Lion Cupcakes For Kids - How to Make

Looking for lion cupcakes for kids? These cute lion toppers will surely delight any child.

Green cupcakes with orange and brown lion toppers

I made these cupcakes for 2-year-old boy Casey's birthday. Lion was the theme for Casey that year. His mom ordered a set of 11 of these cupcakes, each with a fondant lion topper. Separately, she also ordered a small cake with a similar lion topper on it. These were for the school celebration. And then she ordered another cake for a celebration at home. That cake too had a lion topper on it.

A round cake with a large lion topper and green cupcakes with orange and brown lion toppers

Casey's lion cake and cupcakes for his school celebration

Now, these lion cupcakes were not my original idea. I made them based on an image provided by Casey’s mom. I tried to find the link back to the original designer and found them to be from Yenni Ng of Cotton Candy Bakeshop however, I am unable to provide a direct link as the link to the website is broken.

Nevertheless, these were really cute cupcakes. I had so much fun making them especially since I had to make many of them and each one similar to the other.

Tips for Making the Lion Cupcake Toppers

My trick in getting all these lions in the exact same shape and size is by portioning each part of the lions in batches. For example, I started with the lions’ bodies. I portioned 11 pieces of the same sized fondant that would make up the bodies of each of the lions and shaped them to the shape of the lion bodies.

And then I portioned the legs for all the 11 lions followed by the rest of the body parts. I kept these covered so that they did not dry out. And then I worked on the portioned pieces one body part at a time. This way, I was able to get all the lions in the same size.

How to Make Lion Cupcakes

These were the main supplies I used for the lion cupcakes:

Cupcakes – I baked these using my butter pound cake recipe.
Buttercream – I applied a thin coat of buttercream on the cupcakes before covering them with fondant.
Fondant – I used Satin Ice fondant for both the lion toppers as well as the green cupcake covering. For the lion toppers, I used orange, chocolate, black and white. For the cupcake covering, I tinted white fondant in green.
CMC powder – I kneaded some CMC powder into the orange fondant I used to make the lion topper. CMC helps the fondant to set firm and hold its shape better.
Scalloped round cutter set – I used 2 different sizes from this set. One for the lion’s mane and the other for the cupcake covering.
Black edible food marker – I used a black marker for the lions’ paws and whiskers.
Cake decorating brush – I used a really fine-tipped brush to dot the lions’ eyes in white.
White food color – I used undiluted White food coloring for the tiny white dot in the lions’ eyes.
Fondant modelling tools – these were used to help with the lion toppers. I used these mostly used for the paws and ears.
Scriber needle modelling tool – this was for the lions’ mane, to mark the hairlines on the chocolate fondant that made up the mane.
Fondant glue – this was the sticking agent for this project. I used fondant glue so that all the lions' body parts would stick and hold in place securely.

And this was how I put the cupcakes together:

Making the lion cupcake toppers

I made the fondant lion toppers in advance. Since I had to make 11 of these toppers, it was most reasonable to get them done in advance. This was so that I need not rush to complete the toppers at the very last minute.
The toppers were pretty easy to make. Each lion was shaped by hand. And I say it was pretty easy as I used very basic shapes such as rounds and ovals to form the lions. To make sure I got uniform-sized lions, I portioned the fondant used for each body part in batches. For example, starting with the bodies, I pinched out 11 pieces of fondant in the same size and formed all the 11 bodies of the lions .
Next, I pinched out 11 pieces of fondant for the hind legs. I formed all the legs and attached to the bodies before moving on to the hands. Again, I pinched out 11 pieces of fondant for the front legs, shaped and attached them to the lions before moving on to the heads. Making the lions in this manner helped in making sure my lions were all of the same size.

The lion mane

I used Satin Ice orange fondant for the lions. I mixed some CMC to it so that the lions held their shape well. For the mane, I used chocolate fondant, rolled it and cut out 11 scalloped round pieces of fondant.
I then used my scriber needle tool to mark the hair lines all around it, starting from the center of each round cut out to their outer edges before attaching each of these to the back of the lion heads with fondant glue.

The paws and whiskers

I used black edible marker for the paws and the whiskers. And for the white dots in the eyes, I used a fine tip cake decorating brush and white food color to mark them.
All the body parts were attached together using fondant glue.
Once the lions were all done, I left them aside to set completely.

Lion Cupcakes for Kids

Assembling the cupcakes

Next were the cupcakes. Once the cupcakes were baked, I applied a thin layer of buttercream on top of each cupcake. And then I cut out round pieces of green fondant using my scalloped round cutter and attached them to the cupcakes.
To assemble, I placed one lion topper on each cupcake. I secured them in place with fondant glue and let the glue set completely before moving the cupcakes. I sometimes use toothpicks to hold toppers in place. For this project, however, I made it a point to not use them as I knew the cupcakes were meant for young children. I did not want to risk them biting into the toothpicks.
Casey's mom requested for these cupcakes to be individually packed. So I bought these transparent bags and filled one cupcake into each bag.