When I last properly baked, I made chocolate butterfly cupcakes, that were very delicious. Pondering what to do with the multitude of cake cases I was left with, I received a suggestion from Lou that I subsequently promised to attempt. The conversation went along these lines, paraphrased, naturally:

Lou - Make panda cupcakes!

Me - WHA?

Lou - They’re easy, chocolate buttons, dash of icing, no probs.

Me - Hmm, next time, I promise.

In hindsight, the promise was very rash because of all the bits of baking that I am not great at, icing and decoration would be the very worst. Being arty, being controlled with my hands, that’s all a bit beyond me. Of course practice makes perfect and all that, but in all my years in the kitchen, presentation has always been my downfall.

That’s why I’m quite pleased with how these critters turned out.

I ended up using the same basic cupcake recipe as the butterfly ones, nice and chocolatey underneath with some fluffy buttercream on top. A few chocolate buttons and some really, very handy squeezy tubes of chocolate icing, and hey presto!

And just to prove it was not a one off, lonely panda:

Trouble is, they are too cute to eat, no?