Owls, Owls, Owls!

Whooo could resist an OWL cake? I think they are so adorable! So anyways, I normally will just glance at the magazines at the check out stands in line at WalMart, but there was a magazine by Better Homes and Gardens with a big owl on the front cover. Upon taking a closer look, I seen it was a cake! A Mama owl, and a baby owl next to it as a cupcake! I showed my mama, and she enthused about it with me for a minute before we decided we were going to buy it and try it out. Thus starting my baking adventures this summer!

For no particular reason, I chose to make my owl cake and cupcakes last week while I had a day off from work. I got a 9X13 pan out and baked a white cake for my Mama owl. After it baked and cooled for a little bit, I put it in the freezer for about 15 minutes so it could harden enough for me to cut it. While that was freezing, I baked 24 cupcakes for my Baby owls.

I should have taken a picture of my mistake, but I wasn't thinking properly when I was cutting the top of my Mama owl. The directions told me to cut out a crescent shape from the top, creating the peaks for the owl's ears. It then said to cut the crescent shape in half... horizontally. I stood there for about 5 minutes, trying to figure out what that meant. It was only AFTER I cut my crescent right down the middle, that I realized I needed to cut it in half, horizontally, from the side of the crescent. So before I freaked out and did something stupid, I just told myself to find some marshmallows and powder sugar, and make up some fondant to use for my Mama owl's wings. It was quick and easy since I had watched Kara make some fondant for Elmo's eyes and nose just the weekend before.

After all the assembling was done, I used a can of chocolate frosting to decorate my Mama owl's face and wings, and used a butter frosting with yellow coloring for the belly. I used powder sugar doughnuts with a Whopper candy in the middle for the eyes; pink Starburst for the bows, and orange Starbursts for the nose and feet. For the feathered look, I used sliced almonds. That was time consuming... placing each almond in line with the others!

And walahh! My finished Mama owl! I'm proud of it!

My baby owls were frosted the same way as the Mama owl, but I used up the rest of my fondant for the eyes, and then I used brown Reese's Pieces for the eyes. I tediously placed the sliced almonds on their bellies, and used the orange Starbursts for the nose and FEET. The men I work with kept calling them teeth, so I had to reassure that they were feet. 

They just bring a huge smile to my face every time I look at these pictures! 

With one more addition to this post, I almost forgot to add some other owl cupcakes I helped my Mom make for a bake sale Costco had on Monday. She baked the cupcakes while I was in New Castle, getting my hair done with Kara, but she saved the decorating for me when I got home!

With the help of Pinterest, I found these adorable little owls on Hostess with the Mostess: 

How simple are these!?! And so cute! So I changed my icing to a teal color, and I cursed all the Oreo cookies that were broken in the package as I tried to scavenge ones with cream on them. My Mom had to come in and save me, fixing what cookies she could as she scraped the cream up and glued cookies together before we placed them on the cupcakes. We used M&Ms and Reese's Pieces for the eye centers and the noses! 

They're just so adorable, and they make me smile big every time I look at these pictures! I hope you all liked my little owls! Come back and check out my next adventure.. A dragon cake for a little boy turning 11!