which is great as it leaves little room for error.

     Once again, it was a great relief how simple these cupcakes were, as the only semi-difficult portion was filleting the circus peanuts due to their stiff and crumbly texture. According to the authors, you are to, "[for the fins] place the circus peanuts on their sides and cut lengthwise into two slices...lay each slice cut side down and cut each in half on the diagonal... for the bodies, place the remaining circus peanuts flat side down and make a diagonal cut from one end, moving no more than 1/4 inch..." (Tack and Richardson 99). Having the steps written out was great, however, for this portion of the recipe I found their visual on page 101 more useful as I was able to see exactly what shapes the authors wanted for myself to portray. 

They're a little ugly, but I'm pretty content.

After these cupcakes as well as my last polar bear sweets, I've become pretty keen to making animal-inspired cupcakes. So I ask; What animal would you like to see as a dessert?

Tack, Karen and Alan Richardson. What's New, Cupcake?. New York, New York. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Boston 2010.