Hey there, it's Marquette! I'm back, one bridal shower, one wedding shoot, one Fourth of July Parade, a continuing visit from my sister in Mississippi and not enough naps later. We're desperately trying to catch up on all the WONDERFUL submissions we've been sent. We have some really great ones to show you. We'll start with this one from Melinda, the reindeer cupcakes.
The Original Pin
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| By With Sprinkles on Top: http://www.withsprinklesontop.net/?p=1156 |
Aren't those great?! Melinda saw these and decided to give them a try; she says, "I was making these adorable reindeer cupcakes for my daughter's school Christmas party, and of course my didn't turn out quite like the picture. They ended up looking like little black bears."
The Pinstrosity
But...they are very cute little black bears. My husband saw Melinda's photo first before knowing what the original idea even was and said, "That's not a Pinstrosity! She made those look just like black bears! That's so cute!" So...the cute part was nailed, but they do look like black bears. So lets see what we can do to get a reindeer rather than a black bear (unless you're wanting the black bear...because they are pretty cute).
My sister is here sitting with me and we're thinking that the difference between the black bears and the reindeer is all in the placement of the candies/pretzels.
- For the noses, the candies in the original pin are placed more in the center of the cookie. I think this is one of the main things that gave bears rather than deer. Centralized noses, that's wear it's at.
- The placement of the pretzel antlers might make a difference to in how the bear/deer look. If the pretzels are placed further around on the cupcake (more to the sides) rather than straight on top they might look a little more like antlers and less like ears.
- Then, if you wanted to get really picky, the eyes might have something to do with it, but not a lot. I love the ingenuity of using the chocolate chips as the eyes when frosting is not available, but if you do want the same eye look, making smaller pupils with chocolate (or maybe a sprinkle) will help.
But again...the cupcakes were darling...just not exactly how Melinda wanted them to turn out. Just a few candy placement tweaks and I think the bears will morph into reindeer.
You could use broken pieces of pretzel so that the antlers are more like deer antlers....and stick them more on the sides.
ReplyDeleteThat would look great! Thanks Shannon.
DeleteI made these last Christmas and they were a big hit! I definitely agree that the placement of the nose is key. On my cupcakes, I actually placed the nose higher than center (closer to the eyes) and I think they looked even better than the centered ones. Definitely more reindeer-ish! If I could figure out how to attach a picture to this comment, I would show you what I mean :). Love your blog!!!!
ReplyDeleteI think I see the picture of what you mean in my head. It makes sense to me!
DeleteI've always thought that the original ones looked like bears too.
ReplyDeleteI think they look cool and came out nicely!
ReplyDeleteYou could try rotating the pretzels toward the center and breaking an opening in each to make them look more antler-like. (It's hard for me to describe without having any pretzels on hand to try with, but the idea of an opening appeals to me, lol)
I think these are precious black bears! I just found this blog a few days ago and I wanted to say that I'm enjoying the positive spin you try to put on everything. I'm glad it's not a snark blog. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Tiffany. We figure that posting up mishaps for all the world to see is enough without snark added to it. It's just a fun place for us all to see that we are normal and mishaps are funny and a part of life. And then, we get to join together and figure out how to get the results we want. Everyone wins!
DeleteI think both a cute and both look like bears :)
ReplyDeletePerhaps the root of the antler issue is the relative sizes of the cupcake and pretzels: larger pretzels for the size cupcake that was used, perhaps?
ReplyDeleteIt was definitely fun making them, can't wait to try a new project for Christmas parties this year.
ReplyDeleteI made these and they were perfect, the key is to use the right stuff the eyes and nose were wrong.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason this post had me in tears I was laughing so hard. I mean, those are some adorable cupcakes, whatever animal you want to call them. And the one in the bottom right I swear looks like he's looking at the camera apologetically. Maybe I just shouldn't be up this late.
ReplyDeleteHe's saying "kill me, just kill me now!" LOL
DeleteI think the whole problem was the size of the cookie used for the nose. It seems like Maybe they were made out pf minis not the full size cookies?
ReplyDeletei think its the placement of the black nose. the reindeer nose is more centered. the black bear's noses appear to be lower
ReplyDelete